CHAPTER 16
THE MANOR, A’KORI
Present Day
Sunlight dances across my eyes and I yawn, stretching the sleep from the tight muscles in my arms. My eyes flicker open in a series of sleepy blinks, and I suck in a gasp.
Eon’s startlingly toothy grin is only inches from my face.
Though she has always been opposed to coming near me, it seems a night sharing a bed has done wonders for our rapport.
“Stars, your teeth are sharp,” I whisper.
She nods as if I need her to confirm this fact, and my lips kick up at the edges.
“Did you sleep well?” I ask, and she nods again. “I’m glad to hear that.”
I find Tig waiting at the end of the bed with her head cocked to the side.
“How about you? Did you sleep all right?”
She shrugs, then nods, a little less enthused by the sleepover than her sister appears to be.
I pry myself from my warm bed and the sisters help me dress for the day before I ring the service bell, asking Enrik to have breakfast sent to my room.
The sprites make quick work of my morning bowl of berries, and I tuck the information away in my pile of curious sprite facts.
It can’t be the only thing they eat, otherwise they would have no need of their pointed teeth.
It’s not hard to imagine them tearing into flesh as the juices from a particularly plump raspberry slide down Eon’s chin in a thick ribbon of red.
“Awri took me to see a seamstress yesterday. The masquerade has a fea theme and she’ll be sewing my costume,” I tell them.
Though the few conversations I’ve had with the sprites have been largely one sided, they do seem to enjoy the engagement.
“Would you like to know what my costume will be?” I ask around a small piece of dried fruit.
The sisters nod enthusiastically as I tell them, “Bagya,” then quickly shake their heads from side to side and furrow their brows.
“It isn’t that bad,” I say and Tig quirks a brow at me. “I’m sure the dress will be lovely.” I hope it is.
I catch a glimpse of Awri’s carriage coming up the drive and give the sprites a quick goodbye before heading for the courtyard.
My dark blue dress kicks up in the light breeze wrapping about my ankles as I haul myself onto the bench.
The carriage jolts forward the moment I close the door, delivering me to Awri’s cottage not long after.
The front door is open when I arrive and I let myself inside, the small act making me feel a little more welcome than I have been before.
Awri stands across the table with Riesh on one side and Kishek on the other.
The general looms over a thick stack of papers, glaring down from the head of the table, knuckles white where he grips the edges.
At least this time his glower isn’t directed at me.
“Good morning,” Awri says, beaming, and runs around the table to greet me.
Kishek and Riesh share a grin when their heads bob up and they catch sight of me walking through the door.
“Good morning. What is all that?” I ask, pointing to the papers splayed out beneath the general’s arms.
“Battle plans,” he says, and I wince when he turns to meet my eyes.
The bruise is worse than I expected. But his proclamation of war quickly overshadows the shame I feel for inflicting the mark. I step toward the table, my stomach sinking in on itself.
“Battle plans for what?” I wonder, my stomach pitting.
“He means plans for the masque,” Awri giggles.
I try to laugh along with her but when the noise sounds as nervous as I feel, I clear my throat instead. Of course, they wouldn’t invite me into a room where they are discussing war.
“I heard you managed to land one on Xeyvian last night when he followed you into the forest,” Riesh says. My eyes whip up to him, only to find him boasting a wide smile and a gleam in his eye.
I turn to assess the general wondering what else he told them.
“Is that what you heard?” I ask, a little too amused. “I was under the impression I fell into a shallow pit. As helpless maidens tend to do.”
“I told you, your uncle would have had too many questions,” the general says.
I shrug as if I’m completely unbothered that his friends have been told his version of events, entirely unsure how that story might differ from the one I would tell.
“I’m just surprised you wanted your friends to know I’m responsible for that.” I gesture toward the bruise.
“I was caught off guard. It wouldn’t happen again.” He says it so matter-of-factly, resuming his position over the table, that I want to show him just how easily it could happen again.
“I’m not so sure, Xey. She looks like she’s about to prove you wrong,” Riesh says from across the table, and I school my features under his annoyingly amused gaze.
My face is settled into a well-rehearsed indifference by the time the general looks up to see what he’s talking about.
