Chapter 34
Thirty-Four
ALLETTE
Today is our first day off and I honestly wish we had work to do. I would’ve gone to the House Master to ask for an assignment if it weren’t for Braith spending the night in my room. I barely got any sleep in the tiny bed but didn’t have the heart to kick her out.
Hopefully Senan didn’t forget my request to free Jeston. With the state I left him in last night, there is no telling what time he woke this morning.
After a quick shower, Braith and I go to breakfast together. The dining hall is full of the normal chatter, but our table remains silent. The spot where Jeston usually sits is empty.
I can’t bring myself to attend lunch, choosing instead to spend the rest of the afternoon trying to get the stains out of the uniform I kept. When the dinner bell rings, my hollow stomach won’t let me skip another meal. Down the hall, I catch a glimpse of Braith exiting her room as well. My guilt over this entire situation grows like a vicious weed, overtaking everything else. I wrap my arms around her thin frame. Perhaps Senan did forget my visit after all. Perhaps he’ll listen today. I’ll make the trek to the twentieth floor a hundred times if I must.
Hand in hand, we enter the canteen. No one seems to pay us attention as we collect plates of chicken, lumpy mashed potatoes, and wilted broccoli. When we take our seats, Mari and Del glance our way, their pinched expressions matching our own. As soon as I finish eating, I’m going straight to Senan’s room and begging him to?—
“Why the long faces?”
How strange. I could’ve sworn I heard Jeston’s voice.
Braith’s head snaps up. Sure enough, Jeston is there, a crooked smile on his cracked lips and his eye black and swollen.
“Jeston!” Braith launches to her feet and throws herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck and squeezing tight.
Jeston stumbles back with a gruff laugh. “Easy, Braith.” He pats my friend’s back. “My side is a bit tender.”
He’s back. I can’t believe he’s really back.
Mari and Del’s hugs aren’t quite as exuberant. I don’t know whether to hug him or not. I’m relieved he is all right, but we aren’t that close. From over their heads, Jeston’s gaze finds mine, and he nods his chin in silent thanks. I nod back, and that is that, all is forgiven.
Braith rushes over to where the food is being served, collecting a plate for Jeston while he settles into his place, putting the world to rights. Although Jeston thanks Braith when she sets the plate in front of him, he doesn’t meet her hopeful gaze. If it weren’t for Mari and Del pinning Jeston in, I’ve no doubt Braith would’ve been glued to his side for the remainder of the meal—and maybe even the night.
Braith’s smile falters as she sinks down next to me, and I give her knee a reassuring squeeze.
You’d swear Jeston hasn’t eaten in days from the way he shovels food into his mouth.
“Well?” Del nudges him with her elbow. “Tell us all about the pit. Is it as awful as everyone says?”
Jeston’s hand trembles as he reaches for his glass of water. “Worse.”
We all wait for more details, but he doesn’t explain further. Is it any wonder? Why would he want to relive such a traumatic experience?
Mari props both elbows onto the table, resting her chin in her hands. “How’d you get out?”
Jeston’s eyes dart to mine, then back to his dinner. He scoops a forkful of mashed potatoes into his mouth and mutters, “Prince Senan himself ordered my release.”
Everyone at the table starts talking at once.
Everyone but me.
Senan came through for me after all. I shouldn’t be so happy. It’s not as if this changes the future. Still, knowing the prince was willing to rectify this makes my broken heart soar. I should probably thank him, shouldn’t I? That would be the right thing to do.
Del pokes holes in what is left of her potatoes with her fork, sighing wistfully at the stalactites on the ceiling. “I know we’re meant to hate the prince after what he did, but I can understand why all the women swoon over him. He really is quite dark and dashing.”
Mari leans around Jeston’s back to give her friend a shove. “You always were into the bad boys.”
Del shoves her back with a giggle. “And you aren’t?” Her head swings toward me. “What is he like, Wynn?”
My hand tightens on my fork. “How should I know?”
Del wiggles her eyebrows suggestively. “There is no need to play coy with us. We all saw you dancing with him.”
Heat climbs my throat to my jaw.
Mari starts nodding. “Oh, yes. I completely forgot about that. What was he like?”
What I wouldn’t give for my mask right about now. My face feels like it has caught fire.“I…um…I didn’t even realize it was him.” Yet I should’ve known who he was the moment his hands met my body.
“Poppycock. The two of you disappeared behind that curtain for quite some time. Tell us, is he hung like a Pegasus like Darcy claims?”
