56. Empty
Empty
Various guards and soldiers still swarmed Evelyn’s room on the third floor. She stood in the doorway and used magic to fly a change of clothes out of her closet.
“Is there a different room I can use?” Evelyn asked her guards.
A room without a dead body in the bathtub.
“Of course, Your Majesty.” Viviane led her a few doors down. She and Rory both inspected the new room carefully, checking the bathroom twice. Once they deemed the space satisfactory, they took their positions near the door.
Rory looks exhausted. Maybe he’s grateful to have Viviane around. New policy: only one traumatized guard per team.
“I’m sorry I yelled at you earlier,” Evelyn told him. “You didn’t do anything wrong. I shouldn’t have taken my emotions out on you.”
“No harm done. I would much rather be yelled at than set on fire, anyway,” Rory teased.
Viviane’s eyes widened, unsure if Rory was kidding or not.
Evelyn bathed and dressed quickly. She had the overwhelming urge to get out of the palace.
I need air. I need a break. I need to be somewhere without death and fighting.
The guards followed her downstairs and out the front door.
Rory cleared his throat. “May I ask where we’re going?”
“Away from here,” Evelyn answered unhelpfully.
She could sense Rory and Viviane silently communicating behind her: Should we stop her? Should we make a suggestion? Will Captain Fontaine snap our necks for this?
Much to their dismay, Evelyn approached the stables.
“I need a horse,” she told the man at the entrance.
“Three horses,” Viviane clarified.
The man both knew better than to give Evelyn a horse that day and knew better than to refuse a request from the queen. Authority won out in the end. “One moment, Your Majesty.”
“Are you sure—” Rory started to ask.
“Yes,” Evelyn said stubbornly.
The three of them mounted their horses.
Where the hell am I going?
“Evelyn!” Damien jogged toward them. “Care to explain?”
Rory stared blatantly at the clouds. Viviane busied herself with switching her dark brown hair from a bun to a ponytail.
“I need to leave,” Evelyn told Damien. “Just for a while.”
“And go where?”
She didn’t have an answer. Damien climbed onto the horse and took the reins from Evelyn.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“Do you care?” Damien countered, urging the horse forward.
“You’re hijacking my dramatic escape.”
He laughed as they traveled up the road. “I wouldn’t have to if you had planned any part of this grand adventure.”
“I needed out.”
“I know, Princess,” he soothed. “It’s okay.”
Evelyn huffed. “I’m not a princess anymore.”
“Queens don’t throw tantrums.”
“This isn’t a tantrum!”
“Fine. Queens don’t flee their own palace.”
“Kings don’t lock their wives in a guard house,” Evelyn grumbled.
Damien lowered his voice. “He’s scared, Evelyn. Leo is terrified of something happening to you. It’s not so different from your father’s reactions. I don’t agree with his strategy, but I get it.”
“I don’t want him to look at me like I’m fragile. Having emotions doesn’t make me helpless.”
“Leo hasn’t figured that out yet. He just panics.”
“You’re good at staying calm in a crisis.”
“Have I earned a compliment from the queen?” Damien preened. “What a remarkable day!”
Evelyn rolled her eyes. Without thinking, she leaned against him, feeling the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed. Then she remembered the question that had briefly interrupted her evening with Leo.
What would Damien be like as a lover? Gentle like Leo? Aggressive like Haydn? Playful or serious? Selfish or selfless? Does he talk or moan or stay silent?
A bird flew low overhead, startling the horse slightly. It was enough to jolt Evelyn out of her thoughts. She blinked away the images of Damien in her bed and sat up straighter, putting a bit of distance between them. But he leaned forward, connecting them again.
Damien brushed Evelyn’s curls back and rested his head on her shoulder. “Why are you blushing, Princess?”
“I’m not!”
“Unfortunately for you, I’m not colorblind. I can also feel the heat coming off your skin.”
“No, you can’t!”
“What were you thinking about just now?”
“Nothing!” Evelyn insisted.
“You’re a terrible liar.”
“My thoughts are none of your business!”
Damien hummed delightedly. “So it’s something dirty.”
“No, it’s not!”
“Did you have fun last night?”
“Yes, I enjoyed the ceremony and reception,” she said stiffly.
“And after that?”
