Chapter 13 #3
“He stopped directing where you stood.”
“That is an exceptionally low standard.”
“I didn’t say otherwise.”
Imani narrowed her eyes, but Esa’s grin only widened.
“I do not know why you are enjoying this,” Imani muttered.
“Because you’re making it very easy.”
“Making what easy?”
“Watching you argue with yourself.”
Imani crossed the room and dropped into the chair beside the window. Below, Vathis spread in uneven layers of lantern light, its streets busier than when she first arrived. The news from the sea had clearly traveled faster than the returning column.
In her mind, she could still picture Ellisar beside her with his long stride. The breadth of his shoulders cutting through the crowd. The irritating ease with which he had made space for her once she claimed it.
She pressed her lips together. “I don’t like being managed,” she said after a moment.
Esa’s smile fell, and she lowered herself onto the edge of the settee. “What self-respecting queen does?”
“And I especially don’t like that he thinks protection gives him the right to decide things for me.”
“It doesn’t, if that makes you feel better.”
Imani shrugged and looked down at her hands, turning one of her rings around her finger.
“But?”
Esa waited, her expression blank.
Imani glanced up and shook her head. “Do not make that face.”
“What face?”
“That patient one.”
“I’m sitting here.”
Imani threw up her hands. “You’re judging me while sitting there.”
“That sounds like something you’ve invented.”
Imani pinched the bridge of her nose. “But he stopped trying to put me behind him,” she admitted, without removing her hands.
Esa merely sighed.
“He noticed,” Imani continued reluctantly. “When I moved beside him, he let me stay there.”
Another smile touched Esa’s mouth, smaller this time.
“Do not,” Imani said, pointing her finger at Esa’s smug face.
“I haven’t said anything.”
“Your face has.”
Esa leaned back on her hands. “Maybe that is why you’re angry.”
“Because he’s controlling?”
“Because he listens when you push back.”
Imani’s fingers stopped moving around the ring, and her mind started whirring. It would have been easier if Ellisar were simply another powerful male convinced that protection entitled him to obedience. Easier if every part of him fit neatly into a category she already knew how to fight.
Instead, he frustrated her and then adjusted. He had stood close enough to protect her without forcing her behind him. When he named her queen before his soldiers, he had immediately stopped treating her like someone who needed to be physically guided through every room and conversation.
Imani hated complicated men. She had already suffered enough from one of those.
Esa watched her for another moment, then tilted her head. “You know, most of those men on the landing were not being subtle.”
“I noticed.”
“They see a queen without a chosen mate.”
“I also noticed that.”
“And a High Sentinel standing beside her.”
Imani’s eyes snapped toward her.
Esa raised both palms. “I am not declaring anything.”
“Good.”
“I’m saying other people will.”
“That is their problem.”
“Until they make it yours.”
Imani leaned back in the chair, ignoring the creak, irritation stirring again because Esa was right. “I have chosen no one.”
“I know.”
“And Ellisar has not asked.”
“I know that too.”
“Then there is nothing to discuss.” Imani pointed at her again. “Nothing.”
“Of course.”
“I’m going to the ballroom tomorrow,” Imani said abruptly, straightening out the folds of her dress.
Esa’s eyebrows rose. “That was a violent change of subject.”
“It was a conclusion.”
“To what?”
Imani stood and reached for the clasp at her throat, loosening it as she crossed toward the dressing table. “To the fact that I cannot reclaim Essenheim by avoiding everyone who irritates me.”
“That sounds inconvenient.”
“It is.”
“And Ellisar?”
Imani set the clasp down harder than necessary. “Ellisar has governed Norn territory for years. He commands these soldiers, understands the people I may soon be responsible for, and knows exactly how every powerful family in Essenheim will react if I move against Tanyl.”
Esa’s teasing look faded as Imani observed her friend through the mirror.
“I need him close,” she said. “Not because he gets to decide things for me. Because I would be a fool to pretend I know how to rule simply because I have enough power to claim the throne.”
Esa gave her a curt nod.
“I need an ally,” Imani continued. “A real one. Someone who can tell me when I am about to make a terrible decision and survive when I tell him to mind his own business.”
“That does sound like Ellisar.”
“Unfortunately.”
Esa laughed under her breath and stood.
“And if he tries to control who speaks to me again,” Imani added, “I’ll correct him.”
“I’m sure you will.”
The pixie’s wing fluttered as she headed toward the door.
“Esa.”
The pixie looked back, hand already on the handle.
“Stop smiling,” Imani grumbled.
Her grin brightened before she walked out and let the door close behind her.
Imani remained beside the dressing table for several seconds before turning toward the window again. Beyond the glass, the estate grounds descended toward the city, lanterns tracing the roads through Vathis while distant music drifted faintly through the night.
Somewhere below, Ellisar was undoubtedly buried in reports, orders, and whatever else High Sentinels did when they were not infuriating queens. Or maybe he was letting loose with that wine everyone had gone on about. The thought made her want to laugh a little.
The sea battle had changed the way his people saw her.
More troublingly, it had changed the way she saw him.
Without meaning to, Imani wondered whether it had done the same to Ellisar.