Chapter 28
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
The next morning, nerves tumbled in my stomach as Betsee fussed around me.
I was wearing the beautiful gown Betsee had picked out for me the night prior.
It wasn’t as extravagant as what I’d worn to my introductory ball, nor as resplendent as what we’d picked out for me to wear at Koraline’s betrothal ball later that night, but it was still made from satiny material, bedecked with a few encrusted jewels, and the bodice was tight enough that it wasn’t entirely comfortable to breathe in.
Regardless, with any luck, it would make a good impression on the king’s council.
“There we go, Your Highness.” Betsee smiled, her happiness evident in the mirror’s reflection.
My shoulders loosened when I didn’t detect any fear in the lady attendant’s aura. In the previous two weeks, she’d finally seemed to believe what Kole had stated. That she didn’t need to be afraid of me despite my immense magic.
I only hoped the ten House leaders would feel the same after today’s meeting.
“You’ve done a marvelous job as always, Betsee. Thank you.”
She dipped into a curtsy, and I pushed back from the vanity.
“You shall charm all of them at the meeting. I have no doubt.” Betsee beamed and fluffed the satiny skirt around me in my standing position. “There. You’re perfect.”
Kole stood in my bedchambers’ corner. He’d become such a permanent fixture that I’d come to anticipate always seeing him there.
My attention sought his, and even though his expression was devoid of emotion, his aura still rolled to me in hot waves.
Even standing there, steady and solid, I could feel the intense attraction that sizzled between us.
I knew he cared for me. Perhaps even loved me despite not fully voicing it yet.
However, curiously, he still wouldn’t bed me.
As always, whenever I thought of it, I frowned.
Granted, we’d been quite busy in the libraries lately, but it still struck me as odd.
I’d freely offered myself to the warrior on several occasions, and his visceral arousal was obvious every time we’d fooled around, but he’d always had some flimsy excuse for why we couldn’t progress our physical relationship further.
The cryptic words he’d uttered the previous week still tingled in the back of my mind. “Stars, Princess, I want that. Believe me, I want to fuck you so hard that you scream, but we can’t. Not yet.”
I’d tried to get him to explain several times what he’d meant by that, but he’d always changed the subject.
I sighed. Whatever his reason, Kole held firm on that decision, but so many weeks had passed since I’d first met him that my body was ready to go up in flames. But until Kole allowed it, I knew our secretive tryst wouldn’t progress past touching and kissing.
Forcing a smile, I dipped my head at the lady’s attendant. “I’ll see you later this afternoon.”
I joined Kole at the door, and his gaze flickered appreciatively to my cleavage. As in most of the fine gowns I owned, the corset was so tight that my breasts almost spilled out of the top.
“Are you ready?” he asked huskily.
I gathered my skirts and tried not to wish that I was going anywhere but a council meeting. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”
The king’s council convened in the north wing at the beginning and middle of each month. I’d been prepared by my father for what was to come. Usually, their meetings lasted anywhere from an hour to all day, depending upon what was occurring in the kingdom.
I had a feeling that today was going to be a longer gathering.
In the previous week, the Imperial Council had also finally identified the fae who’d been turned into the creatures that had permeated the maze.
Strangely, they’d all been fae from all areas of the continent, with varying ages, backgrounds, and interests.
None of them seemed to have any connection to one another. At least, none that they’d found yet.
So given that fae were being turned into monsters and pursuing me, I had a feeling I knew exactly what today’s agenda would mostly entail.
The only blessing was that no further attacks had happened on palace grounds.
Kole had informed me that half a dozen more creatures had been killed in Whiteolf the previous week, so they’d returned.
But thankfully, none of them had been able to breach the palace’s wards again. I took some heart in that.
The guards at the council chambers’ door dipped to the side the second I entered the room. “May I present, Princess Primelle,” one of them declared.
Around the circular table in front of me sat the ten House leaders, my father, and Koraline, the crown princess, who would one day be sitting in our father’s chair.
Koraline’s lips pursed, but that was her only outward reaction. No words of greeting. No conspiratorial winks. Nothing. It was as though we weren’t even related.
