10. Evanee #3
I slipped off the green dress and quickly tugging up the tight leggings. Then I pulled the tunic over my head, the soft fabric settling just past my hips. I laced up each boot. Everything fit perfectly. I even borrowed the satchel, placing the strap across my chest.
I looked around the room once more and picked three additional dresses, hoping to appease Thaddeus. The magical ball of light glinted off the set of thick, golden bracelets I left on the table for him as a thank you, before I slipped out the door, the gowns draped over my arm. He beamed at me.
“Wonderful choices, your Majesty. I have a trunk for you.” He hauled the heavy thing from a room across the hall.
I carefully lay the gowns inside, along with the green one.
“Can I ask you something?” My voice was low, though it didn’t really matter.
“Anything.”
“Do you… Do you happen to know a male with… long white hair?” My jaw tightened once the question left my lips. Thaddeus seemed trustworthy. That little voice inside me that had said the stranger wouldn’t hurt me also whispered that I could trust this male.
He frowned, looking at me apologetically. “I’m afraid I don’t. Why do you ask?”
“No reason! I—”
“Thaddeus, we need to leave,” Aiden hollered from beyond the door, his voice coming closer. “Have you seen—”
The hall door swung open, and Aiden’s face fell as he looked between us.
“Never mind. I see she’s with you and… What are you wearing?” he asked sharply as he regarded me.
“I let her borrow some clothes,” Thaddeus said innocently. “A Queen must travel comfortably. You never know what will happen on the road to Castle Lawryn,” he noted, a gleam in his eye.
“I want to be comfortable. The carriage is rough enough, but then there’s Lyra.” My words were blunt. Whatever game Aiden played with his mood swings, I wouldn’t partake. Thaddeus’ warning flashed through my mind, too, right along the warning from Micha.
A smile tugged at the corner of Aiden’s mouth as his gaze coursed over my body again. Heat flooded my face as I realized the leggings hugged my backside and the tunic dipped lower than anything I’d ever worn.
I swallowed dryly. “The least I can get is comfort in what I wear. Dresses and bodices aren’t very practical for the—"
“It’s fine. You can put the green dress back on before we arrive at Castle Lawryn,” he muttered distractedly as he dragged his gaze to Thaddeus.
Butterflies danced in the pit of my stomach as his gaze kept flicking back to me.
“Thank you for providing her… more options. Your hospitality knows no bounds,” he said with a tight smile at the other male, the latter dipping his chin.
I lurched forward, giving Thaddeus a quick hug as a thank you, even though that was most certainly not customary or proper for a Queen to do. I couldn’t help myself. He—a stranger—had shared intimate things with me and been so giving, while knowing I wasn’t who I pretended to be.
His warning stayed on my mind. Similar to the warning Micah had given me.
But when I looked at Aiden—despite his mood swings—they had to be wrong about him.
I could see the battle in his eyes when he talked about the Gargoyles.
And what about the male who attacked me?
Would he have bothered to take that punishment so far if he were a cold-hearted soldier?
“It was kind of him to give me some of his mate’s clothing,” I remarked. Aiden stopped and turned.
He looked perplexed, trying to find words. “Yes… It was.”
“Is something wrong?”
He chewed on his lip.
“Is this about last night? Look, I was drunk. I shouldn’t have—”
“No,” he said quickly. “No, this has nothing to do with last night. I mean—I shouldn’t have allowed any of us to relax to that degree, but you…
” He loosed a sigh. “Don’t apologize for anything.
I’m sorry if I’ve been off. I’m accustomed to staying silent and alert to our surroundings.
Dimitri seems to be chattier than I am. Perhaps he’s better company. ” He turned and kept walking.
“Why would you care if I’m talking to Dimitri?” I demanded, chasing after him.
“I don’t.”
“Didn’t seem that way at breakfast.”
He abruptly stopped, pivoting toward me.
“Dimitri has a job. I wouldn’t want him or any of my guards to become distracted, is all.” He dismissed me, turning his back once more. My mouth flattened into a line as I bit on my retort and stomped after him.
Everyone was gathered at the carriage and already mounted.
Malachai sat tall on his painted gray stallion, staring at us with an intensity that rattled me.
I couldn’t tell if he hated me or what. Maybe he just hated humans—many beings did.
