The Heir's Bargain (Of Fire and Lies)

Chapter 28

The daybefore dinner with the leaders, I had almost forgone going to the tavern. Moris and Sylvia, however, had insisted.

There were only ten of us left whom the leaders were deciding between, and tomorrow, the leaders would finally make their choice. All three of us had made it to the final ten soldiers. Moris wanted to celebrate that; Sylvia had other intentions, though. Going to the tavern seemed like the last thing I should have been doing. And perhaps I should have listened to the creeping sensation crawling up my neck, but I didn”t.

Before we could even wrap our hands around a pint of ale, Sylvia pulled us to the dance floor, where the truth came out. Last week, Sylvia had started talking to the band’s singer, who was a gorgeous woman with flowing ebony hair and dark brown skin. While Sylvia gawked at the singer, Moris, Fynn, and I were all forced to dance.

After three or four dances, Fynn and I managed to sneak away to our table.

”How was training?” Fynn asked as I sat down beside him.

”Good,” I said, reaching up and kissing his cheek.

Fynn pulled back. ”Just good? Because you seem more chipper than usual.”

I shrugged. ”I”m in a good mood, that”s all.”

”Do you want to talk about it?”

I bit my lip. As much as I was delighted to be one of the last ten, I shook my head. ”Not yet,” I said.

Fynn”s eyes enlarged. ”Have you heard something about the promotion?” he whispered as Sylvia and Moris continued dancing.

Some of the excitement dwindled, but I kept the smile on my face. ”Not yet, but I have a good feeling.”

He arched a brow but didn”t push the topic any further.

I wasn”t purposely keeping anything a secret from him. However, I was too close to being selected for this mission. I did not doubt that leaders believed our courtship was real. Despite the reasoning my father had given me months ago, a successful courtship would not be enough to secure the promotion. Nor did I wish to let my relationship status dictate my career.

I needed to be chosen for this mission because of who I was, not because of who Fynn was. I didn’t want him to try to sway my father and the generals if he found out about it.

After an hour, I had called it a night after a wave of exhaustion had swept over me.

Outside, Fynn leaned against the post of the stables across the street. ”I”ll see you tomorrow then, Ferrios?” Fynn asked.

I sighed. ”I told you, you don”t have to?—”

Fynn grabbed my waist, pressing his lips against mine. His lips were soft and warm against mine.

No matter how many times Fynn kissed me, each time left me more breathless than the last.

He leaned back, his arms still wrapped around me. ”If you tell me I do not have to come to the dinner tomorrow one more time?—”

”You”ll what? Hmm?” I narrowed my eyes, but the wide grin splitting across my face betrayed me.

If the past week had shown me anything, I had nothing to worry about when it came to my relationship with Fynn. Knowing Fynn would be by my side tomorrow night, not as my pretend suitor but as something more than a friend, tamed most of the uneasiness I had felt last week.

I had yet to tell my mother that Fynn would be attending dinner, which was a whole other reason to be nervous. Although my mother had known Fynn for his entire life, she acted as if she had never seen him running around the castle at age five, wearing a helmet that was too big for his head and wielding a wooden sword. When it came to the royal family though, none of that mattered to her. If I told my mother too soon, she would change the entire menu to make it more ostentatious.

Fynn brushed a finger across my lips, scraping his teeth on his bottom lip. ”Honestly, Ferrios, I don”t know, but I”m sure I could think of something.” His gaze dipped down my body, sending heat up to my cheeks. ”Give me a few minutes and a storage closet, and you”ll regret those words in no time.”

I chuckled. ”Not tonight.”

”If you say so,” he said with a wink.

I poked him in the chest. ”I”m serious. I have?—”

”Training in the morning,” he said, interrupting me in mockery. I probably had said that exact statement numerous times throughout the night.

He shoved his hands in his pockets and looked toward the horses. ”Can I at least ride with you home?”

I shook my head. ”I think some quiet would do me some good tonight.”

”Very well.”

I reached for the hood of my cloak, but my hand swiped at the air. I groaned. ”I left my cloak inside. You go ahead.”

He shifted, turning toward the tavern”s entrance. ”Are you sure? I can?—”

I held out a hand. ”Fynn, I”m a big girl. I can handle myself.”

