It hurt to look at her, somehow.
“And exactly how did you imagine you were qualified to help?” Evander retorted, brows knitted and voice cracking slightly in disbelief. The answer to that was obvious: Caroline wasn’t. She was not remotely qualified to run about saving people in freakish hurricanes. She did not deal professionally with catastrophes or violent storms, nor have any experience in rescuing people; she was a former debutante with no real practical or magical skills, who had no doubt simply read too many adventure stories as a girl. She had been foolish and reckless and put herself in harm’s way, thoughtlessly, and now they were both here because of it.
Was it a real loss if he hadn’t even known until it was already gone? No. No, it wasn’t. There could not be the absence of something he hadn’t made space for in his head yet. Just squandered potential, he supposed, if he had to define it. And she hadn’t told him, so. So. All the same, he couldn’t – couldn’t keep looking at her. Jaw clenched, Evander turned sideways and forced himself to check the measure of the Floo powder on the mantle instead, just to give himself something mindless to do. He pulled off the lid, carefully brushed a few grains back in from the rim of the pot. Half empty. How much longer would that last?
“And exactly how did you imagine you were qualified to help?” Evander retorted, brows knitted and voice cracking slightly in disbelief. The answer to that was obvious: Caroline wasn’t. She was not remotely qualified to run about saving people in freakish hurricanes. She did not deal professionally with catastrophes or violent storms, nor have any experience in rescuing people; she was a former debutante with no real practical or magical skills, who had no doubt simply read too many adventure stories as a girl. She had been foolish and reckless and put herself in harm’s way, thoughtlessly, and now they were both here because of it.
Was it a real loss if he hadn’t even known until it was already gone? No. No, it wasn’t. There could not be the absence of something he hadn’t made space for in his head yet. Just squandered potential, he supposed, if he had to define it. And she hadn’t told him, so. So. All the same, he couldn’t – couldn’t keep looking at her. Jaw clenched, Evander turned sideways and forced himself to check the measure of the Floo powder on the mantle instead, just to give himself something mindless to do. He pulled off the lid, carefully brushed a few grains back in from the rim of the pot. Half empty. How much longer would that last?