Is he really asking if I had fun on my wedding night? What answer does he even want to hear? Is he hoping I liked having sex with Leo or not?
What would Damien say if he knew I imagined him last night?
Evelyn shoved the thought aside. “I had a nice evening.”
“Nice?” Damien repeated. “Is that all?”
Evelyn chose to ignore that question. “How was your night, Damien? Didn’t you say you were with Nicolas?”
“I did, and I was. Are you jealous?”
“Nicolas is not my type.”
“Is Leo your type?”
Evelyn pictured the men she had been with in the past and… no.
None of them were much like Leo. If I had met Leo in Carrowmore, I would’ve expected him to be with Hannah.
Well, shit… That’s not a realization I wanted to have after the wedding.
“Not traditionally, no.”
“What about me?” Damien asked.
“What about you?”
His breath tickled her neck as he spoke. “Am I your type? If you had met me before Leo, would I have caught your attention?”
Yes. But it’s too late to think about that now.
“It doesn’t matter,” she whispered.
Evelyn expected Damien to argue. Instead, he kissed her cheek. His lips felt cold against her skin, which was proof of how red her face must be.
Damien brought them to the little café in Pointe-Rosemère, where he and Leo had taken Evelyn on her third day in the kingdom.
The same blonde woman was behind the counter.
As happy as she was to see Damien again, she gaped at the sight of the new queen flanked by two guards.
She led the four of them into a private dining room, then left in a hurry to get food.
“This was easier last time,” Evelyn said, taking a seat at the round table.
Rory raised a brow. “When were you here before?”
“The day we found the missing soldiers,” Damien explained.
“I wasn’t sure King Tristan would forgive you for sneaking Evelyn out of the palace,” Rory said.
“I didn’t do shit. Alexander charmed her into a date and I got dragged along.”
“It wasn’t a date,” Evelyn said. “We were all spending time together because I hadn’t seen the city yet.”
“Bullshit!” Damien barked. “He didn’t invite you here to give you a tour.”
“Still wasn’t a date.”
It’s so strange to be in the city again. Both times I was here before ended in death. I wonder if Damien would take me to the bar today. It’s not that I want to go back, exactly. But I didn’t get to see it after putting out the fire. I can’t get the image of the explosion out of my head.
“So when did you and Alexander become a couple?” Viviane asked.
Evelyn frowned at not having a clear answer.
Damien smirked. “What a great question! What do you think, Evelyn?” His face lit up when she glared at him. “My thoughts exactly! The correct answer is, the moment he proposed.”
I hate how accurate that is.
Viviane’s eyes darted between Evelyn and Damien. “How long were the two of you together before that?”
Damien rested his chin in his hands, eagerly awaiting Evelyn’s answer.
“We weren’t together,” Evelyn said coolly. “I tried, I begged him, but Damien doesn’t like redheads.”
“Huh,” Viviane considered. “What an odd thing for him to lie about. I could tell you so many—”
“No need for story time!” Damien interrupted.
Rory snorted, then cracked up laughing when Damien scowled at him. Evelyn started giggling.
“Elementals, I swear,” Damien muttered. “What are we going to do with them, Viv?”
“Why are you asking me? You’re the one who ordered me into this mess,” Viviane reminded him.
“I’m sorry, do you miss your post supervising the patio?”
“I don’t even report to you!” Viviane’s tone was light. She was clearly used to Damien’s crap.
“Sure you do.”
“No, I don’t. You always boss around the guards like we’re your soldiers, but we aren’t under your chain of command.”
“Then why do you all follow orders from me?”
“Because you threaten us and then sweet-talk Commander Magalie.”
Evelyn’s and Rory’s laughter had grown loud enough to be truly distracting.
Damien smiled at Evelyn, and her stomach swooped.
How does he do it? I’ve seen over a dozen dead bodies today. I set Leo’s shoes on fire. I was ready to ride a horse out of the kingdom. Even after all of that, Damien has me laughing like this is a normal day.
When they left the café, Rory and Viviane weren’t brave enough to ask about the nonexistent plan for the afternoon.
Damien pulled Evelyn aside. “What now? Back to the palace?”
Evelyn bit her lip. “Could we go to the bar? The night of the ball, you said you would take me there.”
Sadness crept into his eyes. “You think your nightmares will stop if you see that the fire is really gone?”
