10. Angélique
10
Angélique
E lhyor is not even sure he wants to marry.
Who the fuck does he think he is?
As if I had a choice in all of this? He struck a deal with my father. He did. Not me.
I should be relieved.
I’ve got more time before my wedding night. I’ve got more time to know my battle grounds, to learn the lay of Notre Dame, to find places to hide. I’ve got more time to plan my escape.
I also have more time to gawk at the chiseled chest that Elhyor has still not deemed smart to cover.
I should be happy—about having time to plan my escape, not about being able to drool over the dragon’s chest—but instead, I can’t seem to be anything other than pissed.
It was supposed to be an easy mission, or so I’d thought when I was told I was to get married, have sex, and kill someone all the same day.
I thought he would be willing, but I should have known better.
After all, I didn’t spend the past eight years just training for combat. I should have known all those gross lessons about seduction were only the tip of the iceberg.
I also thought they would be enough for what was to come.
How wrong I was…
Because other than how to grab his cock and what to do with my tongue to make him go wild, I have no idea how to seduce a man.
I didn’t get much training for that and I’m… inadequate for the job.
How on earth am I going to entice a man who looked at me as if he wanted to swallow me whole, shook his head and let it be replaced by disgust?
Because that’s what I saw on his face, that’s what I heard in his voice before he took flight, and that’s also the energy he gives out from his pacing.
Small mercies that it’s spring, because I would have frozen to death up here in just my shirt.
If he keeps pacing until night, that might still happen, though. Paris isn’t so warm in April, and by night, it’s going to get worse.
I don’t know what makes him so pissy, but it needs to stop.
“Is there any chance I could go to the restroom?” I ask as if nothing was amiss.
I can be polite. I had lessons for that.
He grunts before finally turning his face in my direction.
I don’t know what I was expecting, but it’s definitely not the loathing that I can see there.
Well, this mission got a lot harder and my freedom doesn’t feel so close anymore.
“Brice, get her to her room,” he says to the man at the door of the tower on my left.
Brice just nods and turns to open the door. Without a word, he motions me to follow him.
Brice doesn’t look like he’s as pissed off as Elhyor, but I could be mistaken. He hasn’t said a word since Elhyor brought us to Notre Dame’s roof.
He looks stern and is probably ten to fifteen years older than Elhyor in human years. I’m not completely sure what type of shifter he is, so I can’t be sure. Most shifters live twice as long as humans, so if I’m not wrong, he should be something like ninety and look every bit like the silver foxes from Léandre’s secret collection of dirty books. I like the age gap, but twenty to thirty years is already enough for me.
If he didn’t look at me like I was gum stuck under his shoe, I’d say Elhyor is the perfect age for me.
Brice is too old for me, but I’m pretty sure, with his looks, he could get almost anyone.
He’s got dark green eyes and black hair, graying at the temple, that gives him a serious look. His beard is trimmed short and has some gray in it, too, but it doesn’t take away from the plush lips that he has now in a straight line, as if he’s preventing himself from saying anything.
Even from behind him in the stairs, I can see it clearly.
He’s built similarly to Elhyor from what I can see, but nothing is certain because Brice has the decency to wear a shirt, and it’s almost as loose as mine.
We finally arrive down the three flights of stairs and I realize that the rose window I’ve seen outside is softly illuminating the room we entered and what a sight this room is.
I knew for a fact that Notre Dame was a cathedral and that it used to be a worship place, but I didn’t realize everything would still look as if every Sunday people gathered here to pray.
Stopping in the middle of the church, I’m transfixed by everything, the windows, the statues, the golden crosses, the wooden pews that look like they survived centuries of prayers.
I can’t believe it’s so well preserved.
Brice is far ahead of me when he realizes I’m not following him anymore.
I don’t care.
My head is tilted to the ceiling, and I’m in awe of everything. The arches are wonderful and make me feel so small, and I can’t help but wonder what is behind the doors on the second floor.
“They still come to pray here. You’ll see tomorrow morning,” Brice says as he approaches me again.
His voice is deep and soft. Soothing.
