Chapter 4 #4
“Gods, my feet are barking,” I muttered as I scrunched my toes in my silk slippers that had no cushion between my feet and the hard soles.
Longing for my boots filled me, or better yet the sneakers I had often worn back in Canada.
I would probably kill Lorien right this moment if someone offered me the wonderfully soft and warm slippers I had left back in my family’s cabin.
Somehow, I resisted the urge to flop onto the throne behind me, kick my shoes off and rub my aching soles.
“You have an… unusual way of speaking,” Meiryn said, reminding me that I wasn’t alone and had once again dropped my guard.
Her voice was soft and warm with the smile that brightened her eyes as I looked at her.
I fidgeted, trying to get comfortable. “How much longer do I have to stand here?”
I had wanted to ask how much longer I had to stand here playing princess, but had managed to bite my tongue before that last part could slip from it, holding it back.
I knew the person I needed to be, the one I had to become in front of all these people, and so far, I had played it well. But it was exhausting. It wasn’t me.
But it was who I needed to be to survive this court and return to Kael.
It wouldn’t do to slip up now, even if Meiryn did look as if she liked how candid I was at times, a shadow of the regal female who had so boldly swept into the room to be introduced to the fae of her court.
A groan almost escaped me as an older couple approached me, both looking as if they were pushing fifty.
They were several years older than Sylvan in appearance, and probably over a decade older than Kaeleron looked.
How much older than Kael was the Summer steward? Did that age gap make him stronger?
I smiled and nodded my way through a very long and very dull conversation with the couple as I pondered that, growing wearier with each minute that ticked past. When they made their excuses at last, I gracefully dipped my head and wished them good fortune, something I had picked up was a custom here, and smiled as they returned it, seeming pleased I knew their ways.
Sylvan took the steps up to the dais, his viper’s smile in place as he towered over me.
“You will make a wonderful queen, Saphira. You already have the favour of half the court. I imagine it will not take you long to work your magic on the rest. All will fall at your feet before you have even been crowned.”
That last sentence would certainly happen if I had my way. Only they wouldn’t get back up again.
I smiled my best smile at him as Lorien moved out of the corner of my eye, his gaze scalding the side of my face as he looked between me and Sylvan, and his eyes darkened.
He hadn’t liked what Sylvan had said to me.
I almost frowned as Sylvan’s blue gaze darted briefly towards Lorien, something I might have missed had I not been watching him so closely.
His wretched smile widened as he held my gaze.
“I will speak with you about your time in the Shadow Court soon,” he said, loud enough that he drew the attention of several passing nobles.
I nodded stiffly, my smile firmly remaining in place, masking my rising nerves as I tried to figure out what game he was playing with me.
He had angered Lorien with his praise of me, and now he was making it public knowledge that I had spent time in an unseelie court. This male was up to something, and I needed to find out what it was.
“I have ordered a scabbard suitable for your dagger,” he added as he watched the nobles moving on.
The room was emptying, but close to a hundred highborn were still drinking and talking on the main floor of the great hall below me.
“Thank you.” I flexed my fingers, missing the feel of the dagger’s weight in my grip, and of course he noticed, his cold blue eyes registering that subtle shift of my hand.
“My lord.” A male voice, filled with trepidation, snagged my attention and I leaned slightly to my left to see around Sylvan to the owner of it.
Not a highborn.
He wore the same teal uniform as the guards at the palace entrance.
Sylvan turned and took the steps down to him, catching his elbow to lead him away from me. Not far enough that I didn’t hear Sylvan when he spoke.
“The loss of the ships and men is to be expected.”
The bottom of my stomach dropped out.
Kaeleron must have destroyed the armada Sylvan had said he had stationed off the coast of the Shadow Court.
He hadn’t been lying about it.
I rubbed my ring with the pad of my thumb, breathing through my rising fear as I thought about what else Sylvan had said in that glade, struggling to keep myself calm enough that the brand wouldn’t fire and I wouldn’t summon Kaeleron.
Had he been telling the truth about Vyr and Riordan too?
I swallowed to wet my suddenly parched throat.
Gods, I hoped they were safe.
Alive.
I almost leaped out of my skin as I was bumped forwards, something hitting my shoulder to come close to knocking me off balance.
Not something.
Someone.
Lorien’s voice was cold as it rang in my ears, chilling my blood as he passed me.
“If you do not keep your wits about you, you will be dead within the week.”