Samarra's breath got knocked out of her at the mention of her mother. Why was he doing this to her again?
"Mr. Sairfang…" Cassian said, trying to divert attention away from her like he always did.
"Yes?" Mr. Sairfang asked, and the two were soon absorbed in a conversation about boarding school.
It wasn't much longer before everyone took their assigned places at the dining room table and the first course was served. Dinner was abundant and largely uneventful. Four maidservants waited on Cassian's every request. Samarra, as always, was left to fend for herself. Although she was famished, she picked at her food without interest. Luckily the Sairfangs were too focused on Cassian to pay attention to her, so she imagined the fun she and her brother would have during his stay.
Her thoughts were interrupted when Mr. Sairfang stood up abruptly. "Cassian, why don't you meet me in the foyer in twenty minutes?" He turned to Samarra. "Stop daydreaming and clear the table." With a look of warning to Samarra, he excused himself and left the room. Mrs. Sairfang followed close behind.
"That was harsh." Cassian grabbed a tissue from his pocket.
"It's nothing compared to how he usually acts around me." Samarra played with her silk napkin. "She's worse. It's harder to pick out she's doing it because it's not always obvious, but I can tell… It's the look in her eyes." Samarra leaned closer. "You've been gone for what, six months?"
Cassian blew his nose. "Something like that."
The maidservants came in to clear the table. Samarra dropped her voice to a whisper. "Well, you missed out on the worst. They would save up their anger for the end of the day, when they would yell at me for all sorts of dumb reasons."
"Why would they do that?" he asked as if he didn't believe her.
Samarra shrugged. "I don't know. They don't like me. I bet it has something to do with our mother, but I can't be sure. It doesn't help that they never answer when I ask them questions about her — or our father, for that matter — so I can't ever find out the truth of it all. They don't even know her name. I tried to look for information online, but I couldn't find anything."
"What truth, Sammy?" Cassian asked in his typically calm manner. "That our parents died in a crash and the Sairfangs have been looking after us all this time?"
"It's not just that," Samarra insisted. "Don't you ever want to find out more about our parents?"
Cassian shook his head. "Stop being paranoid. There's nothing more than what we already know. Mr. Sairfang found us in an all-terrain aircraft that crashed off road. Our father died instantly in the head-on collision. Our mother died shortly after Mr. Sairfang pulled her from the wreckage and promised he would take care of us. It is what it is. You're too nosy for your own good."
"Whatever," Samarra said with a wave of her hand. "Okay then, get this — last night Mrs. Sairfang made me scrub your bathtub three times before she thought it was shiny enough." She jumped up and paced the room in a huff. "Why three times? You should have seen me afterwards. My nails were all chipped and caked with gross bits."
"What's the problem? It's not as if you care about that girly stuff anyway."
Samarra could tell her brother was teasing by the familiar twinkle in his eye. "I don't like froufrou things, but I do like clean nails. Anyway, enough of that." She sat back down. "I've missed you a lot. I hate it when you're away for so long."
"I wasn't gone for that long."
"Maybe not long for you, but I was counting down the days. I've been keeping track on my calendar. And now you're going again." She sank back into her chair and pouted. "I wish I went to boarding school too. There's nobody here I can hang out with, unless you count the guards, and they're no fun. All they ever want to do is stun things and eat doughnuts." Samarra sighed despondently. "Online school isn't the same as being in a room full of kids my own age, with a living breathing teacher instead of a robot. Robots are the most boring teachers in the world. The short ones are the worst. They drone on and on… Have you ever asked one what it dreams about? It stops responding and shuts down because it can never understand the question. It's sick!"
Cassian chuckled and dragged his chair closer to her. "Going to school down south isn't as great as you think. The seasons are all back to front, and the toilets flush the wrong way. I don't get to see much of anything because the teachers never let us leave the property. They say it's too dangerous. I spend my time on the school grounds, and that gets boring fast. There's nobody there as fun as you. I missed you too."
Samarra punched him lightly on the arm, grinning broadly. "You're just saying that to make me feel better."
"No, I'm not." Cassian stood up and buttoned his jacket. "I better find Mr. Sairfang. And you should do something about the stairs." He hugged her goodbye. "See you in a couple of days."
Samarra waved him off. Like a gust of wind, her brother had rushed in and out of her life once again.
Table of Contents
Shadow Fire
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Epilogue
About the Author
Also from Astraea Press
Shadow Fire Page 30
