Chapter Thirty-Five
“You seem like you still have some energy left,” Val noted, leaning against the hidden door she’d just slid closed behind her.
“Possibly.” I readjusted the three new gold rings on my hands—each one holding a sun stone.
A day or two after I’d showed Mother the moon lilies, I’d taken a quick, discreet trip back to the Neokell encampments. I’d gone alone to save time, despite receiving a lengthy scolding from Val upon my return. But it had been necessary.
A necessary disappointment, Father’s voice echoed in my mind.
I’d snuck in, not wanting my presence to be common knowledge, and made my way to where all the prisoner’s confiscated items were kept.
From there, I’d had almost too much fun picking out sun stones for myself.
It had come down to a bracelet or the rings I wore now, but Mother had told me if I ever got ahold of sun stones, to cast out my energy and see which stones responded.
And these rings had practically sung in my presence.
Disgraceful, the voice announced.
It’d been weeks since then, though, and the sun stones had become like a second skin to me. They were comfortable and helped tremendously in focusing my zirilium—so much so that I had begun to best Mother in our training sessions, one after the other.
Except for when she played dirty, like she had tonight when she grew and used vines to trip me before I could advance.
It had been frustrating, making my blood boil, but she’d pointed out that Southerners would do much worse in battle. And at that, I couldn’t argue.
“Lady Elore is in her chambers for the night,” Val said, confirming that her latest task of escorting Mother through the hidden tunnels was complete.
I nodded once, not sparing her a single glance as I prepared to focus my energy on one of the many boulders we’d brought into the training room. I planned on staying there, tearing apart boulders one by one until the voices ringing out in my head quieted.
Or I passed out from exhaustion.
I was alright with either one, so long as the voice that haunted me was silenced.
As my advisors slowly moved things into place for our next battle, Father’s deep voice replayed in my mind more often than not. Somehow, he continued to influence me, always criticizing, even in his absence.
It’d been so long since he’d gotten to me like he was presently, that I wasn’t sure how to handle it.
I was relieved, though, that it was only Father’s voice that time.
“Would you like to go another round?” Val’s voice nearly made me jump. I’d been so locked inside my own head all day that I wasn’t paying much attention to anything real.
Finally realizing that she wasn’t leaving immediately like I’d thought she would, I peered over at her.
Only for my mouth to fall agape.
Val had changed out of her usual flexible, casual clothing and donned a pure silk floor-length gown.
The black fabric hugged her upper body perfectly, while the bottom half flowed down her the rest of her form, a slit on each side exposing her long, pale legs every time she moved.
On her hip and side were two large, blood-red flowers sewn into the dress, each one big enough to wrap around her front and back sides, visible at any angle.
She had on black heels that made her just a hand or two shorter than I was, and she’d left her short brown hair down to rest just past her shoulders.
She was stunning, and I wasn’t sure how I hadn’t noticed it before.
“Griffin got your tongue?” Val asked, a cheeky smile playing on her plush pink lips.
“You look…” I trailed off as I took her appearance in once again, then cleared my throat to continue, “very nice.”
“Thank you, Dimitri.” Her smile grew a fraction as she dipped her head.
“Where are you headed?” I asked, finding myself drawn to her.
I wanted to be closer.
If only to clear my mind.
Or distract it.
“I was hoping you’d allow me an evening off. I was planning on hitting the town, maybe even stopping by my favorite tavern on the outskirts. Just to blow off some steam,” she said, motioning toward the open windows and the city down below.
“That sounds like a lovely time,” I replied. “The evening is yours to do whatever you please.”
“Whatever I please?” Her cheeky smile returned, full force. “So if I asked you to join me tonight, would you?”
I paused, taken aback by her request. On one hand, it would be a nice way to keep my mind busy, since it’d been badgering me all day.
On the other, I worried about what she meant on a deeper level.
What did she get out of going to town with me?
Why did she want to in the first place? Was it all some sort of ploy?
“Get out of your head for once, Dimitri,” she said, crossing the room to stand before me.
“Take a night off and join me. You’ve been training nonstop—you deserve a break.” She extended her hand toward me. “We both do.”
