CHAPTER XVI #13
Edam and his Prince stand outside in the middle of the crowd next to a large golden fountain.
The King and Queen and their sons are all standing with them, as is the rest of the Leviathan delegation.
Edam lifts his hands in front of his chest and manipulates the water that spurts out of the fountain, sending the stream high into the air before it branches off into multiple arms over the crowd.
“Lady Alexis.”
I turn around with a grin.
“Lord Daniel,” I reply, catching his sparkling light brown gaze as he reaches for my hand. He brings my fingers up to his lips and gives me a small kiss.
“It’s very good to see you here, Lord Daniel.”
“A bit sooner than I anticipated, but finally happy to visit the Court that has produced such a woman as you.”
“You’re too kind,” I murmur, turning back to watch the show. Edam’s hands are manipulating the water before him, but all I can see are those same hands that tried to take Daniel’s life.
“Such a terrible beauty,” I scowl.
“Yes,” Lord Daniel replies, eyes also trained on Edam, “as summoning usually is.”
“You stayed behind in Fumagalli when we left for Gaumond,” I turn to him quietly at my side, “was everything all right?”
“Just preparing,” he nods, “readying. We added a few new features to the Bulwark Plains just on the outskirts of the Black Forest.”
His grin is small and proud as he turns back to the Leviathans, his eyes fixated on them with a certain hardness I’ve yet to seen from the Lord.
I can only envision what Daniel has done to the earth and stone in the Plains, but I know that whatever he did is his own personal warning to anyone attempting to get close to our forests again.
“I missed you those nights,” he says quietly, “in the trees.”
I grimace on a nod. Both nights I was to stay in the Hidden City took me in different directions, first out to the clearing to meet Hirovale and then to the mills that were hosting Troy’s man.
Lord Daniel had made preparations for me to stay, and now I can’t even offer him a truthful excuse as to why I wasn’t there.
“I found myself in an unlikely situation on both nights,” I give him an apologetic look.
Lord Daniel remains quiet as I turn my guilty gaze back to the delegation up front, my eyes landing on Troy laughing with Prince Isham.
The two of them are watching Edam and his water show with delight, the sight making me scowl even more as I try to connect Troy with the blond Discerni and everything I’ve learned about Woodlands.
“Alexis…”
“Hmm?” I turn back to the Lord.
“I asked if everything ended up alright for you?”
“Oh. Yes,” I give him a small smile, “I actually plan on making it back within the next few months. Willem requested.”
“I know it,” Lord Daniel beams, his grin widening behind his beard, “he’s been telling all of his little friends in the trees. Pulls out his new shiny red marbles every chance he gets."
I grin broadly at the thought, "he's a sweet boy.”
Daniel nods and looks at me over his ale, his brown eyes hooded as he considers his next words.
“Do you enjoy children, Lady Alexis?”
“I do. Immensely.”
“And have you ever considered having any of your own?” he asks casually.
I fiddle with the fluorite on my ring, replying with a small smile, “if the option ever presented itself, I would be honored to one day become a mother.”
Lord Daniel’s smile is wide as we both tilt our heads up the sky, watching as the water branches out into tiny butterflies. The summoning could be absolutely beautiful… if I didn’t know the man behind it that was creating such delicate creatures.
I bring my gaze down to Keane standing up front with the delegation as well.
His mother is talking and pointing at the night sky above them, but Keane’s brown eyes are set intensely on mine and not the show.
It occurs to me, then, that he’s been listening to mine and Daniel’s conversation from the moment he approached me, his brown eyes so fixated that once again I have to look away.
“How long do you anticipate staying in Bardot, Lord Daniel?”
His hand darts up to his beard, stroking it in thought, “I suppose I’m on the Leviathans’ schedule. I’ll need to escort them out of Disce when they make the trip back.”
I nod and look over at our guests. They look so friendly and casual here, like they’re enjoying the general ambiance of the spring night. But even still, there’s something different about Edam, perhaps the way he continues to manipulate the water with a dangerous glint in his eyes.
That look reminds me that these are no friends.
Edam and the Prince’s older brother tried taking me and Storm.
Taking us.
I’m still dumbfounded at how they’re allowed to be here now in open welcome.
“I recognize him,” I say quietly.
“Yes,” Daniel tilts his head, taking a deep swig of ale as he watches the Leviathan with me.
“I’m sure we’re the only two here not properly fawning over them.”
