Chapter 31 – Isolde
ISOLDE
The night spun, wilder and brighter. My heart felt like it might burst with happiness.
Our friends had transformed a small dining hall into a glittering and beautiful space. A small band stood to the side of the dance floor, on which I’d spent the last two hours.
I fanned myself as I sipped water, taking a break from a Summer Isle wine smelling of plums and cherries.
Clem and Luccan remained on the dance floor.
They’d been inseparable all night, and as I watched them, I felt almost indecent, as though I was spying on two people falling deeper and deeper in love.
Not too far away, Sayyida and Saga danced wildly.
The former leapt through the air, her head tossed back and a smile on her face, though she was careful to keep her healing arm close to her side.
She’d not broken a large bone during the battle with the giants, but fractured her small finger, acquired a good many bruises, and strained a few muscles.
Even Filip danced shyly amongst the cabal—most of them having a riotous good time.
In a corner far from the dancing, Anna sat on Arie’s lap, whispering and laughing. My heart clenched seeing my oldest friend so happy and falling in love.
“Having fun?” Bavirra appeared at my side, her umber cheeks shining from her time on the dance floor. She smelled of amber and cinnamon, warm and indulgent, just like my friend.
“I am.” Never had I received such a wonderful gift and had so many people I loved to celebrate my nameday with. “I can’t believe everyone kept this from us!”
Bavirra chuckled. “It wasn’t hard the way you and Thyra hole up together to practice magic. By the way, Father sends his well wishes. He would have loved to come tonight, and is going to make an effort to come to your dinner tomorrow, if he can handle being moved.”
“Truly?” My eyebrows rose. Lord Balik had poked his head in, and quickly left, stating that such wild affairs were for the young. Lord Riis had not come, smartly so, and I had not considered that King Thordur would wish to join us.
“Father loves a party. He’s quite envious that we’re here while he must stay abed.”
“I wish he was here too,” I said. “Perhaps next turn.”
Bavirra cast me a sidelong look, her eyebrows arched and lips pursed to the side. I interpreted the look as, ‘if we’re all still alive’.
“I need to relieve myself before getting back to the celebrations.” I set down my glass of water.
“I’ll make sure no one follows you,” Bavirra replied.
Normally, I’d find such a matter preposterous, but I had barely had three minutes to myself since the party began. It had been much the same for Thyra, though I didn’t see her in the room now.
She better not have retired for the night.
The bells had not yet rung in the hour of the aura owl, but there was only so much socializing Thyra could take. Seeing as there were about fifty people present and everyone had, at the very least, wanted to send us well wishes, she might very well have hit her limit.
I made my way to the door as Bavirra deftly intercepted Bac and Aleksander.
Grinning, I slipped out of the room and turned left, knowing where the nearest common toilet was in this wing.
When I reached the restroom, I pulled the handle, but it didn’t open.
Hand raised, I was about to knock when the sound of laughter caught my ear inside.
Laughter I recognized. I leaned closer to the door, pressed my ear against it, and caught whispers.
One voice belonged to my sister, and the other to Thantrel.
The last I’d seen of them, Thantrel was on the dance floor and Thyra had been chatting away with Bac and Vidar.
They hadn’t even been close to one another! But when had that been?
I couldn’t remember. There had been so much happening. Not that it mattered. I was going to tease them regardless because that was what sisters did, wasn’t it?
Heart racing, I pulled back and knocked hard. “It’s Isolde! I need to use the facilities, and I know you’re both in there.”
“What are you talking about?” Thyra shot back, her tone a touch too innocent. “I’m relieving myself!”
“That’s one way to put it.”
Thantrel burst out laughing, and when I laughed too, Thyra groaned, knowing that, once again, their cover was well and truly blown. The door swung open.
My sister faced me. She looked lovely in her silver-blue gown. However, her perfectly curled raven hair was slightly mussed, her lips swollen.
“We have got to stop meeting in restrooms,” I teased and then promptly, closed my eyes.
“What in all the nine kingdoms are you doing?” Thyra asked.
“Sealing this moment in my memory. I’m determined to remember what you look like, after all that talk about how you did not accept him and yet.”
Thyra scoffed. “I haven’t accepted him as my mate. But that doesn’t mean I can’t have a bit of fun.”
She didn’t sound convinced, and when I opened my eyes to see Thantrel watching her, amused and not at all offended, my heart lifted. Clearly Than was confident that one day they’d be together. So confident that he continued to put up with my sister’s public denial.
“Fun indeed,” Thantrel said. “We would have had more fun if a certain princess hadn’t come knocking.”
Thyra whirled. “No, we were kissing. Nothing more.”
Sex meant the bond could snap into place.
“More time together,” Thantrel said as he came up behind her and pressed a hand into the small of her back.
“But I can see that our stolen minutes are up.” He winked as he strolled by me, a self-satisfied smirk on his face and red marks blooming on his strong jaw.