No matter how comfortable I felt pretending to be someone different, I had to remember the truth of the situation.
Lyra was already in the carriage, singing a little ditty in a pitchy voice. Alaric climbed the carriage and clamped his hands over his ears. Brax glanced at the carriage and grinned. Not mockingly, but in admiration. Huh. Leave it to Lyra to rope in a male.
Before I got in, I cast my gaze beyond the fence where Dimitri had taken down that skur.
“Aiden?” He stopped and came closer to me.
“Yes, Evanee?” Hearing my name on his lips sent my mind in the wrong direction.
The way he said my name didn’t curl through my thoughts like the stranger’s voice had, but it still elicited feelings I didn’t want to have.
“Where are the bodies? From last night?” Ignoring it all seemed better.
“They’re gone. Burned to ash with the rising sun.”
My face scrunched. I’d heard that’s what happened, but it was different seeing it. To think the breeze could be scattering skur ash all over us right now. Gross.
A loud thud sounded behind me. Thaddeus had hauled out the trunk and dropped it on the top steps.
“I wish you safe travels, your Majesty,” he announced with a low bow.
“Thank you for your hospitality, Thaddeus.” I copied his earlier motion and placed my fist over my heart with a smile.
My smile faltered when I turned to see Aiden, staring at me again—this time, seeming impressed, not angry. Small improvement.
“Where have you seen that?” he asked quietly as I finally got into the carriage. The other guards’ horses shifted impatiently behind him.
I didn’t want to risk Thaddeus getting into trouble if it was something forbidden, and I, of course, wasn’t aware it was forbidden. So, I went with— “I don’t know.” Seemed safest to me. I closed the door before he could say or ask anything else.
“That’s not fair! Where did you get new clothes? Why am I stuck in rags?” Lyra whined, scrunching the skirts of her scratchy brown dress in her fists.
“Thaddeus believed I was a Queen and gifted them. They’ll all go back to the Fae Queen eventually.”
Lyra crossed her arms, pouting.
“This journey was supposed to be an exciting adventure. So far, it’s been so boring and uneventful.
” She sighed dramatically. I decided not to share the events of the previous night as I didn’t want to give her an excuse to talk the entire ride.
“And I don’t know what I’m doing wrong, but none of those guards will have anything to do with me! ”
“I don’t know,” I mused, putting my empty satchel beside me along with the coat. “Brax seems to pay attention to you.”
She cut her eyes at me. “Brax is a boy. And some other kind of beast. Just can’t figure out what.”
“Brax is most likely a hundred years older than you. I doubt they'd let teenagers in the King’s guard.”
She crossed her arms and looked out the window at the dreary weather coming in.
“Lyra, we’re away from the Queens’ lands. We’re still only human slaves, yet we’re sleeping in cushioned beds and eating the best food we’ll ever get to eat. Try to enjoy the journey. Things might be different for us at Castle Lawryn."
Probably in a bad way for me, with the stacked warnings I’m getting.
But I didn’t plan to stick around and find out.
Guilt settled in over not including Lyra in the escape plans I was attempting to piece together, but I couldn’t trust her either.
Every whispered warning, every mile closer to the Fae King, every time I shut my eyes and saw the flash of silver through the electrifying blue, I felt the building anticipation to run before something terrible happened.
“Doubtful,” she grumbled.
“Look, I don’t know what’ll happen for me at Castle Lawryn, but for you, I really think it’ll be okay.
And as far as the males—they’re here to convince anyone watching that I’m a Queen and you’re my lady’s maid.
No one will believe the Queen would allow her Lady’s maid to have a…
a Dalliance with one of the King’s knights.
” I genuinely wanted to help her see that there’s more.
More than just finding a male. More than the next big adventure. Because once I’m gone—
“Ha! You are a virgin! Only a virgin would be too scared to go after one of these guys and use all of that Queen bullshit as an excuse. Dalliance,” she snorted, propping her leg up on the seat. “No one says that. Can’t believe you’re older than me and a virgin!”
My face fell flat as she guffawed across from me.
I scowled at her, folding my arms over my chest, and watched the trees blur together as the carriage lurched.
As I looked out the window, it was Thaddeus’s golden gaze I met, as he leaned against a pillar, his golden robe billowing as the wind dragged in the cooler weather.
My hands grew clammy as I took in the worried expression on his face.