Chapter 29 #2
He reaches out and takes all four of the tankards, two in each hand, then takes off back to the table.
“I could’ve carried a couple,” I grumble behind his back. He doesn’t hear me.
We spend the rest of the morning planning when we’ll make our journey toward Dothron. Gaethri doesn’t know the exact location, but the legends speak of a cave system in Northern Dothron. “Where no one dares enter,” he adds ominously.
Memories of Wraithmere Forest trickle in as he details the five-day-long journey it will take to get there, and I begin to feel the nerves creeping in. I knew this would happen eventually, though. I couldn’t continue to chase this quest from the comfort of the castle forever.
We decide to make the journey in three days’ time.
The hard part now is figuring out a cover story to tell anyone who notices the absence of two of the dragon shifter visitors, an elf princess, and the daughter of the King’s Hand.
No one will notice Gaethri and Rhydra’s absence.
Not many people have encountered them, but if they have, they’d just assume they were travelers passing through.
The two of us plus two dragon shifters disappearing for nearly two weeks at the same time though… that’s going to be a huge problem.
I’m on my second drink. Everyone else except for Daegan is on their third.
He’s only had one. He doesn’t talk much during the planning session, only offering a grunt or a few words here and there.
He seems lost in thought half the time, off in his own world.
But every now and then, we lock eyes across the table, and my stomach flips.
No one has come up with any real solution to our problem. We’re all stuck.
Then, finally, Daegan speaks up, his face all business. “Okay, I think there’s a very obvious solution here.”
“Go ahead,” Meela says.
“Elysande, you’ve read half the books in that library. Did you ever read some of the romances in there?”
“Yes…” I admit slowly, regrettably.
“And what was a common theme many of them had?”
I make a face at him across the table as I sigh, propping my elbows on the table and placing my chin in my hands. I don’t know why he knows anything about romantic tales, but I finally realize where he’s going with this. “Forbidden love…”
My cheeks heat as I avoid everyone’s gaze at the table. But I feel many on me.
“Okay…” Meela says slowly, confusion dripping from her tongue.
Daegan clears his throat, and I can’t help my traitorous eyes from looking his way.
Luckily, his eyes are focused on everyone else.
“What I’m saying is, there are two very handsome dragon shifters and two elves disappearing together.
It would be incredibly easy to let people assume it’s merely a case of two couples running away together for a little lovers’ tryst, caught up in their lust, love, whatever you want to call it. ”
“Ahhh,” Rhydra says. She nods her head in approval.
“I’m sorry,” Meela snaps down the table at Daegan. “Are you insinuating that we would be so blinded by your good looks that we’d run away blindly with you?”
He answers in the form of a smirk.
“You have it backwards,” Meela says. “You fools are the ones who would blindly follow because of our beauty.”
Daegan nods like he doesn’t really care to argue, but he makes eye contact with me for a flash before mumbling something into his tankard that I cannot possibly decipher.
“You’re right, Meela,” Raef says. “So is Daegan. But what do we do, have you leave notes out of nowhere? Seems suspicious.”
“It is suspicious,” I chime in finally. “Especially after…”
My gaze flicks to Daegan. Everyone knows what I’m referring to, which saves me from having to repeat it.
Daegan is not trusted around the castle as it is.
“Then you have a few days to sell it,” Rhydra says, like it’s already decided.
“I’m sorry?” Meela questions.
I know exactly what she’s getting at. She expects us to—
“Start flirting. Start being seen together. Both of you. Raef and Elysande, Meela and Daegan? I don’t care.”
Daegan clears his throat suddenly. “I’ve already been seen in Elysande’s room by a not so pleased suitor of hers,” he says, sounding slightly agitated. “You’re right, we need to sell it. But she’s with me.”
I stare at him for a moment. No one else speaks. “Do I get a say in this?”
“No,” Daegan and Meela say in unison. He crosses his arms.
“No offense,” Meela announces, looking around.
He shrugs, completely unaffected.
“The only problem is elves don’t mix with others outside of their kind…” Meela says, like it’s a problem she’s working through out loud.
“Again. You simply couldn’t resist our good looks,” Raef adds with a grin. “It makes the secret runaway that much more necessary. Because it’s forbidden. Hot.”
Suddenly, I become lost in my thoughts, and I take several large gulps of ale without realizing what I’m really doing.
