30. Chapter 30 #2
“I did not ogle!” I mused. Oh, I had definitely been ogling.
He smiled. “When are you going to remember your heartbeat?” His eyes roamed from my feet to my hair, but casually lingered around my breasts before settling on my face. “You’re absolutely breathtaking.” His voice was low but rich like velvet.
“You’re quite handsome yourself tonight.”
A brow arched upward on Peiro’s face, something like longing flashing across his eyes as he leaned in closer. “Just tonight then?”
“Well, maybe more than one.” I winked as I nibbled on my bottom lip.
“Oh, Naa’n le’ya, when are you going to stop telling me tall tales? You know what happens when you try to skirt the truth with me.” His grin grew seductively wicked as he leaned in again, palming the back of my neck and pulling me in until our lips clashed.
Hunger was poured into that kiss. I felt his need and longing with each stroke of his tongue.
A light moan escaped my throat, urging him to take more.
To devour me. My inner heat climbed higher.
Before a step could be taken further, a shrill of muffled giggles and laughter were heard on the other side of the door.
I pulled back immediately, thinking someone had come into our room only to quickly realize it was someone passing by in the hallway. Peiro’s pupils were blown wide with his ragged breathing. A swift knock came followed by a brief mumble from someone claiming dinner was about to be served.
Peiro looked over his shoulder and growled like someone had just delivered war-changing news. I laughed and pushed his shoulder. “Come, we don’t need to be late.”
He looked at me and quickly stood, reaching his hand out to take mine. “This dinner better be worth our fucking time.”
***
After weeks of consuming small game, the dinner was even more delicious than anticipated—leaving me to wish I could eat more.
But the dessert was something else. It had been a long while since I’d had anything sweet, and I thoroughly enjoyed the cherry tart set before me.
I hardly caught the low sound in my throat, but it piqued Peiro’s attention.
I enjoyed sitting quietly in my chair and listening to the silly tales of a young Fyom and Paige, who together sounded like the perfect troublemakers.
We sat and laughed, reminiscing on the better times.
Paige even had a few funny stories of our parents she recalled from various points of her time in court.
My heart simultaneously found joy and ached with her stories.
Peiro’s hand rested on top of my thigh the whole evening, tracing small circles up and down.
I knew it was a distraction from the eventual topic of Fernwick.
When I felt my heart begin to race, his touch climbed higher and higher.
Every so often I had to shift to alleviate the pressure building between my thighs.
“Lady Simret—” Ora began, but was given a swift, stern look from our host that caused Ora, of all people, to flinch. “Sorry… Paige.” That earned her a smile. “What happened to Loamil? When did the blight begin?”
Sadness swept over Paige’s face as she took a deep swallow of her wine.
“It started shortly after you two disappeared. No one has seen this before.” She took another swallow of her drink, draining the glass empty.
“Some are suggesting it’s because the ritual wasn’t completed in its typical succession, leaving room for a blight to grow.
Just a few days after I returned, the crops on the west side of Loamil began to decay to what you see out front.
The north and south parts of the lands are still flourishing…
for now. To the east, neighboring the late Lady Samolson’s water territory, the land is deteriorating.
The sea life is said to be decreasing, and fewer fish are being caught along the coast and transported across Gria. ”
“The rot of the fields. You said many are suggesting this is possibly happening because the ritual wasn’t performed when it should have been. How much truth is there to that?” Peiro asked.
Paige looked back and forth between us and exhaled deeply.
“No one has ever seen this before because no one has ever broken the ritual chain before.
However, the blight suddenly stopped in its tracks about three full moons ago.
This has allowed me and other influential Earthen Wielders to work on the crops that can still thrive and create rations for those who are directly affected.
“I issued a decree for any of the citizens willing to help to step forward. I am more than proud to say that no one has gone hungry, despite the trade lessening. The border towns are currently tasked with distributing goods to those who are looking to barter.”
“Three full moons ago?” Ora asked. It seemed she had the same flow of thought as myself.
“Around the time we completed the ritual,” I cut in. “Maybe this is why the ritual is always completed so early for the next generation of rulers—an overlap of sorts,” I added. “We know very little about the ritual itself, and how it started, because the details are only passed to each ruler.”
“If no one had seen a gap before, it would make sense,” Fyom stated.
Peiro nodded as he said, “And if there was a lapse with your imbuing, it could possibly have weakened Gria’s borders. This could be a logical reason as to why and how more Raiders were able to enter your lands, and possibly still are.”
“Let’s pray that the giants give us grace,” Sury piped up as he finished his dessert. “It’s not like you two willingly broke the promise. Hopefully they’ll aim their wrath toward the assholes who caused this in the first place.”
Paige spoke next. “If Peiro is right about the borders, then I can see Vovias using his seat at The Melted Forge as a way of entry.”
“But that would mean he would need them weakened first,” Ora added.
Thoughts clicked into place. “And that means a death before the next imbuing ritual can take place.” I looked at Ora. “I wouldn’t put it past him if he had our parents killed. And who do we know was closer to them than anyone else in their court?”
“Ariadne.” My sister’s lip quivered a beat, but it went unmissed as Sury gently grabbed her hand to steady her. “I always thought they died too soon. They were only in their fifth decade. Grandpapa Patrek lived well into his late ninth decade, and Grandmama Seraline passed in her eighth.”
Quick images from my parents’ sickness to their passing flashed in my mind.
They had both seemed so healthy before the illness took them.
Faded Hearts, people had whispered. Bound together in life and in death.
Two souls who could sense each other, feel one another’s pain, or…
who had been desperately in love with little explanation.
“You said more crops are weakening at the borders between Loamil and Oressa.” Ora’s question to Paige pulled me from my thoughts before they spiraled. “Has no one taken the late Lady Samolson’s place?”
I had wondered the same thing and fumed silently at the thought that we may need to navigate yet another friend or foe.
“Surprisingly enough, Delmar Undara is the new lady of the seas and currents. Her calling happened not too long after the failed ritual.” Paige took a decanter and refilled her and Fyom’s glass with wine.
I had never heard that name. My brain quickly tried to process the news and how this could shift our strengths. “Where would she stand in an alliance? Do you know? Can my sister count on her newly appointed armadas?”
“You’re becoming quite the general, Phe.” Ora smirked, raising an eyebrow as she, too, drank from her wineglass. Peiro squeezed my thigh with a feeling of pride. I rolled my eyes as I waited for Paige’s response.
“Yes. And no,” she said, taking a deep drink.
“What does that mean?” Fyom leaned forward with his elbows on the table.
“It means that she comes from a family well removed from the court life. She’s young, much like you two,” she said, nodding to me and Ora, “and can bring new energy to our people and the realm, but…”
“There’s always a but,” Sury mumbled.
“But,” Paige continued, “I believe Vovias and Ariadne had already begun whispering in her ear.”
“Fucking bastard,” Sury mumbled into his drink.
Fucking bastard indeed. My heart rate ticked up in frustration. I didn’t think I’d ever truly hated anyone before, but was more than willing to put all of my hate into those two. My blooming irritation stalled when I felt idle circles being drawn across my thigh again.