CHAPTER XXI #4
I’m too worked up in anticipation of what will happen under the Shadow Oak now.
He is going to take me, all of me, in a hundred different ways that will harness all of these instances in which we denied ourselves in the past. My heart pounds in nervousness for the first time since we’ve left, knowing that we’re one step closer to finally letting that happen.
Keane and I continue through the city of Dalloway until the afternoon, the sun dipping lower though not yet ready to make its descent into sunset. He finally leads us to the western outskirts of the city, to a decent sized building that has a swinging mahogany sign above the door.
The Twin City Inn.
The two of us lead Millie and Ash through the inn’s courtyard and towards the stable barn, walking to the end of the stalls where Desmond noted would be empty. The stall he arranged is perfect, large enough to fit both horses for the night with a water trough and plenty of hay scattered around.
Keane and I move around the horses in silence, removing our traveling packs and giving both a good water down and hefty brush, pampering them before the long and hard road tomorrow.
We make our way back through the stables when they’re finally settled in, then walk past the courtyard and into the inn.
The smell of early dinner fills the main room, with many people laughing and smoking and enjoying the decent sized pub resting against the back wall.
A few heads turn to the opening of the door when we walk through, but they quickly turn back around with a shrug of indifference when they don’t see anything, most likely figuring it was the wind that pulled it open.
“I’ll never get used to this,” I whisper to Keane.
He grins and takes a heavy step inside, walking towards a large staircase at the side of the inn. We make our way up the steps and move down the hall to the right, all the way to the end until we reach the door.
The moment Keane’s hand rests on the metal handle to the room, it flashes a deep black, glittering to his touch. He pushes the door open and takes a confident step inside, the two of us eyeing the room around us.
It’s a decently sized vacancy that only has one bed.
The bed is smaller than my own in Bardot and doesn’t nearly provide enough room to fit Keane and I comfortably side by side, and rests against the left wall next to an armoire and a tall mirror.
On the right side of the room is a table set with four chairs, the candles on top already flickering with the small fireplace and making the whole room cozy and warm.
I bring my finger up to Stormfall’s chest with a smile and rub him gently.
“You don’t need to wake up right now Storm, but I do need to transfer you to the bed.”
Stormfall takes a sleepy step off my shoulder and lands on the hand he knows is waiting for him. I walk him over to the bedpost and tap the wood there, letting him take another small step off and onto the bed. He immediately furrows his wings and head back into his body, resuming his sleep.
“I need a bath,” I tell Keane, setting my travel packs on the table in the room and eyeing the inlet in the wall that leads to the bathing chamber.
I let my feet move towards that small room and peer inside, noticing a black granite tub resting in the middle already filled with steaming water and towels laid neatly on a stool next to it.
“You take the first,” Keane replies when I walk back into the main room, “I have some messages to attend to. Once we’re both done, we’ll see what we can do about stealing some dinner.”
I glance at him sharply and watch as he takes a seat at the table and pulls out his oak pen and wood slab.
“Stealing, your Highness?”
Keane’s eyes catch mine with a grin. He chuckles at my holding gaze and rolls his eyes just slightly, “I’ll leave some cinerin behind.”
“Yes, you will,” I nod with my own stern look, shaking my head as I walk to join him.
I pull out my soap from my packs and take a seat across the table, working on my boots as Keane peers back down to his oak.
I look at it curiously and notice too many words etched across that slab, each with different messages waiting for the Prince.
“How does that work?” I ask.
Keane catches my eyes lingering on his oak. I glance down to pull out my larger dagger and nod at the slab, “not the magic of it, but the actual messages. How do you know who is writing to you? There’s so much text there.”
Keane smiles, his brown eyes soft and slightly amused, “hopefully the writer signs their name.”
“I never did,” I furrow my brows, wondering if I should have.
“No,” Keane grins, “but your writing was new to me. I knew it came from you.”
“And all the others?” I glance back at the full slab.
“The text will not leave the wood until it has been read. Half of these messages have been waiting for me since lunch.”
“That’s incredible,” I shake my head in wonder. I tuck my boots under the table and unbuckle my smaller dagger from beneath my shirt.
