Chapter 36
thirty-six
Apparently, what Lyall had called a match wasn’t a sport at all.
Pippa was braiding my hair behind my head after Pera and Poppy left.
They didn’t let me eat much, just some fruit and some freshly squeezed apple juice, and they put a white dress on me that fell all the way to my ankles, flared from the waist down so that it was every easy to move in it.
They wouldn’t hear it when I asked to wear pants, and to be honest, I was in no mood to argue, so I just went with it.
When Pippa sat me in front of the mirror which I avoided with my full attention, I asked her about the match.
“ Sport? By Emer, that’s no sport! The Crown’s Gauntlet used to be reserved for contenders for the royal guard positions—but now? It’s perverted into this madness and masked as tradition. Hmph.”
I was genuinely surprised because she hadn’t exploded like that for anything I’d asked her before. She usually didn’t even bother to answer me at all.
And then I was to follow the guards to the Hollow, the playground of this sport that was, apparently, not an actual sport, and soon I found out exactly why the chambermaids hadn’t let me eat this morning.
The guards didn’t tell me anything, of course.
They just took me a floor underground in the palace, which, not going to lie, scared me shitless.
The corridors we walked through were wide and there were more than enough fae lights floating about the ceiling so I saw everything, but there was a part of me that was convinced I was being sent somewhere to die.
I was being tricked, lured to a secret place where nobody would hear me screaming, and nobody would ever find my body, either.
Good thing I was still bound to Lyall; otherwise, I’d have most definitely made an attempt to escape.
But when we finally made it to a set of stairs what felt like hours later, I wished I had at least tried. Not only did the stairs go on forever—and I mean forever —but they were spiral and narrow, and really, really steep—and they took me out into an arena.
I kid you not.
I was just as shocked when I finally pushed through the last of the steps and came out into this box, for lack of a better word, that was built at the very top of a large arena.
Breathless, I moved forward as the wind blew my hair to the side, and the magic in the air almost suffocated me as it coated my tongue. I made it to the thick stone railing, and I looked out, my mind completely blank still.
The Hollow stretched out beneath me in a massive oval, carved deep into golden stone on the side of a hill that I could barely make out in the distance.
Staggered rows of seats wrapped around it in steep tiers, packed with fae dressed in jewel-toned silks and velvet.
Laughter rippled through the crowd, and people shouted at one another.
The air thrummed with tension, too, and the sunlight revealed every little detail.
The box I was in stood like a crown atop the arena. The pale stone it was carved in was draped in sheer gold and red silks, and it offered the perfect view of the arena below.
Behind me, a single row of high-backed chairs, almost identical to the one where Rune had me the night before, took up most of the wide space.
A large table to the far left was covered in a silk cloth, and full of all kinds of food and drink.
We were framed by sculpted columns, and if the buzzing in the air was anything to go by, this entire box was under some heavy-duty magic.
I could imagine why—Lyall and the Queen and several other fae I had never seen before stood near the table with glasses in hand, talking, not hiding, like they knew for a fact that they couldn’t be seen.
Then Lyall came to me.
I stayed where I was, waiting, breath held, reminding myself that it was okay, that I didn’t need to scream. I could just tell him that I wanted to go back to my room like a normal person. No need to panic.
“I wonder if there is a color out there that does not become more when you wear it,” Lyall said, bowing his head deeply when he stopped in front of me, then reached for my hand.
At that point it had become a habit to put mine over it—a habit for him, too, to gently brush his lips over my knuckles in not-quite a kiss.
“So flattering,” I said, eyes behind him, on the queen and the four men and woman who stood with her, all of them watching me like fucking hawks.
“How could I not be? You look divine, Nilah,” Lyall said, golden eyes scrolling down the length of me, but I was too overwhelmed to feel more overwhelmed by now .
“What…what is this, Lyall? We’re really high up, and this place is…open. So many people…” Yes, the seats were spacious and big, but there were still at least over a hundred fae around us.
“Oh, don’t worry about it—this box is covered in illusion magic. Nobody down there can see anything here. You’re perfectly safe so long as you stay here.”
“Not me —you! You’re the one pretending to be dead,” I said, and he smiled.
