12. CHAPTER 12
Aveline
Ihad expected the knock on the door to be Enora or another soldier from the king’s army, here to explain my indenture contract.
What I had not been expecting…was Queen Odessa Blackwater.
She stood before me with her white-gold hair spun into a crown of braids encircling her head. Nestled atop them was a glistening golden crown, bejeweled and glimmering beneath the reflection of the torchlight from the corridor.
Her gown was anything but simple. The white slip was covered in silver beads and golden gems that dissolved into a full skirt of tulle.
The neckline plunged to her navel; the expanse of her chest covered in a sheer mesh.
You wouldn’t be able to stand within three feet of her without accidentally stepping on the extensive skirts.
Her beauty was ethereal, but her hard gaze put me on edge immediately as she remained silent before me.
My mouth hung open as if to speak, but nothing spilled forth.
What was I going to say? What reason did the queen of Gothryn have to knock at my door? I was merely a human servant, and I had only just arrived at the castle.
The queen analyzed me from head to toe, her gaze both lingering and assessing. She had small features that suited her heart-shaped face. She tilted her head to the side as her cerulean eyes finally locked onto mine.
“I know who you are.”
That one sentence had my heart suspended in my chest.
Godsdammit.
Did she know why I was here? Had I already been found out? How in the seven hells—
I swallowed hard, the bile that had risen to the back of my throat stinging on the way back down. I shook my head back and forth vigorously.
“There has been some mistake—”
The queen raised her hand to stop me. “There has been no mistake.”
This was it. This was the moment I had been dreading since first learning I would be sailing to Gothryn.
I had been found out before I even had the chance to do a single thing.
Before I had even moved against Prince Sorin.
It had been merely a few hours, and this charade would already come to an end.
“I’m sorry, I—”
“You are the new maidservant for Prince Sorin, is that correct?” she asked, her tone indicating she already knew the answer.
“Yes?” My eyes widened. I hadn’t meant for that to come out as a question, but it was too late to bite back my words.
Her cold glare made me feel two feet tall. She was Vireth fae, her complexion an unmarred alabaster. Her cheeks were flushed with blood, her pointed ears on full display with the way she had styled her hair. I had never felt plainer in my entire life.
“And you have heard what happened to the last maidservant that attended the prince, correct?”
“Yes?” Godsdammit, Aveline.
I bit the inside of my cheek, a weak attempt at regaining my composure before the queen. I could hear booted footsteps approaching as they echoed off the walls of the stone corridor.
“It would be in your best interest not to get involved with any of the princes.” Involved? She couldn’t possibly mean…“I will not have a human whore come between my sons. Have I made myself clear?”
I swallowed hard. “Yes.”
Sweet gods above.
I bit my tongue trying—and failing—to compose my expression. It did not elude me that she had said sons. Did she include Prince Sorin among them, despite sharing no common blood?
Is that what had truly happened to the maidservant who was rumored to have been put to dragon fire? Had she been involved with more than one prince…coming between them?
The queen was looking at me as if I had exactly three brain cells, further confirming what I’m sure she already thought of humans.
“Odessa?”
I had only heard that voice once before, but it already sent a familiar chill pulsing down my spine. Her face softened into a mask as she turned toward it.
“What are you doing here?” he asked, confusion clear in his tone.
“I simply came to bid your new maidservant a warm welcome,” she replied softly, a false smile plastered across her bloodred lips.
“Is that so?” There was laughter in his voice. I could tell without seeing him that his eyebrow was raised at her, his disbelief clear. “Will you be welcoming all the new castle indentures from this morning’s sale?”
Odessa chuckled. “I’ll be on my way now.”
She nodded at him in deference before stepping away from the open doorway, out of sight. The dynamic between the two of them was interesting. He did not refer to her as queen, and she acted as if he were already her superior despite not having yet ascended the throne.
The prince quickly took Queen Odessa’s place before me, flooding my senses with his staggering presence. He called to Odessa over his shoulder, “I have to speak with Father. I will meet you in the throne room with Ren and Emrys shortly.”
Her responding voice sounded far away now. “Very well.”
He turned toward me, and the power of that dark, umber gaze had me taking an involuntary step back.