“Will you show me?” Keane asks as he pushes the oak away and sits back in his chair.
I turn to him in confusion but notice his eyes are on the dagger now in my hand. He watches my fingers move around the hilt before I place it on the table between us.
“But you’ve already seen,” I smile, “in the woods in Fumagalli.”
“When you threw it at the Ancient,” Keane gives me a knowing grin, “show me again.”
“Why?” I laugh and stand up, gripping the bottom of my shirt as I pull it over my head. Keane watches me from his seat, his body casual as his eyes trail over my chest to the black lace hugging my breasts.
“Show me, Alexis,” he commands softly.
I sigh in feigned exasperation and pick up the blade from the table.
“Choose something,” I tell him, looking across the room.
“Can you see the burn mark at the side of the armoire?” he asks.
I narrow my eyes on the small smudge of black resting against the wood, no doubt where someone had a mishap in the middle of the night and brought their candle too close. I raise my hand casually and flick the dagger forward, watching as the blade lands with a thud and covers it perfectly.
“That’s incredible,” Keane replies, moving his heated eyes back on my body.
We fell asleep last night facing eachother in bed with pillows situated between the two of us.
Per usual, though, I wake up before dawn to find my body snuggled into the fold of Keane’s arm, my hand laying across his chest and fingering the black chain around his neck.
Keane is already awake. His eyes are closed but his hand is moving steadily through my hair in caress.
I give a small sigh, not wanting to leave this embrace but reminding myself that I will be setting off for a stronger one.
Tonight is the night.
Keane opens his eyes and releases his hand from my hair with a small smile.
His eyes immediately find mine, gaze holding so much affection that I have to look away from the intensity of it.
I push my hand into his chest and feel his heart beating just as hard as mine before I lift myself up quietly from the bed.
“Good morning.”
“It is,” Keane nods, watching as my body lifts over his. He shifts underneath me, watching me move in my night slip until I’m off the bed and walking to my travel packs.
“Today’s ride will be hard,” he says quietly as I pull out a fresh change of clothes.
“I welcome it.”
I smile and finger the black and gold oak earrings that I plan to wear for the ride and night, then lift up the familiar satin gold long sleeve in my hands, now cleaned and pressed from our past travels.
Keane told me he liked this shirt on me at the inn in Fumagalli.
The cut down the middle is revealing and sexy, and the sleeves down my arms flow nicely until they reached my wrists in a tight embrace.
I smile at the memory of him grabbing my wrist at that inn, commanding my body even then with the simplest of touch to my palm.
I gasp when I turn around and run into Keane standing directly in front of me.
He’s wearing only his sleeping pants, the back fabric hugging at his hips but faded into a relaxed comfortableness.
His eyes flick down to my smile and then to the soft gold shirt in my hands as he brings his fingers up to touch the fabric, grinning slyly.
“I like this shirt on you.”
“I know,” I take a small breath in response, letting his body’s presence hover over mine.
Keane takes his fingers off the shirt as his gaze moves higher, over the silk of my slip covering my breasts and to the curve of my neck.
I remain silent, watching him look over me, loving the way he looks over me.
His eyes travel to my lips and to the side of my cheek, to where the small scar rests from my fall at the mills.
His brown eyes catch and hold mine until he gives a very small nod. The two of us are ready.
Our ride through the Green Valley is indeed hard.
We stop once for a late breakfast and to rest the horses as we ourselves stretch from the morning ride and try to relax.
Keane had stopped us at the side of one of Sutton and Tripler’s large quarries, the two of us gazing down into the massive hole in the ground as we watched the Discerni and human men all working the earth to mine the black granite. It was a sight to see.
Once we were ready, we rode swiftly down the Great Road with the spring breeze getting cooler as we ventured farther north in his lands. We stopped again well after the noon apex to take care of the horses, then decided to give ourselves a break under the trees of the forest.
I must have fallen asleep under those trees, or rested my eyes for a brief moment, because when I woke up it was to Keane no longer sitting with me but standing with the horses, readying them for the final ride ahead.
We would reach Gaumond just before sunset.