Chapter 33
R iina and Nico left not long after the others. I stayed put for a few more minutes to be safe, assuming Rowan would have had enough and that she would be heading upstairs soon. Finally, it got too hot, even for me, so I threw a towel over my shoulders to leave.
Surely, she was inside by now. It wasn’t like she was used to being half-naked in the snow.
But I should have known assumptions were both dangerous and pointless where she was concerned.
“All hail the victor!” she declared, right before spinning around and running directly into my chest.
Der’mo .
“Lemmikki,” I gritted out as I backed away, trying to ignore the combined effect of the ale and her warmth against my bare skin, which was surely all there was to it.
“Lord Aalio ,” she breathed.
Her cheeks were red from more than just the cold, her gaze lingering on my abdomen before settling squarely on the ground. Puffy strands of hair were already drying from her dip in the lake, reminiscent of the fuzzy cloud that had obscured her features toward the end of her time in the sauna.
“You know,” I mused aloud. “I wasn’t afraid of your hair before, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t now, after seeing it in the sauna...”
She looked up, eyes narrowed.
“Well, you should…see your hair,” she said awkwardly. “It’s disgusting.”
I raised an eyebrow at her, one more ill-thought-out ale away from pointing out that we both knew it wasn’t my hair she had been ogling only moments ago. Not that it was particularly flattering, when I reminded myself that she was taken with every reasonably attractive man who glanced in her direction.
No. Therein lay a road no one needed to travel.
She escaped rather hastily after her scathing retort, and I went to the lake, more than ready for an icy swim.
After the sauna, Taras and Kirill came up to my room to discuss strategy for the next day. Over vodka, of course, and only after Kirill recounted the story of their arseprint contest, much to Taras’s displeasure.
“We aren’t allowed to bring all of our men, by Arès’ orders,” I told them, drawing their attention away from the princess and arses, back to what really required discussion.
“And you trust him enough for that?”
I shrugged, settling back into the armchair by the fire.
“I trust that he wouldn’t risk a war with Bear when our army is larger and better trained than his. Killing me would accomplish nothing for him.”
“But killing the princess?”
“Seems to be directly in opposition to his aims.” I wasn’t foolish enough to take his apparent softness for her at face value, but Arès was no one’s fool.
He had a long history of neutrality that I seriously doubted he wanted to break by angering Elk, Bear, or Lochlann. He also had argued repeatedly for the princess to go home, alive. Thus far, his actions all lined up with his words, and it was reasonable to conclude that the rules he set in place were for everyone’s sake.
Still…
“I’ll send a scout ahead to ensure Elk isn’t taking liberties, but I doubt they would this close to the border. Not to mention Iiro won’t alienate all of Clan Lynx when he needs their support for the crown.”
“You really think he’s making a bid for the Obsidian Throne?” Kirill asked in disbelief.
I nodded. It was the only thing that made sense, and he hadn’t been particularly subtle about his perceived claim to the cursed crown.
“Then the only wildcard is Theodore,” Kirill pointed out.
Taras snorted, taking another sip of his drink. “Forgetting someone?”
Kirill chuckled, but shook his head. “She has an interest in returning to Elk. She won’t do anything to sabotage that.”
Oh, to have that kind of optimism.
All at once, I was assaulted by an endless barrage of all the ways she could, in fact, sabotage tomorrow’s negotiations. Relations between clans were tenuous, at best, and then we had Lochlann in the mix. Not to mention her guard, the unknown nobleman. Whatever Iiro was undoubtedly planning. Korhonan’s volatility where she was concerned.
I drained the remainder of my vodka, getting up onto my feet with slightly less steadiness than I was expecting.
Storms-damned hell.
It looked like I wasn’t done with the princess tonight, after all.