I quickly turned my attention elsewhere.
On the far wall, a map of our continent hung, and around the chamber, vases of fragrant flowers perfumed the air.
In the corner nearest me, a table of refreshments waited.
Tea, scones, petite pies, platters of fruit, and other morsels to appease one’s hunger were free for anyone to take.
But I couldn’t have eaten if I’d tried. Anxiety made my stomach feel as though it was constantly clenching.
“Good morning, Primelle.” The king of Mistvale Kingdom stood from his chair, and everyone else followed suit. It wasn’t lost on me that Koraline was last to rise.
My heart pounded, and I took some strength from Kole’s presence behind me.
I walked purposefully forward to the open chair, and the warrior moved to the wall, standing stoically. Lady Ryderdim’s eyes narrowed, and her piercing gaze raked over him.
“I see the princess is still traveling with a warrior wherever she ventures, which just goes to show how dangerous this kingdom has become since she’s returned.”
I stumbled but righted myself quickly, just as my father gave the elderly lady a sharp look. “An Imperial Warrior follows Primelle to ensure her safety. Surely, you’d demand the same if your child were at risk?”
Lady Ryderdim stared down her nose at him. “My child would never be at risk. That’s my point.”
My father’s expression turned glacial. “Then consider yourself lucky that you were never blessed with a child who had magic so potent that others sought to harm her. But I, for one, couldn’t be prouder of the daughter my queen birthed.”
My father’s fiercely protective demeanor made a flush of gratitude rush through me, but the elderly House leader’s nostrils flared more.
Thankfully, the other House leaders were more welcoming, even if their wooden greetings and plastered smiles were entirely fake.
Koraline’s greeting was no better, and I was beginning to wonder if my sister and I would ever reach some kind of resolution.
I sat down and endeavored not to intervene as they began to discuss the current state of the kingdom, which my father had told me was how they began each meeting.
They went through everything: financials, crop yields, mining exports, and so forth. It was fascinating in its own way, and I took particular interest in the crops since my inherent interest had always veered toward plants.
Despite my sister’s hatred of me, I was impressed with Koraline’s knowledge and behavior as well. It was obvious she was being groomed to one day rule as queen. She knew just as much as the House leaders and wasn’t afraid to voice her opinion.
After a slightly heated argument she got into with Lordling Messepire, I smiled at her in awe. She caught me staring, and when she looked at me, her usual scornful sneer faltered, even more so when I dipped my head at her in reverence.
Following that, she sat back in her seat and returned to ignoring me, but even she looked intrigued when my father reported what the Council had discovered about the creatures, facts he had told me the previous day.
Of the twenty-eight who’d entered the maze and subsequently been burned, along with the ones Kole had killed while I’d been hunting the Stone and then the half-dozen more that’d been found and dispatched in Whiteolf in the previous week, half were male, and the other half were female.
He listed their ages, professions, where they’d lived, what interests their relatives said they had, and who their families were.
“Yet no connection has been established between them?” Lady Ryderdim arched an eyebrow. “Nothing has been found that they all had in common?”
My father sighed. “Only one so far. All of them typically disappeared each month for a few days around the same time, but as for where they went, we don’t know yet.
However, another new discovery is something Primelle found in her research regarding the God of Night and Goddess of Light.
The Council is looking more into it, so with any luck, we’ll know more in the coming days. ”
Everyone’s eyebrows rose, and some looked at me with looks of newfound respect.
My father continued. “To note, the Imperial Council has confirmed that it was likely a potion similar to the one we’ve recovered that turned all of those fae.
Their most advanced spellcasters have been doing tests on it, and they managed to alter the potion slightly into a new stable form.
It’s the altered form that resulted in one of their test subjects turning into a creature that closely resembles the creatures that penetrated the maze. ”
I straightened at that statement, and even Kole cocked his head, making me think this discovery was extremely recent.
To think the potion could be altered, and to think the creatures coming from it resembled the monsters from the maze and the less horrifying version that Timith had been turning into was entirely mindboggling.
Lordling Deerwood cocked his head, surprise evident in his expression. “Your Majesty, if you could please elaborate.”