“Don’t keep her too long, Isolde. She offered me a dance, and if I don’t get it, I’ll have to seek her out in her room. ”
“I’ll tell Astril not to let you in,” Thyra said but there was no venom to her tone.
“I can be very persuasive, love. You know that.”
I rolled my eyes. “Stars, I don’t want to keep you here at all. Truly, I only need to empty my bladder.”
Thyra smirked and strode past me as if she were the queen of all the nine kingdoms, not a fae who had been caught making out in a toilet.
The chamber was smaller than private bathing chambers, but just as extravagant as the rest of Ramshold.
So much gold in a room that was a third the size of the suite I shared with Vale.
Large enough that I imagined my sister and Thantrel were far from the only fae to have stolen into the room to lose themselves in one another.
I did my business and allowed myself a few extra minutes of alone time before exiting the room. I’d expected that Thyra and Thantrel returned to the party, but found my sister leaning against the opposite wall.
“I didn’t think you’d still be out here,” I said.
She pushed off the wall. “I wanted to ask that you not say anything about what you saw.”
“Of course not.”
“Not even to Clemencia or Anna.”
“They were included in that statement.” I paused. “But what of Vale? He knows you two kissed. I couldn’t help but tell him when I first saw it.”
Thyra let out a soft chuckle. “You can tell him, I suppose. He’s as invested in Thantrel and me as you are.”
“Your names roll off your tongue so easily together.” We fell into step. “I have to know, have you changed your mind and just not told him? You did let him take you out, after all.”
“Everyone else had plans—now I realize they were setting things up, but I felt left out. What else was I supposed to do? Sit around the castle?” She cast a sidelong glance at me. “Plus, I wanted to see more of the city.”
I’d already heard of their date. Thantrel took her to dinner at a playhouse. My sister, like me, enjoyed the theater, and also like me, she’d had little chance to go over the turns.
“You can just say that you wanted to go out with him.”
She swallowed. “I did, but . . . and I realize how ridiculous this sounds given what you told me about Sian—I’m still conflicted.”
About the marriage between House Balik and our own.
“Sian would be relieved to have freedom.”
“Perhaps.” She let out a long hum, and we fell silent until we were about a dozen paces from the room where the party was still in full swing. “Isolde?”
“Yes?”
“If Thantrel and I disappear later, will you cover for us?”
My heart soared. “Happily.”
The moment we returned to the party, our friends fell upon us.
“We’ve been wanting to dance with you! A ladies’ dance!” Clem took my hand and nodded over to where Anna was twirling beside Saga and Sayyida.
Happiness swelled inside me. My oldest friend’s crutch was nowhere in sight.
The past week or so I’d noticed that she’d been using it less and less.
Thanks to a healthy diet and exercise Anna had been able to gain weight and put on much needed muscle.
Just as I had. Life wasn’t perfect, or even safe, but it was better in so many ways.
“How could I resist such charming partners?” Before Clem could pull me to the dance floor, I slid my palm into Thyra’s. “You’re coming too.”
“Are you sure?” Thyra asked, though she didn’t pull away. And to Clemencia’s credit, she didn’t balk at including my twin, even though they didn’t see eye to eye on many matters.
“The party is for us after all. We deserve a dance!”
Thyra’s cheeks took on a slight pink hue, a rare show of pleasure from my icier sister, as we joined Saga, Sayyida, and Anna.
Before I could so much as throw my hands in the air, Marit arrived.
The Balik sisters came last, allowed to socialize with me once again.
I shimmied up to Baenna, a smile on my face, so happy to have them both back in my life.
We spun and swung our hips to the beat of the music, dancing far more freely than I’d done at court.
More like when I’d lived in Sangrael, though back then I’d never worn such fine clothing, or had such a full belly.
In less than six moons my life had changed, and yet, as I joked with my new friends, I felt the old ones tugging at me. Begging me not to forget them.
I won’t. I made that silent promise, chin tilted to the ceiling, allowing others to think I was absorbing the revelry.
“Oh, no you don’t! This is ladies only!” Anna’s sharp tone rang out over the music.
I laughed. Vale, Thantrel, Caelo, and Qildor had dared to return to the dance floor to join us.
Vale held up his hands. “You can’t blame a male for wanting to dance with his mate. I mean, look at her.”
“Seconded.” Thantrel danced in place, seemingly unbothered by the denial and with exceptional rhythm. Thantrel was all sensual and smooth movements, which I suspected no formal instructor taught him.
Thyra noticed too. Her gaze was locked on the youngest Riis brother.
“I’ll find you later,” I promised Vale. “I want to dance with the ladies.”
Vale winked. “As you wish.”
The males drifted to the side, content to enjoy the company of their brotherhood.
Thyra’s arm looped through mine, and she pulled me close to whisper in my ear. “I’m glad we found one another.”
I faced my sister, took both her hands, then spun fast enough the faces of our friends blurred into the night that I’d never forget.