Who the hell is Darcy and how does she know such intimate details about my mate? When I find the woman?—
Braith squeezes my knee, but her gaze remains pinned on the two women across from her. “Has anyone ever told you that you’re awful gossips?”
Jeston rolls his eyes, and I don’t find the gesture nearly as annoying as I used to. “Can we please stop talking about this? Personally, I’d like to forget last night. Let’s talk about something pleasant. Anyone have plans for later?”
After all that’s happened, no one feels like leaving the caverns, so they decide to meet in the great room for a game of cards at nine. After some prodding from Braith, I reluctantly agree to join them.
It will be good to talk and laugh with friends. At least, that is what I tell myself. In reality, all I want is to see Senan again. That shouldn’t happen, right? I should leave well enough alone. Besides, if he wants to see me, he knows where to find me. Seeking him out will only make me look even more desperate.
A mammoth guard in silver leathers appears in the canteen’s entrance, his dark brown hair cropped short and navy-blue wings folded tight at his back. What is a royal guard doing down here?
My stomach starts fluttering. I wonder what is in the brown paper package tucked beneath his arm.
Conversations fall silent as he scans the room.
“Stars, I think I just fell in love,” Mari whispers from behind her hand.
Del’s lips purse into a pout. “Why do we get stuck with all the homely guards?”
The newcomer stalks into the room and pounds on the House Master’s door. The House Master answers with a dark scowl until he sees the guard. The two disappear inside his office, only to reappear a few minutes later.
From across the room, the House Master’s gaze finds mine. “Wynn? Would you come here for a moment, please?”
“Lucky,” Mari murmurs. Del snorts her agreement.
I rise from the bench and cross the room on trembling limbs.
The guard is even larger up close—and infinitely more intimidating when he looks down his straight nose at me, his scowl deepening. “Your presence has been requested by Prince Senan Vale.” The entire room seems to suck in a breath when he hands me the package. “Change into this and meet me by the south gates.”
Turns out “this” is a stunning gown of cerulean silk with a corseted bodice edged in gold lace. Never in my life have I worn a garment as luxurious. It feels like liquid starlight against my skin. Mari and Del linger in the hallway, asking a hundred questions about what is happening. All I can do is answer honestly and tell them I haven’t a clue. Before I reach the cavern exit, Braith pulls me aside and asks how I’m feeling.
The answer is complicated. I’m nervous. I’m excited. I’m irritated about being excited. So I go with, “I don’t know.”
“You do not have to go if you don’t want to,” she says. “He may be a prince, but he does not own you. Remember that.”
The problem is, Senan does own me, heart and soul. Still, I thank Braith for her concern. It’s nice to have a friend looking out for me. She hugs me, whispers good luck, and off I go.
The guard waits out in the gray day, his stern frown never wavering as he steps forward to meet me. “Are you comfortable with me carrying you?”
“I suppose that depends on where you’re carrying me.”
His brows raise, but he says nothing.
“If you don’t answer, then I am going to return to the caverns.”
“You dare to defy your prince’s wishes?”
I fold my arms and wait.
With a curse, the man shakes his head. “I am bringing you to the royal solarium.”
“That wasn’t so hard, was it?” The royal solarium houses the queen’s gardens. Senan’s mother herself used to tend to them back when she was still living. Everyone who has been there says their ethereal beauty is unmatched in all the realm. “Now, to answer your question, yes, I am comfortable with you carrying me.”
He sweeps me into his arms as if I weigh nothing, and his navy wings stretch wide. He pushes off the earth, shooting into the sky. I squeal at the unexpected swiftness as we climb toward the puffy clouds and burst through to where bright sunlight streams down upon us, warming me to my very core.
My arms draped around the man’s neck tighten as I squint against the harsh light. Wind twists and tears at my hair, and my eyes start to water from the sheer speed. We fly over towers of all shapes and sizes. The cityscape up here has changed so much over the last four years. I search for my aunt’s tower on the horizon but don’t recognize a thing. We soar over the parks built on mountain peaks. The sun glints off Polaris Temple and the blue-black waters of Sheer Falls.
After no time at all, the guard lands atop a balcony ringing a building made almost entirely of glass. Black frames separate each pane, coming together like something out of a storybook. Arched doorways drip with ivy, topped with colorful stained glass that paints rainbows on the marble floor within.
I’ve never seen anything as beautiful. Even the rooms at the castle pale in comparison to this sanctuary. I smooth my clammy palms down my skirt. My hair probably looks a fright, but there isn’t much I can do about it now.
My worries fade away when I step into the balmy room to find a handsome prince waiting for me.