“Politics, Lady Alexis,” Lord Daniel grimaces, “an area I am glad to rarely participate in. If it were up to me, the man would’ve lost his way in our woods upon first arriving.”
I nod at Lord Daniel in agreement, his statement a proper fitting for the Leviathan who attempted to take his life.
“What do you make of the Prince?” I ask, turning my gaze to the smiling younger brother.
He’s handsome, his features softer than his older brother’s and graced with lines around his eyes and mouth, proof that he’s used both and with passion.
His braids are thicker than what I remember of his brother’s, with only three rows gracing the top before they fall heavier behind his back.
They’re cuffed at the bottoms by large white, tan and blue beads fastened at the ends.
“A talker,” Lord Daniel says plainly, “a listener. A good conversationist.”
“Has he summoned?” I wonder aloud, my eyes narrowing on the three thick braids.
The Prince’s shoulder is angled to us so that one is visible from afar, his hair swaying with his head as he talks to Troy and watches the water in the air.
I frown when that braid definitely twitches under my gaze, but the Prince grabs it and flings it to his back, his eyes narrowed down as if in small warning.
No.
I’m envisioning that.
“Not yet,” Lord Daniel grimaces, eyes still trained on Edam. Edam’s water butterflies have now transformed into small birds that fly over the crowd.
I move my focus back on Prince Isham’s shoulder, to the braid that’s found its way back to his front. The beads are resting just under his collarbone, and when I look at the end where the tuft of hair points downwards, the black starts to take the shape of a small arrowhead.
I blink hard.
Then again.
My heart stills in my chest as two black eyes materialize at the bottom of that braid, those beady orbs blinking back at me in return.
Fuck.
There’s no envisioning it now. The snake in the Prince’s hair is looking directly at me.
My breathing turns shallow as I watch a set of fingers wrap themselves over the beads and throw them behind his back.
I glance up to Prince Isham too quickly, noticing his hazel eyes landing directly on mine.
A cool smile forms at his lips before I avert his gaze and look up to Edam’s birds in the sky.
They dart above the crowd before morphing into a single large beast, the crowd gasping in awe and turning in my direction as the large water bird starts flying straight towards Daniel and I.
“Is that…” I whisper.
“A hawk,” Lord Daniel nods.
I scowl at the faux animal heading our way, its appearance eerily similar to that of Stormfall.
Daniel takes a step at my front just as I push my shoulders back tall, my gaze landing on the two Leviathans with an open glare I don’t care to hide.
Both men smile back at me as the hawk soars high into the sky before disappearing into the dark.
It then comes flying back down in a clear path directed straight at me before it bursting into the finest of mist.
Everyone cheers in amazement, their eyes alight in wonder.
Everyone except a select few…
My own gaze is still bouncing back and forth between the Leviathans, the hatred emitting from me unable to be held back.
Desmond is standing next to his father with a hardness in his silent features as he grips the hilt of his sword, the King shifting on his feet as he notices his son’s reaction. Keane is…
Ancients, Keane.
He’s looking directly at Edam and Prince Isham with me, analyzing their smiles with a cool severity.
I’ve seen that face before, seen those same features on the nights he dealt with Tadeo and Troy’s man at the mills.
His right palm is turned towards the ground, his fingers tense and ready as he takes a step forward.
“Let’s get you inside, Lady Alexis.”
Lord Daniel places his hand on the small of my back, recognizing the gesture for what it was. I nod and let him escort us back inside the room, only turning around when loud footsteps follow us from the veranda.
“We saw,” Holis huffs.
“It had a likeness to Storm,” I scowl.
“It was Storm,” Mana scowls quietly.
I turn to Lord Daniel at my side and introduce Sera as the three approach, “Lord Daniel, this is Sera, Mana’s wife. She owns a beautiful café up in the Palisades.”
Sera smiles at me before extending her hand out to Lord Daniel to shake. True to his nature, Daniel takes her fingers and brings her hand to his lips in a chaste kiss, “a pleasure to meet you, Sera.”
“How can they know?” I ask as we move inside the room, far away from the balcony.
“Storm was flying above us when we rode,” Lord Daniel says in thought, “perhaps he saw then.”
“They knew before that, though,” I scowl again, my brows furrowing deeper, “they knew exactly who they were looking for that night. What they were looking for. Is Hirovale prominent in Livyatan?”