“Can I stay here?” I answer without thinking.
With all those years with my father, I should know better, but I’m surprised by his answer.
“I gathered that you didn’t really want to use the restroom, but don’t you want to see your room and settle? We can come back here after.”
Settle. This word feels so strange to me. I don’t want to settle. I was supposed to be here only for one day, nothing more, and now I realize that I have nothing to settle with me.
“A shower would be nice,” I answer truthfully.
I don’t feel like I smell to the point I’d be unbearable for shifters, but I did walk for eighteen kilometers, and if I could put on new underwear and a shirt, it would be nice.
“They didn’t let you fly here?” he asks genuinely.
I can’t fly.
The words are on the tip of my tongue, but I can’t say them. I won’t say them. I’m not here to make friends.
I’m just passing.
”No.”
“Okay, then let’s get you to your room.”
He walks away, expecting me to follow.
It takes me a few seconds to realize that he didn’t wait for me. He’s not been right next to me all the time.
I’m not a prisoner?
He turns my way after taking a few steps. “Coming?”
I’m not a prisoner.
It’s not an order, and if I preferred, I could stay here for a while and I don’t think Brice would mind.
I jog to join him, and before I know it, he turns to the left and goes up some stairs.
I guess I’m about to discover what is behind the doors of the second floor.
Once up the stairs, he turns on the left and keeps walking until we’re almost at the other end of the cathedral.
There is only one door after this, and after that, it’s the end of this open corridor with the view of the inside of the church.
“It’s his room,” Brice says as he gives a nod in the direction of the last door.
He doesn’t need to tell me who “he” is, I know.
It feels as if Elhyor had planned a lot of things in advance of me coming here, but if I’m right, he’s soon going to regret that he picked the room next door for me.
I might be a beginner at seduction, but I’ve seen enough to know that moans can make some men wild.
I’ll make him pray he never chose to let me sleep next to him.
Brice opens the door for me, and I feel like I have done a jump in time.
I’ve lived inside Versailles’ palace for all my life, and I’ve only ever seen how bird-shifters modernize old buildings, but this isn’t Versailles. Versailles wasn’t modified with taste. Of course, they kept the throne and made two copies for each of the archangels, but other than that, everything has been modernized to the excess.
Walls have turned to screens, furniture had turned to black and white, impersonal ones, and most of the wooden floors had been destroyed when they added water and electricity to the buildings.
Only the Galerie des glaces — the Hall of Mirrors —had been left untouched.
Here, it’s different.
I shouldn’t be surprised. After all, everything inside the church feels as if modernity hasn’t touched it. Why would it be different inside the other parts of Notre Dame?
The room isn’t huge, but it looks grand.
Just under colored windows sits a four-poster bed made from a dark wood that I don’t recognize. The bed sheets and the comforter on it look like the softest I’ve ever seen, and if I wasn’t feeling so gross from my walk here, I would be jumping on the bed already.
On the sides of the bed, there are two small tables, each with their lamp.
So, they did bring electricity to the building and yet, the floor under my feet looks old and shiny, as if generations after generations had walked on it.
On the far side, on the left, there is a desk with a lamp again. On it, as if waiting for me, there’s one of those holographic computers I’ve seen everyone but me using in Versailles. They look like a flat surface, but once powered on, the keyboard appears on the surface and the screen comes alive in front of the keyboard in three dimensions.
On either side of the room, there are doors of the same wood as the floor.
“Shower is in there. You should have towels and anything you need inside. I’m going to let you be for a while. If you need anything, I’ll be on the first floor, on the other side of the building. My name is on the door.” He pauses as if he’s thinking about telling something, but hesitates. Finally he adds, “Elhyor is probably going to be on the roof until dinner, but his office is right next to mine. You can’t miss it. It’s the only golden door.”
He winks at me and starts to leave.
“Wait, what is the other door?” I ask as I look at the door inside my room that he—purposefully?—forgot to tell me about.
I think I know what it is, but I want to be sure.
”Oh. It’s his room.”
He doesn’t add anything and finally leaves me alone.