Shady

“They connected the nursery to bunkers?” Ky scoffed, aghast.

She contemplated making a fat joke, but then decided they would just draw attention to her weight loss and thought better of it. “Where does this one go?”

“Yes ma’am.” She ducked her head. “I’ve never worked with one, but they’re beautiful.”

Ky smiled playfully. “I’ll make you go first.”

“Oh, I-I-“ Ky shook her head, eyes wide. This is exactly why she tried to stay noncommittal. You say simple things and suddenly end up getting suggestions for working for ...

“Yeah, that’s what he said. That I should ask you for a proper tour of them.”

“I may have phrased it differently, I’m not sure. Maybe I just asked him the most interesting thing here. I don’t know.”

“I liked training my horse… my father’s horse. And swimming. And reading.”

“No.” She shook her head. “Emery — oh, I guess there was that — we were playing the Question Game. And I asked… I don’t even remember. Maybe what his ...

“Not yet, ma’am,” Ky said. “Lord Ash said he’d like for me to start soon, though… but I haven’t picked one… do you have any suggestions?”

“…oh.” She buried her hands in her pockets.

“…I’m not sure, ma’am,” Ky admitted. “I’ve been playing a lot of board games since I got here, which has been nice. And card games.”

Ky furrowed her brow, glancing between them, then followed him out the door. She let it close behind them before she asked, voice lowered, “what was that?”

“Yes ma’am.” Ky dipped her head. She didn’t think being a teenager was very fun at all. In fact, all three years of it so far had been positively awful. ...

Ky smiled and stood up.