“I’m happy to know you worry about me, Nilah, but there is no need. Come,” he said and waved toward the table at the other end.
“Actually, I think this isn’t the right place for me, Lyall. I’m just going go back?—”
“Nonsense—this match will be incredibly entertaining, I assure you. I haven’t told you who is playing today on purpose—it’s a surprise. You can’t leave yet,” he said.
Shivers rushed down my back in an instant because I knew that whatever he considered a surprise, I wasn’t going to like it one bit.
“Really, I don’t think this—” is something I’ll enjoy, I was going to say, and the queen looks at me like she’s imagining strangling me this very moment.
Seriously, she was holding her glass to the side of her neck while the others talked, and she was looking at me with a small smile on her face.
So fucking strange to see, and I couldn’t even look at her for longer than a couple of seconds at a time.
It wasn’t even the crown that looked too big for her in this lighting, about to fall right off her head.
It was just the look in those ice-cold, golden eyes, and that smile that could make Mona Lisa confused.
Except before I could finish speaking, someone else came into the box from the other side, the left corner behind the queen and the other fae. Someone I knew the shape of, the energy of, even before I saw his face.
Rune.
My eyes were on him like he was a damn magnet, and he looked almost surprised to see me there, too, but he hid it quickly. Walked ahead, around the fae and bowed to the queen.
“Ah, everybody is here now. You can’t leave, Nilah. I won’t allow it. Stay,” Lyall said, and it was a damn order wrapped up in a sweet voice.
That I hated orders—which didn’t come from Rune—was no surprise, but I swallowed hard and forced myself to look at him again.
I said, “If you insist,” like a good little puppy because if Rune was going to stay here, then I would, too.
Whatever this sport or match or whatever was, I wasn’t leaving until he did.
And then he was coming toward us.
It was incredible how much he could make me feel just by walking toward me, looking at me with those gorgeous eyes, the blues and silvers blending in so perfectly, his hair all over the place, his shirt halfway unbuttoned.
Whoever had made him had done so with a sketch pulled right out of my every fantasy—and I didn’t even care that he was older than me.
It somehow made perfect sense. My mind knew it.
My body knew it. My soul believed it with all its might.
He bowed his head to me, and to Lyall, and Lyall wasn’t smiling as big as usual, I thought, but he said nothing, just invited us to sit.
The queen and her companions already had.
She looked down at me as we approached, and when we did, Lyall bowed in front of her.
I knew he did it for my benefit, to show me that I was supposed to do the same, and I knew that very well.
It was the queen, even if she hated me, and even if I was pretty sure I hated her in return for the way she’d spoken to Rune.
But even so, I curtsied in the best way I knew how.
I thought she would say something. I thought she would at least make a comment, but she didn’t. She just continued to look down at me when I straightened up again, as if she were pleased to see me with my head down, bowing before her.
Fuck, there was just something wrong about her, and I couldn’t even tell you what.
Lyall sat next to her, and waved for me to sit next to him, leaving the chair next to me the only one available for Rune.
Not going to lie, my heart soared at the idea of sitting next to him, especially since I felt the sheer pressure of the queen’s attention.
I thought he was going to make me feel better, but there was space between us, too much space, and I couldn’t even feel the heat of him.
Couldn’t touch him and pretend it was accidental.
Couldn’t even look at him without being noticed.
Then one of the men who sat on the queen’s other side was there in front of me with a tray in hand, offering me one of the glasses on it. I took one with clear liquid hoping it would be water and left the colorful juices alone.
The man said nothing, and his golden eyes were full of contempt, but he didn’t offer a drink to Rune. He just stood up and walked away.
What the hell?
I opened my mouth to ask him, but then I thought to look at Rune first, and the look he gave me was enough to make me seal my lips shut. Like always, he must have known what I was thinking because his eyes were wide and dark, and he barely moved his head to tell me no .
I swallowed hard, no longer even thirsty.
“Don’t worry about Rune. He can get his own drinks. He’s incredibly independent like that.”
My blood turned to stone for a moment—Lyall had noticed, too.
I turned to him, forced a smile on my face. “I was just surprised, that’s all,” I said almost breathlessly.