CHAPTER XVII #9
The moment we were sitting with our crew at the table Keane took to assessing my damages, letting me drink and laugh with the men as he worked on my body.
He took warm water and a cloth over the backs of my arms, whispering in my ear that he wasn’t going to wrap them and enjoyed the battle wounds too much.
I liked them, too. They were a testament to everything Cal and I went through in the tower, as was the sharp gash that rested above my brow, compliments of the ceiling falling from the sky.
I couldn’t see, but knew Cal would have the same tight gripping around the entirety of his leg just as I did on my arm from the vines.
Both of our faces were scraped and bruised from the fall before the door, and Cal was sporting a nasty purple bruise that spanned from the inside of his collarbone all the way to the end of his shoulder.
But we were alright.
More than alright. We were grinning from ear to ear and enjoying a night that we could only dream of.
The ale was flowing, the toddies came rolling in.
Loud yells and laughs could be heard from outside the inn, Brassard keeping its promise to drink until the sun kissed the morning sky.
Cal and I smoked until our lungs gave out, the thick clouds washing over our table and making my heart surge, reminding me deeply of our travels together.
The musicians kept their ferocious beats with heavy drums, those sounds vibrating against my chest and calling me to join in on the dancing taking place.
I mingled with the patrons, roared with laughter at their sides when we played a drinking game of dice.
I gambled away too many cinerin with my arm on Cal’s shoulder, something that would come back to bite me later.
I made friends with the other women here, the fire in their eyes matching my own and grateful for a full night of drinking.
It was perhaps the best time I had ever experienced in my life.
A few of those Warrior women dragged me towards the dancing, our hips swaying to the drums as we desperately tried to keep our mugs from spilling over.
When it came time to grab another round, Warren was already at our sides, laughing and trying to get out of one of the girl’s advances who called for him to join in.
But I had a better dancing idea in mind, one that I told the women of with my hair dripping from heat and sweat.
They all grinned broadly at me with nods, following my lead as we made our way back to the table with Keane and our crew.
“Watch your fingers, men!” I chuckle down to the Warrior soldiers, all three looking up at me with wide eyes and wicked grins at the sight of the girls at my back.
I quickly hoist a boot onto the bench next to Sam’s thigh before stepping up on the table, walking to the end to greet Keane with a smirk.
Nearly all of the men in the pub begin whooping, eyes trained on the women who are laughing behind me, loving the attention.
“We’re going to dance on the table, Your Grace,” I eye Keane mischievously, “do you have any qualms with that?”
Keane shakes his head in deep amusement, pushing the bench closer to the wall behind his back so that he can rest casually against it.
“None at all, my Queen,” he smirks, brown eyes trailing down my lips and neck.
I flush and bite my lip, eyes crinkling in joy before I turn back to the women, all of us resuming our dancing into the morning.
We now have about two turns of the moons left before dawn, the knowledge passing through the pub and only fueling everyone’s drinking habits. How we’re all standing is beyond me. How I’m still standing is a mystery left for another day.
I’m still dancing on the table when I feel a strong hand reach out and massage the back of my calves. Keane is lifting a new ale up in my direction, grinning when he tells me that I look like a proper Warrior woman, his heated eyes holding mine in deep approval.
I laugh and accept the new drink, nodding in agreement. I feel like a Warrior. Everything about me is beaten and bruised and my body aches beyond recognition. But I love it. Revel in it. Never feeling more alive.
“I know your secret, Keane,” I look down at him with a drunken grin.
“Oh?” his brow shoots up in even more amusement, eyes turning playful.
“Mhmm,” I nod into my ale, “twenty years.”
It took me a while to figure it out but I finally began to understand the little things from earlier.
Warren’s stolen glances on Keane began to make sense, as did the knowing looks that he gave me and Cal, hiding a secret behind his eyes when he told us that the Drinking Bell hadn’t been rung in over twenty years.
That realization didn’t come to fruition until Keane had a shirt waiting for me, obviously knowing how I’d smell from of the old and murky water that awaited us in the tower.
“Did you send him our way?” I ask curiously.
“No,” Keane chuckles, “in fact, I specifically told him to let it be. Only to engage if your own curiosity brought it up first.”
He takes a step closer to the table, thighs pushing against the edge as both hands wrap tightly on the back of my boots. “Did you leave something behind?”
“I did,” I nod down at him in pure mischief.
Keane’s eyes flash with a heated fire, his grip on the back of my legs tightening even more.
“Which one was yours?” I ask quietly.
“Guess, Alexis,” he smirks, “and I’ll let you get back to your celebratory night.”
It’s not a hard guess, as memories of Keane’s vines wrapping tightly around my wrists and holding me to the Shadow Oak come flooding to my mind again.
“The vines,” I reply without hesitation, taking a deep drink of my ale.
Keane’s lips turn up in a knowing smirk, brown eyes intense as his hands skim up the backs of my legs. I lean down slowly and place a hand on his shoulder with a small grin. Keane tilts his head forward so that my lips brush over his cheek.
“I’ll expect more of that, Your Grace,” I whisper in his ear.
The King’s hand lands sharply on my ass, making me jump in pure desire and move swiftly out of his hold. I sashay back to the Warrior women who are all still dancing on our table, hearing Keane give a deep chuckle as he watches me walk away.
I dance and drink into the rest of the morning, my body twirling to the drums with my hands in the air holding a half-filled mug. Keane watches me the whole time, sitting back down in his comfortable seat pushed against the wall, leaning casually against the granite with a proud grin.
Is this what a Queen to Be does? Dance on tables?
I laugh to myself, genuinely not caring. I was having the time of my life, so happy to finally be back in the Court of Warriors.