When I hesitated, she added, “Plus, I can’t go out looking like this all by myself.”
At that, I broke into a small smile.
Then I reached forward and took her hand.
“Yes!” she exclaimed. “Now let’s go find you something else to wear. Oh! Can I decide on your outfit? I promise I’ll pick something almost as nice as mine!”
With our hands clasped together, she tugged me toward the hidden door she’d come from, which we both knew was the quickest way to my chambers.
I smiled at her excitement—a small, genuine smile. The action felt nearly foreign, but I welcomed the change with open arms.
Maybe the day could be salvaged after all.
***
The sign overhead read a single word: Red’s.
If one didn’t know what type of place it was, it would likely be overlooked and passed by.
Fortunately for me, Val had guided us there, so I could only assume this was the tavern she’d mentioned.
To my surprise, it was positioned at the top of one of the many towers Hollis was often known for.
The entire city had a countless amount of these structures, all with large bridges connecting them, intertwining together like the web of a spider.
The towers made life easier when majority of the population was always in the sky, anyway.
This particular tower was one of the few that extended farther beyond the main heart of the city. It stood tall and proud, right in between the clutter of the city and the space of the outskirts.
There were no windows displayed on the front side of the building—at least not that I could see from our spot on the sky bridge, standing in line to the side, waiting for our turn to enter.
It felt oddly… normal, to be forced to wait in a line with civilians for a change.
“The line usually moves faster than this,” Val noted, peering forward to the front of the short line.
When one male before us turned his head back to look at Val, I couldn’t help but note how his eyes lingered on her for far too long. In response, I loosely wrapped a wing around her form. When he finally peeled his eyes from her and looked my way, I bared my teeth in a threatening grin.
He quickly turned back around after that.
“We’ve got all night,” I reassured her as the line began to move again. They must have sorted out whatever the issue was.
A few moments later, we arrived at the front, standing before a tavern guard.
“No weapons allowed,” the male said, barely looking up from where he was examining a cut on his hand. I was confident he hadn’t looked farther than the daggers on my waist.
A mistake on his part, truly.
“I believe you’ll find yourself willing to make an exception this time,” I said, taking a half step forward, which caused him to finally look up.
His expression of annoyance slipped as he came face to face with his king.
Not to mention that Val did, indeed, have a good sense of style.
Though I found it a bit cheesy, she had picked out attire that matched hers.
I wore straight black trousers without a single wrinkle on them, and a blood-red, long-sleeved shirt that had ruffles framing the V-shaped cut running halfway down my chest. I wore two Heartshire crest brooches on each side of the ruffles, with a chain connecting them that hung against my bare skin.
It was more than I usually showed, but Val had insisted, and I found I couldn’t turn her down. Not then, anyway.
“My king,” the tavern guard said, dipping his head to look pointedly at my black shoes. “Of course. Please, go right on in.”
I could hear those in line behind us begin to murmur at what the guard had just realized.
That their ruler walked among them.
Though instead of reacting, I tightened my wing around Val and lead her inside the door that the guard then held open for us.
Walking inside was equivalent to stepping into another realm.
The floor was a black stone polished to perfection, reflecting the red lights back to us.
The chandelier and torches weren’t free flames like normal—they were all trapped within spheres of red glass, giving the entire space a specific glow to it.
The walls were painted a deep maroon, one wall being covered in different pieces of abstract art.
But what surprised me most was the ceiling.
In the center of it was a giant stained-glass mural, much like the one in Gatlyn Castle’s greenhouse.
This one, though, was made up of different shades of red, black, and gray glass, laid out in a geometrical pattern above.
That made it so even with the moon overhead shining its light over us, the glow it provided was skewed into whatever color of glass it passed through.
The entire space was unlike anything I’d ever seen before.
“Well, don’t just gawk all night. Come on!” Val said excitedly as she stepped out of the safety of my wing and deeper into the tavern.
There was music coming from deeper within, the sound of stringed instruments and drums flowing through the air and becoming louder as I followed Val to the bar to the left.