Frost Bound (Entangled with Trickery #1)

Neve

Chapter Thirty-Three

Neve

He lurked in Lumi’s bedroom waiting for his dear sister to make her appearance.

After the council meeting had adjourned, she’d all but disappeared.

Neve swirled the spirits around in his glass and leaned back in the wingback chair his sister loved to read in. Lumi’s room was full of vibrant colors and warm woods, as opposed to the cooler tones he preferred.

The door swung open and he paused, the glass perched on his lips when Lumi rushed into the room, Alda tailing her. His sister flinched when she spotted him, and Alda froze.

“Shouldn’t you be helping the reilleve get ready for dinner?” he drawled.

“She dismissed us for the evening, reillov .”

Interesting.

“Leave us.”

Alda bowed, scurrying out of the room and closing the door behind her.

Lumi glared at him. “You didn’t have to be so rude. She’s our cousin.”

“No, she’s the granddaughter of Beltisse, who is scheming to take the throne, Lumi. She’s not your friend.”

“Then why station her as your saloes ’ lady-in-waiting? Hoping one of them will kill her off?”

Slowly, he placed his glass down on the small round table to his left. “No, I’m honoring their family, and keeping my eye on them in the process. Beltisse wouldn’t tell me no when I asked for his granddaughters, since it is such a privilege to serve the queen. But he also knows they are within my grasp now. He wouldn’t dare try anything. He might be greedy, but the vallos loves his family.”

“You’re diabolical,” Lumi spat.

“That’s a little hypocritical coming from the valles who put the reilleve in my chambers.”

Mischief lurked on her face. “I heard about that. Apparently, your new queen didn’t like you being in her bed. A vase was thrown? At least that’s what the gossips are saying.”

“Why, Lumi?” he growled, getting to his feet. “It was my wish for her to be in the tower.”

“Because I wanted to have a little fun.” An evil smile. “And I wanted you to have to look at her every day. You chose to bring the enemy into our home. You don’t get to pretend it didn’t happen and go on your merry way. You should suffer.”

“You wanted to hurt me?”

Her smile dropped and her bottom lip wobbled. “I wanted you to know you’d made a mistake. To see that I was right.”

Neve shook his head. “Lumi … I didn’t want this. It was what our kingdom needed. Do you really think I want a wife who can’t speak our language? Who doesn’t understand our culture? Or hides her flinch when I reach for her? One I’ve had to guard myself against every second of the last month? And now you’ve chained me to her!”

His sister paled. “What do you mean?”

“After you slipped away today, I met with my Haunt, Eira, and Warrin. You know they keep the pulse on our people. Loriians are uneasy with a saloes as their queen. They need to see me accepting her. I could have done that in public only, but now the servants know she’s in my bed. If I send her away now, it will be seen as rejection, and stir uncertainty. Something we cannot afford.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Dahlia is going to kill me!”

Lumi’s fingers curled into fists. “Dahlia? Dahlia? You are calling the human by her name?”

“No.” Only in your mind. “I know you’re not happy she’s here, but our enemies are many. Each decision I make must be calculated without feeling. The reilleve doesn’t have to be your friend, but you must show her respect. Our bonding has stemmed war with the humans.”

“For now ,” Lumi huffed.

He crossed the space between them and took his sister’s hands in his own. “You are my flesh and blood. I need your support if we are to come out of this unscathed.”

“You truly believe we are in that much danger?”

“Until I have an heir … yes. Even that can’t fix everything.”

Lumi squeezed her eyes shut. “I’m sorry. I let my anger get the best of me. I will try to be civil to the saloes .”

Neve pulled her into his arms and hugged her fiercely. “A good start would be not calling her saloes . Her name is Lady Dahlia.”

His sister pulled back, her nose crinkling. “Why do humans name their offspring after flowers? It’s ridiculous. Don’t they know names have power? Saddling a child with such a name marks them as weak the moment they are born.”

He chuckled. “I don’t know, but once you get to know the reilleve , you might think differently.”

“How so?”

He released his sister and walked to the window of her room that formed the other side of the half-moon. He watched as the waterfall thundered down from the center of the massive cavern, gems glittering.

“She has a banked fire. Every once in a while, it will burn brightly only to be extinguished, replaced by a mask of self-control. It’s as if she’s at war with what she wants to do and what is proper. She’s pragmatic and hardworking. As she healed in the village outside the Seed, she wouldn’t just rest. She helped the nonnae and nonnaette with cooking, cleaning, and healing prep. The reilleve is hard . She traveled through conditions that are normal for us but excruciating to her people without complaint. She’s not squeamish or cowardly.”

He turned his back to the window and crossed his arms. “I watched her charge a dimedon with only a slingshot and a dull little dagger. She stitched Flyka’s leg up like a battle surgeon.”

“It sounds as if you like the valles ,” Lumi commented, her nose once against wrinkled.

“Not like, per se. She makes me want to rip my hair out.” He paused. “Dahlia’s sense of duty is as strong as my own. I can respect that.”

“Do you trust her so readily?”

Neve smirked. “Do I trust anyone readily? We may share being duty-bound, but her loyalties are with Astera. She might be my wife and play her part as the reilleve , but if push came to shove, she would oppose and stab me in the back for what she believes. Only time will tell if she has an ulterior agenda.”

“Have you discovered what’s wrong with her?” his sister asked, perching on the arm of a green divan.

“Her legs.” He pursed his lips. “The skin is multihued tans, peaches, and browns. It’s not contagious, and has no effect on her overall health, from what the nonnae got out of her. She holds a profound sense of shame over it.”

Lumi frowned. “Why? There’s nothing wrong with differences in the body.”

“My thoughts exactly. I believe the queen has made her feel less-than. Plus, the religious order in that kingdom likes to burn people that are considered different. It’s fearmongering, something I believe she’s been trained to believe in.”

“So she’s a bigot?”

“No. What I meant is that I think these beliefs have scarred her, and have been ingrained since she was a child. When she realized I knew about her condition, she panicked and tried to bolt into the snow in just a shift.” Even now, he could feel the way she shook in his arms, and remembered the tears that tracked down her face as she tried to battle the panic.

“Deeply entrenched fear, then.” His sister whistled. “So what you’re saying is, you’ve been saddled with a human wife that by all appearances will not die anytime soon like you’d originally hoped?”

He winced. He didn’t truly wish death on her … just that he hadn’t wanted to deal with a hypothetical human wife.

“If she isn’t really sick, why do you think the king and queen of Astera went through with this treaty? Even all our coin and gems weren’t worth their only daughter.”

“That is my question too.” Neve pulled his sister into one last hug before moving to the door. “One I intend to find the answer to.”