Chapter 30
Come morning, Aegir did not answer the door.
Was he still with her? Were they cuddling in bed as I stood by the door like an idiot?
I stormed my way to Semuel’s stable. I needed to see Cinnamon, and I needed to shoot or throw something. I found Eldric sitting next to a pile of clothes on one of the side benches that he and Aegir had installed the week before.
With widened eyes, I barked, “Tell me those are not what I think they are!”
Eldric shrugged. “Well, that depends on what you think they are.”
My eyes reached the back of my head. “Clearly they’re uniforms. Sand Warrior uniforms,” I hissed.
He shrugged again, the gesture getting very much on my nerves. “I’m only following orders.” Then he tilted his head and lifted a brow at me. “I thought you’d be in a much better mood considering last night.”
My brows creased. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You know, the date.”
“What date?”
“You didn’t notice the fancy setup? The flowers? I assumed you were the reason he shooed me away.”
I reddened neck to head. “Well, I wasn’t. Now can we start already?”
I was about to reach for my training clothes when Aegir decided to show up, looking…well rested. My stomach’s acid rumbled, desperately in need of a base to balance its fervour.
“Finally, you’re here. There’s something I need to tell you,” Eldric said from behind me. I could tell he stood by the way the wood creaked beneath the release of his weight.
“Did you order him to steal uniforms from the Sand Warriors of Princess Yosefa?” I snapped.
“Good morning to you too…and no, I asked him to steal them from the seamstress. They’re a bit torn here and there, but don’t worry, I know someone very talented who can get them fixed for you,” he added with a wink. Then he looked somewhere behind me and asked, “Did you get what I asked you to?”
Eldric moved past me and closed in on Aegir. “Yes, now listen, this morning—”
“If I get caught wearing one of those, they would—”
“Oh, come on, no one’s going to see you here,” Aegir said, arms open. “Warded, remember? Think of them as your new training uniforms. Isn’t that what you normally do anyway? Wearing your training clothes here, then later changing back into your usual dress pattern?”
I blinked at him, flinching a little. “I’m sorry, change into my what?”
“You know, alternating every two days between the brown one and the grey one. Then the white one on Sundays and other important days. Oh, and the red one, once.”
My cheeks flushed and my jaw locked. My hands turned into fists at my sides.
Eldric shifted and flew away.
Then I lifted the back of my hand to my forehead and spoke in the most sarcastic tone ever. “Oh my gods, you’re right! I forgot to inform my servant that I will now be swapping to my unusual dress pattern where I wear a brand-new tailored dress every day!”
Aegir stiffened at my borderline tantrum. “Did I say something wrong?”
“No, of course not.” I snatched my training clothes—the old ones, not the ones Eldric was told to steal—and marched into one of the stalls, slamming the door shut. I started stripping off my dress, one snapped button at a time.
Aegir’s voice sounded close. I imagined his face almost touching the wooden door as he spoke. “You’re upset. Have I done something to upset you?…Is it because of the uniforms? I can return them if you don’t want them.”
I draped my dress over the door and reached for my trousers. “The uniforms are fine. As you said, no one will see me here.”
“Then why are you upset? Did something happen after the races? You didn’t come to my room last night. I waited for you.”
I cursed beneath my breath as I watched my dress, crumpled on the dirty floor—I needed to wear it again the following day, because yes, I did have a usual dress pattern.
I seized the dress and draped it once more over the top edge of the door, perhaps a bit too aggressively.
I moved on to wearing my shirt. Oh, I couldn’t wait for self-defence.
I planned on beating the shit out of him.
Not that that was an actual possibility.
My voice turned into something seething and vicious. “Oh, I did come by yesterday, but you know, seeing that you and your mouth were already occupied with another visitor, I didn’t want to impose.”
He said nothing.
I threw open the stable stall only to find myself stuck in place. Shit. I watched him as he inspected something that he was gently cupping in his palms. He looked as if he was cradling a fallen hatchling, unable to return to its nest.
“Hey, give that back! You know it’s rude to rummage through people’s belongings.”
“I didn’t rummage through anything. It fell out of your dress. You made this?”
“It’s nothing. It’s stupid. Now give it back, please.” I outstretched my arm at the same time he tucked in his.
“But it’s mine.”
“No it’s not.”
“Then whose is it?”
“I—I made it. For…Ismail.”
“Ismail? You mean the stableboy?” His breath was not misty.
“Stableman,” I corrected, still showing him my palm.