I glance down at the papers scattered about the table.
Probably for the best that the memory of last night fades with the mark under the general’s eye.
Knowledge that I can, at the very least, defend myself is something I would rather have kept secret until there came a time I needed those skills.
I’ve lost the benefit of surprise to a small degree, if it ever comes down to it.
I spread the papers beneath my fingers, each sheet holding an inky outline of every aspect I imagine makes up a party. Many I never would have considered. Floral arrangements, seasonable flowers, options for the vases to hold them, color schemes, cake flavors, sizes, and shapes.
“You have a baker who can make the cake look like a swan?” My eyebrows shoot up in disbelief.
“We do,” Awri says warmly, “Though I think a swan is a little off the mark for the theme. Don’t you?”
“I do,” I answer, suddenly aware that she’ll have a question just like it for every piece of paper on the table and they won’t all be so simple.
We spend the day going over several of the mind-numbing party details.
She asks for my opinion on everything and though I’m sure I make a fool of myself with a handful of answers, she never lets it show.
Despite my assumptions, I do in fact find an advantage in agreeing to assist in the planning.
Like those Felias employs to grow his flowers, Awri made a list of feyn with various gifts that will assist with the event.
I memorize each name and the gift they were born with.
The more knowledge I have about their abilities, the better.
Riesh and Kishek try to offer their opinions throughout the day and Awri thanks them while simultaneously shutting them down completely, yet politely.
I don’t know how she does it. They give up altogether after a late lunch and vanish toward the stables to spar.
If I thought I hated party planning before, the effort of sitting through it while enduring the clash of steal is almost unbearable.
I expect the general to be more on edge after the events of the prior evening.
He’s somewhat more relaxed and it puzzles me.
Maybe he thinks he has a good understanding of my skillset and he’s sure he can overpower me in a fight.
Whatever the reason, while he still remains close throughout the day, he seems to no longer feel the need to be a physical barrier between Awri and myself.
When the light begins to fade Awri calls her carriage and insists on joining me on my journey back to the manor.
“I would call today a success, wouldn’t you?” she asks over her shoulder as the general helps her into the carriage.
“I’ll feel a little more accomplished when we’ve managed to get halfway through that stack of papers,” I say, covering a yawn.
She laughs a little manically from inside the carriage, and for some reason it makes me smile. I reach out to pull myself onto the step, and my breath catches when the general snaps my hand out of the air, drawing it close to his face. Me along with it.
“What are you doing?” I wonder.
“Making sure you didn’t hurt yourself too badly,” he says.
I snort when I realize he’s examining the small sliver of broken flesh on my knuckle where it split when I struck him. It’s so small I’d hardly noticed it myself.
“Don’t worry,” I tease, “I’ve slept on pillows harder than your face.”
Awri masks a laugh and I swear the edge of his mouth twitches. He lifts my hand to help me inside the carriage, and I think maybe I hit the male harder than either of us realized if this is the change it has elicited in him.
Awri raps her knuckles against the roof as soon as he shuts the door, and I try not to gape as he disappears into the cottage. He’s left me all alone with his friend. It’s entirely unexpected.
Despite the fact that he has hardly looked at me since I’ve known him, I’ve always felt his eyes on me.
He’s kept close watch every second, poised and at the ready to interfere in …
well, I’m not sure exactly what he expects.
While our encounter in the woods seems the likely culprit to his change of heart, it makes no sense.
If the male needed a reason not to trust me, a reason to expel me from the good grace of his friend and keep me from his king, he has it.
The ride to the manor is quiet and contemplative, at least for my part. The carriage stops in the courtyard, and I turn to say goodbye when Awri slips past me without a word. I almost fall out of the carriage in my rush to chase after her as she makes for the front door.
“May I come in?” she asks expectantly, standing on the stone threshold of the manor.
“Of course,” I say, my brow pinching as I usher her inside.
Nothing about this feels right and my stomach knots. Maybe she has her own set of opinions on the events of the prior evening. I should have done more to find out exactly what the general told her, but if any of the others were concerned by his tale, they certainly hadn’t shown it.