Fynn lifted his hands in the air. ”I wasn”t saying you couldn”t, Ferrios. You”ve put me on my back plenty of times.” He cocked his head to the side, a sinful smirk appearing. ”Although I recall?—”

”Night, Nadarean,” I shouted over my shoulder as I walked away.

”Night, Ferrios,” he called after me.

As I swung the tavern door open, I heard Fynn”s horse take off down the gravel pathway. Thankfully, Sylvia and Moris were still dancing, so I was able to grab my cloak without being sucked back into the fold of the music.

Cloak in hand, I headed back through the growing crowd and slipped through the door unseen. Or so I thought.

Someone giggled, the sound girlish with a hint of vitriol coating it. A pang of nausea coursed through my veins.

”You are truly the last person I thought the prince would be courting.”

My hand fell from the door. As it swung shut behind me, I asked, my voice even, ”And why is that, Rosalina?”

I turned and found Fynn”s former partner walking toward the tavern from down the street. Her caramel hair was tied back in a clean chignon. She wore a delicate light pink dress and short silk gloves over her hands that stopped just beyond her wrists with a white ruffle.

As I looked her up and down, she raised her chin. When Esmeray lifted her chin and rolled her shoulders back, she exuded power and stability; when Rosalina did it, she looked like a peacock fluffing up her feathers before a python.

Rosalina scoffed, flipping her hand in the air. ”He”s the heir to the throne, and you? Well, you”re just a soldier.”

Rolling my eyes, I glanced at the quarter moon shining down. ”Is there some other obvious fact you wish to state? I do have places to be.”

Her lips parted slightly as if she was appalled I would dismiss her.

She quickly flattened her expression and took a step forward, chuckling. ”He was enamored with you at the solstice ball, I will say that. But if you put anyone in an elegant dress, they are bound to catch someone”s eye. Everyone is watching you. They”re watching and waiting for you to fall. For Fynn to see his mistake in courting you. Now that he has been crowned heir, whomever he marries will become Queen of Pontia. You do realize that, don”t you?”

I cocked my head. ”Are you planning a coup that I should know of, Rosalina? Because as far as I know, the queen is alive and well.”

Rosalina”s pale pink lip curled. She wrung her hands together. ”I have heard the queen herself say that she will abdicate when she believes her son is old enough and mature enough to sit upon the throne. She is only waiting for him to grow up and to marry.”

I placed a hand on my hip. ”Let me guess, Rosalina, you believe you are the one he should marry?”

She smoothed a flyaway back down and clicked her tongue. ”A queen is not a warrior, Danisinia.”

Thinking of becoming Fynn”s consort one day left a sour taste in my mouth. He had told me several times how he felt about his former partners being with him only for the sake of the crown. I wasn”t Rosalina. I didn”t want that title. I didn”t know if I even wanted to be married, let alone be married to the future king. What had Esmeray told me the night of the solstice? That even Marc had to make sacrifices he did not wish to make.

Of course, it was too soon to even think that marrying Fynn was remotely a possibility; whatever we were, it was still too new.

Yet, I didn”t wish to think about us going our separate ways after I received my promotion, either.

This entire relationship resulted from neither Fynn nor I wanting to be in a long-term relationship despite our mothers” wishes. Although we were no longer pretending, we hadn”t outwardly discussed if there was a finite end to our courtship.

Still, there might not have been an official end date, but there was an end. That much was clear.

But I would not let Rosalina know that.

I took a step forward. ”If you wish to be Fynn”s consort simply to sit on a throne beside him and smile at the crowd, then you are gravely mistaken about what a queen is.”

”Am I?” Rosalina asked, tipping her small, pointed nose higher into the air.

”A queen is whoever she wishes to be. Queen Esmeray may not be a soldier, but she is one of the fiercest and strongest people I know. And if you think even for a second that neither she nor her son have seen through your poor pursuits of the crown, then you are the one gravely mistaken.”

Rosalina laughed, but the sound was strained, forced. Her hands fell to her side, rolling into a tight fist, the white cotton fabric stretching over her knuckles. ”Whatever you and Fynneares have will pass. It always does with him.”

”Here”s the difference between you and me, Rosalina,” I said, walking around her. My shoulder bumped against hers when I stopped beside her. I leaned over. ”You”ve been running after Fynn for years, but I was the one he ran toward.”