He lifted a brow. “You made an ice-white wolf for the stableboy?”
“Stableman.”
“Hmm. Not a horse?”
“He doesn’t just like horses, you know, he’s into wolves, too.”
His mouth turned up into something I’d never seen before. A smug smile that for some reason had me releasing a subtle shiver along my spine. His voice dropped an octave. “I know what you’re doing.”
“I’m not doing anything—now for the last time, give it back.” My hand sprang from my chest to stretch towards him; the other I left wrapped around my belly. My foot tapped.
“You wanted to give me this yesterday but left when you saw Princess Yasmina, who came knocking on my door—uninvited, by the way. You were upset and jealous and now you’re trying to make me jealous.”
Upset and jealous was an understatement. I was enraged like a boiling kettle forgotten on high fires. “Well, you’re wrong. I couldn’t care any less, and as I said, that’s not for you.”
“The howling white wolf that specifically has one brown eye and one blue eye, just like Galen is not for me?”
“I ran out of blue buttons.” My arms went to my hips.
“Just drop the act, Lady Stonehead, I see right through you.” I was fully clothed, yet I’d never felt so naked.
He had me swallowing. “I know it’s mine and don’t ever call it stupid.
I love it. And just so you know, if you had stayed for at least one minute, you would have known that I broke off the kiss, talked some sense into her, and sent her away. I waited for you.”
I scoffed, my brows nearing my forehead. “You said no thanks to Princess Yasmina? The Princess Yasmina.”
“Why do you find that so hard to believe?”
“Because she’s her and you’re here for an alliance. Wouldn’t your brother, King Ryvar, be disappointed in your choice?”
I caught a momentary expression of surprise at the mention of his brother’s name, at how I assumed that King Ryvar was plotting this whole alliance thing. I remembered a moment too late that I was not supposed to discuss anything about it, not with anyone, not even with him.
“Our plan for an alliance has nothing to do with her. And even if it did, I don’t think that King Belzari would appreciate visitors touching his daughter.”
“Ah, so you thought sleeping with her would risk your plan, that’s why you sent her away.”
His eyes narrowed, boring into mine. “Boreas, fucking freeze me.” He tried to close the distance between us, but I countered his step. “I sent her away because I have zero interest in her and you know it.”
I do? A flicker of relief sprouted in my stomach, slightly releasing the claw that had been clamped around it since last night.
“So this morning, when you didn’t answer the door, it wasn’t because you were still in bed with her?” He took another step towards me. I made to counter it but the wooden beam at my back didn’t let me.
“Why ask? I thought you said you couldn’t care any less.”
I tried to sound nonchalant. “It was a rhetorical question. Now can we get on with the training session? I haven’t got all day, you know.”
He towered over me—giving me the need to shift my weight—and looked me right in the eye.
His left hand rested on the beam just above my head; with his other, he pocketed the Fae wolf in his breast pocket and tapped gently at his chest. “No it wasn’t.
And so I’ll answer you, jealous one: I went to bed alone and got out of it alone.
And I didn’t answer the door this morning because I wasn’t in my room.
” His stare had me pinned body and soul, but then he retracted his hand and straightened himself, all while looking in shock at the space between my neck and shoulder.
His combination of wide eyes and knitted brows had me uneasy.
“What—what’s wrong?” I asked.
“Uh…Cordelia…don’t freak out.” Him taking a careful step back made me do just that.
I regained control over my body, straining my eyes and my neck in an effort to look at my left shoulder, over it. “Is it a scorpion? Get it off me! Get it off me!” He had me circling around like a godsdamned dog chasing his own too-short tail.
“Stay still!” he bellowed. “It’s on your back.” I stiffened like a soldier does at the sharp command of his captain.
“What is it?” I whispered, giving him my back. “Please remove it.”
“It looks small and green.”
“Oh, is it a caterpillar?”
“Mmm, not quite. I’ve heard of these before. I think they’re called jealousy monsters, they grow on one’s back.”
I turned around so fast I dizzied myself. My eyes narrowed and I scowled at his smug face, at his chuckles. “You’re—you’re such—you’re such an insufferable tease!”
“You know, whenever you’re upset, I get this urge to—”
“I am not upset! In fact, I feel absolutely wonderful. I just need to shoot something, that’s all.
” I went to push him away, meant for my hands to slam against his chest, but he stretched out his arms, causing my palms to smack flat against his.
He interlocked his fingers around mine and pulled me near.
It felt effortless, like a resting jaw, its top and bottom teeth aligning perfectly.