“I hope so,” she admitted.
Damien squeezed her hand, then yelled to the guards, “Quick detour!”
He led them to the end of a quiet, residential street at the edge of the city. The last time Evelyn had been there, the area was destroyed.
“They fixed the road already?”
Damien nodded. “They brought in Earth fae to help. No one wanted to keep a giant open pit in the neighborhood longer than necessary.”
“Even the townhouses look like nothing ever happened here.”
I know the repairs are necessary, but it feels like something more was erased in the process. Like all the pain and trauma were literally covered up.
Damien and Evelyn approached the front door of the second-to-last house on the left.
“Wait out here,” he told the guards.
The lingering smell of smoke poured out as the door swung open. Evelyn’s heart raced. She must have made a noise because Damien took her hand.
The stairway down to the basement was dark this time. Damien used some lesser magic to conjure floating lights along their path. Slowly, they walked downstairs.
The underground bar, called The Hidden Gem, looked huge when Evelyn had first seen it. Now, without three hundred people dancing and drinking, it seemed twice as massive.
Damien’s lights expanded to illuminate the space. Any furniture that survived the fire had been removed. Evelyn’s footsteps echoed on the stone floor, which was covered in ash and dark stains.
Blood.
The heat of the fire was inescapable, all-consuming. She couldn’t breathe because the smoke was too thick. Screaming drilled into her ears, drowning out the sound of her own thoughts.
Damien drew Evelyn into him. His body was warm, not burning. He smelled like coffee, not smoke. His voice was a whisper, not a scream. “It’s okay. It’s over. It’s safe.”
She repeated his words in her head until her body started to believe them.
He stroked her hair. “The Healers saved everyone who made it out. They requested more support and supplies from Aleneva. There are only a couple people left in the hospital, but they will be released in a few days.”
“Ninety-three,” Evelyn remembered.
“Ninety-three people who would love to meet the queen who saved their lives.”
Evelyn separated from Damien and regarded the room again.
No people. No fire.
It’s okay. It’s over. It’s safe.
“What will happen to this place?” she asked.
“I don’t know. Not sure the owner has decided yet. He couldn’t do much while the army and Moeller were prowling around for clues.”
“Do you think we’ll find out what happened?”
“Yes. I’m sure we will eventually.”
Evelyn glanced up at her friend. “Thank you for bringing me here. I needed to see it empty.”
The space finally felt cold and quiet.
“Damien?”
“Princess?”
“There’s one more guard missing, right? There were fifteen at the river house and then one at the palace.”
“Yes. I’d rather not think about where the last one will turn up.”
Right in front of me, probably.
Evelyn anxiously traced the gold music note on Damien’s uniform.
He smiled. “You keep doing that. Why do you like touching me so much?”
“You make me feel safe.”
Damien’s chest rose with a sharp inhale.
Evelyn changed the subject. “Did you ever wish you had different magic, instead of Auditory?”
“Sometimes,” Damien said, watching her. “Especially when I was younger and my friends from other courts would show off their magic.”
“Would you want all of the Perceptual abilities?”
“Are you asking if I want more magic or if I would want to be king?”
Evelyn shrugged. “Both, I guess.”
“I wouldn’t turn down extra magic. But being a king sounds awful.”
“Would you do it for love? If you fell in love with a queen, would you marry her even though you don’t want to be a king?”
“That depends.”
“On what?”
“Are you the queen I get to marry?”
Evelyn met his gaze, surprised by the question. “No. Someone else.”
“Then no,” Damien decided. “Why should I settle for someone less than you?”
She tried to ignore that her heart was about to fly out of her chest. “How many women have you used that line on?”
He grinned. “Do you want an exact number?”
“No!” she snapped, turning away.
“Evelyn!”
Damien spun her into his arms. He held her waist with one hand and lifted the other to her face. Gently, he trailed a line up her cheek, over the tip of her ear, and then down through her curls.
“What are you doing?” she asked breathlessly.
“You had a bug in your hair.”
Evelyn yelped and jumped away from him. She shook out her curls like there might be a whole nest of spiders in there.
“Calm down!” Damien laughed. “I got it! You’re fine!”
She glared at him. “I’m ready to go back to the palace now.”
“Whatever you want, Princess.”
I don’t think I can have what I want.