“What was she talking to you about?” he asked, voice steady.
His gaze flitted about the small, darkened room behind me and his expression fell as he assessed my living quarters but said nothing.
Did I want to make an enemy out of Queen Odessa so soon by telling the truth, or should I shirk off the interaction between us? It was clear that Prince Sorin held the power in their relationship. But tales of Odessa’s cunning preceded her.
“She simply wanted to wish me a warm welcome to the Gothryn Palace. As she said.”
I tried to smile up at him, but it didn’t reach my eyes.
I was going to need to get much better at acting—and fast. I never was very good at schooling my features.
Prince Sorin wasn’t at all what I had been expecting, and all my carefully laid plans of how I was going to act with him were now thrown out the window.
I straightened, attempting to stand at my full height to match his presence. A twinkle of amusement lit his gaze. When I had first met him in the indenture market, his wings had been tucked neatly at his back. Here in the dim light of the hall, they were safely tucked away entirely.
He was certainly more intimidating when surrounded by them, though his presence without them was not without its own menace. He likely didn’t want to frighten me here, alone.
His expression hardened, but he didn’t press, changing the subject.
“As I’m sure you’ve heard, you are to be my…” He trailed off, struggling for the correct word to use.
“Servant?” I suggested, folding my arms behind me and rising onto my toes. “Though we did not discuss my background—I would be much better suited as a lady’s maid.”
As soon as the words had left my lips, I cursed myself.
I didn’t want to give him any ideas about reassigning me.
I was precisely where I needed to be to get this task done and over with.
His selection of me at the market had been fortuitous.
It put my uncertainty about being too close to him and drawing suspicion at ease.
It would be easier this way. I merely needed to secure a foolproof escape plan.
My gaze traveled down his tunic, which was embellished with ornate beading along the collar and down the chest, across the shoulders.
Down, down, down. Again, there was no ancient relic dagger strapped to his hip as Queen Dyata had said there would be.
This is the second time I had seen him without it.
He cocked his head to the side, a smile playing on his lips. “I never quite liked the word servant.” He said it with distaste. “Though, lady’s maid wouldn’t quite fit in this situation either…”
I inclined my head toward him in humor. “It wouldn’t? I could braid your hair, Your Highness. Help you dress—” My mouth got the better of me once more, and my cheeks flooded with heat.
The smile that had lifted the corner of his mouth turned into a grin. He appeared younger this way, a soft dimple in his left cheek, his eyes creased at the corners.
My own gaze darted to the flash of sharp teeth visible beneath his broad smile.
He may be a halfling, and they may have appeared rounder to my human eyes, but they were equally as sharp as if he were full-blooded Vireth.
He needed blood to survive, after all. Those teeth were meant to puncture skin.
Halfling or not—they required blood all the same.
He coughed, though it was merely a poor attempt to cover the visible laugh that had begun in his throat.
“Perhaps we have gotten off on the wrong foot.” He suggested, squaring his shoulders.
“I am Sorin Blackwater, crown prince of Gothryn. My father is King Mavros, my mother was the human Melantha Devoe. I am the black swordtail many in Myros have come to fear.”
If he was expecting me to quiver in my boots…he would be waiting a long time. It was easy to dissociate the man in front of me from the monster who had flown over Myros before summer solstice. With his wings safely tucked away like this, he almost appeared human.
Almost.
I couldn’t let myself forget that not only was he the enemy, but he was stronger than I could ever imagine. Stronger than any Veytari I had ever met. I needed to be careful.
There was an unending moment of silence until it finally dawned on me that he was waiting for me to introduce myself.
“Oh! Right…well, I am Aveline Drake.” I straightened as he did. “I own an apothecary in Myros with my mother, Lavanya. I have no father.”
His brows drew together. “You have no father?”
I shook my head, gaze dropping from his. “He left before I was born—I am an only child. I stopped searching for him long ago. He never wanted anything to do with us to begin with. I now feel the same.”
I bit my lip, second guessing my own words.
Should I have left out the part about owning an apothecary?
It was too late now. I figured I could offer a molecule of truth about my life before Gothryn.
It would not only earn his trust but reveal I wasn’t an unskilled human.
I made no mention of my position at court in Myros—or my relation to Kallias.