18. Angélique
18
Angélique
A fter some time spent under the sun, looking sideways at the warriors training, I’m bored again.
I’m not going to say anything, though, because Cassiopé looks like she’s living her best life.
I now know everything I need to know about Fabio; the love of Cassiopé’s life.
Or the crush of a lifetime.
I’m not bursting her bubble, but I’m pretty sure Fabio prefers men by the way he admires the way the other warriors move as they spar.
She’ll realize at some point, but I’m not going to tell her, or at least not now.
We’re still sitting on the ground, and I see his shadow before I hear Brice’s voice.
“He wants to see you,” he tells me in a curt voice before addressing his daughter in a much softer voice, “Sweetie, you’re going to burn if you stay too long under the sun.”
He’s not wrong. I think I already got a little sunburned, but that’s not what makes me pleased.
If I had known that taking the sun—and maybe taking a look at his warriors, too—would be what made Elhyor break, I would have done it a lot sooner.
I conceal my smile as much as I can and follow Brice inside.
“Golden door,” he says without so much of a glance at me.
All he can see is his daughter, who—even if she spent most of the time outside under the protection of shadows—is now slightly red from the sun.
I’m a bit the same, but no one is going to fret about it.
I knock on the gaudy thing that is Elhyor’s door when I arrive, even if the door is ajar.
“Come in,” Elhyor says without asking who it is.
I guess he’s used to giving orders and being obeyed, so in his mind, there is no reason I wouldn’t come running to him when he asked. No, demanded.
“What is it?” I ask before letting him talk.
I don’t know what prompts me to push his buttons—I’d learned to keep quiet in Versailles—but it’s like I chase the glint that appears in his eyes each time I say something that can be perceived as a challenge.
Just like it does at my question.
“Sit,” he orders me.
“I think I’m going to stay right where I am,” I say as I cross my arms just over my breast.
His eyes spark with fire at my words, the gold shining with an ungodly red hue.
“You can’t stay outside,” he says after a while, turning his face to what’s on his desk.
Can’t look at me when you say that?
I shake my head at that.
“What is wrong with me being outside?” I ask with a hint of amusement in my tone that seems to take him by surprise.
His head snaps in my direction.
“You could get hurt,” he says, his eyes not leaving my face now that he’s raised them.
“Are you sure that’s the real problem here?” I ask, my tone devoid of any amusement now.
“You can’t stay there while they train.” He sounds final, and it pisses me off even more.
“Ohhh, I see. I can’t stay outside while your half-naked warriors train, all glistening under the sun?” My voice is full of sarcasm now. “Is that it? Or is the problem different? Maybe it’s that I can’t be seen outside with just a simple tank top? Would that distract them? Or would that distract you instead?”
I can see a vein throbbing on Elhyor’s neck, and I know I’ve said the right thing—well, he might think it’s the wrong thing.
“Why did I make you come here?” Elhyor mutters to himself.
I know it wasn’t intended for me, but I answer in my sweetest voice, anyway. “Because you finally decided we’re getting married?”
I see his fist clenching at his side.
I’m not sure getting his dragon side inside his office would be my best idea, but he is over two hundred years old. He should know how to control himself by now.
“I can’t do that,” he grumbles, and then he’s out of his own office.
“You can’t do what?” I yell after him as I follow him outside.
I have to jog because I can’t keep up with his long legs. It might be why I almost collapse on him when he finally stops and turns around.
I let him grab me just above my elbows to steady me instead of avoiding the impact.
“I can’t have you here,” he growls.
“You can’t, or you don’t want to?” I ask again.
“I’m sending you back to your father.”
His voice sounds so final it scares me.
“What? You can’t do that.”
This is the first thing I say that isn’t tinted with sarcasm or amusement. I do not want to go back to my father. Especially now.
I haven’t completed my mission, and as much as I don’t want to disappoint my father, the punishment he might give me scares me way more than seeing how disappointed in me he is when I’m sent back the way I came.
Some of my desperation must have seeped into my voice, because I can’t decipher what is in Elhyor’s eyes, but they soften as they take me in.