This is going to be three days of pure torture for me, being in his presence, pretending to flirt…
I don’t even know what that’s going to look like for him.
For me. I’m not sure that I can even bring myself to do it at this point.
If I do, I might accidentally trick myself into thinking it’s real, and I’m going to be in too deep.
Suddenly, my breathing hastens, and I’m about to excuse myself from the table when Meela’s voice breaks through my haze. “I’m sorry, you guys. But I don’t think I can do it.”
I snap my head up.
Oh.
Here I am worried about having to flirt with Daegan when Meela has literally lost the love of her life because her father didn’t agree to their matching. Because he wasn’t an elf, and from a lesser species, in his eyes. And a rebel.
All things that Raef is.
“It’s the only way we can get out of there for a few days without raising suspicions about what we’re really doing. Better to take the wrath for a forbidden romance than for them to question what we’re really up to,” Raef insists.
Meela shuts down. I see it in the way she folds in on herself, the way her eyes glaze over. “No.”
I stand up and go to her, grabbing her arm gently. “Excuse us for a minute,” I say to the table, my eyes pleading for understanding as she stands with me.
I lead her to a dark, quiet corner of the tavern.
“Is this about…”
She nods, cutting me off. “I can’t do that to him. I can’t risk it. As much as Raef drives me insane…”
I give her a look of understanding. I won’t push her to do it.
“We’ll just have to think of another way. We can just disappear and say nothing and hope for the best.”
“And how did that work out last time when you were gone for only a day?”
I twist my mouth to the side. She’s right.
“If we disappear with them without explanation, they’re still dead. This whole thing will be over.”
“My father listens to me. I can talk him down.”
She shakes her head. She’s right on this one.
Even if I did convince him to let them go, his suspicion of what we’re up to will be through the roof.
And then I realize…“They might think you ran away with him regardless, even if we don’t sell it for the next few days.
They might think you were simply keeping it a secret.
Or worse… they’ll think they kidnapped us. ”
She nods with a slow and somber motion. “Maybe you guys should go without me…”
I shake my head. “Then I’m still screwed, because how do I explain that one.”
“Yeah… plus, it’s not just me they don’t want mingling with lesser kinds. You’re the princess,” she says.
“Yeah, but… I sort of have an out for that one…” I tell her, wincing.
“What?”
“My father sort of asked me to get close to Daegan. To spy on him, I guess. He doesn’t trust them.”
Her mouth hangs open. “And you’re just now telling me this?”
“It doesn’t matter. I’m not spying for my father. I’m simply pretending to. To appease him.”
“Wow.” She shakes her head in mild disbelief. “Well, I can’t really stay behind anyway. I want to go with you guys. I can’t abandon you before I’ve even started.”
“You all right?” I hear Raef walk up behind me, but I keep my eyes on Meela.
She shakes her head. “We need another plan,” she tells him.
“This plan is too perfect,” he says, confused.
“They’ll kill you,” Meela snaps, her eyes full of warning.
“They will not. They might be unhappy about it, but kill us? No way.”
“They will.” Meela crosses her arms, looking away as she speaks weakly. “It wouldn’t be the first time.”
Something in her tone shuts him up. His smile falls as he looks at me. I confirm with my eyes.
“Well, this is bigger than me. It’s my back on the line, and I’m okay with risking it.”
I try to plead with her. “Maybe he won’t do something so brash in his own land. He would have to be sneakier about it. We’ve all got each other, and we won’t let that happen so easily this time. I do have a little bit of say as the princess, after all.”
The heartbreak in her eyes as she looks up at us nearly rips a hole in my chest. Raef might be slightly in the dark, but he realizes how serious she is. He knows she’s not messing around with this.
“Please,” he pleads, his normally easy gaze full of intensity as he looks at her.
She glances between the two of us, then across the room, contemplating. Her eyes return to Raef, resolve painting her face. “Okay.”
“Okay,” he breathes. And then he hugs her. She doesn’t hug back, her arms still folded in on herself, but she allows his arms to wrap around hers.
I look away, letting them have a moment, and my stupid eyes somehow fall perfectly onto Daegan, who’s watching from across the room. His eyes are questioning, so I give him a sad sort of nod, letting him know everything is good. He dips his chin once in acknowledgement before pulling his gaze away.