Chapter Fourteen
Alisdair healed quickly in the coming weeks, and with news of his recovery spreading through Wind and Wild, the wolf attacks on our people and the villages ceased.
“But I’ve yet to find my brother,” Foalan said, his forehead stuck to the floor. “My failure is unacceptable, my lord. I insist I be flogged, then replaced. Your army deserves a better man than I.”
Alisdair, Foalan, Eadaoin, Aeris, and I were out in the gardens.
Aeris fluttered around Alisdair—giving him ale, adjusting the hanging orblights, fluffing his throne cushions.
She agreed with me that he shouldn’t be out of bed until the healers declared him out of the woods.
But nothing, not even being outnumbered, stopped Alisdair from doing exactly what he wished to do.
I checked him over, then returned to my task. The little patch I scratched out for myself was just beginning to sprout. Eadaoin put on a polite face, and pretended to be interested while I gushed at her—explaining all the hows and whys of what I was doing.
I kept my other ear on Foalan and Alisdair’s conversation.
“I will not flog or replace you for failing to locate your brother. Meallan knows Wind and Wild’s dark and forgotten corners better than anyone.
He hoards a thousand bolt holes, and he’s an expert at covering his tracks.
I never expected him to be easy to find.
But—” A hard, vicious edge crept into his voice.
“I will flog, replace, and behead you if you tell me once more that you haven’t found the traitor who attacked and baited my queen. ”
My conversation with Eadaoin ceased abruptly. I half rose, ready and willing to dive in front of Foalan. I was beginning to understand Alisdair and when he was or wasn’t being sincere.
And right then he’d never sounded more serious.
“On that topic,” Foalan began, drawing me closer. “I will not disappoint you. The traitor has been found.”
“Who is it?” Alisdair, Aeris, Eadaoin, and I asked at once.
“You’re unlikely to know her, my lady,” Foalan replied, lifting his head high enough to meet my eyes. “She’s a kitchen maid. Her name is Eavan.”
“Where is she?” Alisdair broke in. “Bring her here. Now. I will execute her myself.”
“Hold on a moment.” I moved between him and Foalan. “Why would she do this? Was Meallan threatening or blackmailing her? Was she helping him because she wanted the curse to remain unbroken?”
“The only thing that matters less than these questions are their response,” Alisdair said. “She dies.”
I gave him a look. “I would still like to hear the response, husband, so if you please...?”
He flapped a hand. “Very well.”
“Foalan?”
“My lady, she did follow his orders in aid of his cause, but after speaking with her...” Sighing, he rose to his feet.
“After speaking with her, I knew immediately something wasn’t right.
She was ranting and raving about how much she loves Meallan, that she would do anything for him, and they’re going to be together forever.
“Absolute nonsense because I know enough about my brother to know he’d never mate with a chimp faeriken. I don’t need to be a healer to know she’s under the influence of a love spell.”
I felt Alisdair’s silence like a weight against my back.
“Is there any way to cure her of its effects?” I asked.
Foalan nodded. “It takes time, and she’ll be a danger to you until then, but the healers can return her addled mind to its proper state.”
“Then, we treat her, but we do so far from the castle. She cannot return until she’s well.” I faced Alisdair. “Do you agree?”
Face shadowed, a sharp bob of the chin was his only agreement.
Damn fucking Meallan and his love spells. His pack may have sworn an oath warning them off attacking Alisdair directly, but they were wreaking more than enough havoc on his life through the loophole.
“We’re leaving,” Alisdair barked in my direction. “Now.”
He grabbed his cane and entered the castle, leaving me to trail behind. I followed—catching up to him easily.
These days, Alisdair was more and more open to talking to me and having real, honest conversations. But not in front of an audience.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I wish I could hunt down that bastard and kill him for you myself.”
“It’s not for you to apologize to me. It was you he tried to have killed not once but four times.”
“Let’s both agree we hate that furry little shit and want him dead.”
“Agreed,” he growled.
I squeezed his hand. He squeezed back, leading me around the wrong corner, going the opposite direction of our bedchamber.
“I have something for you.”
“Ooh, a present?” I half joked.
“You may call it that if you like.”
I was even more intrigued. I pelted him with questions as we turned down hallways, and found ourselves in the east wing.
The hard line of my shoulders went taut, remembering the night he found me in the east tower, and flayed my heart alive, shouting that I would never mean more to him than a good fuck.
Don’t think about that. Things are different between you and Alisdair now. He’s different. He asked me to stay with him.
But he hasn’t told you he loves you, whispered another, quieter voice.
I pushed both out of my head, along with my memories of that horrible night. If Alisdair was willing to forgive me poisoning him and throwing me off a cliff. I could forgive him for losing his temper when he found me trespassing in the one room he asked me not to enter.
We turned one final corner, and came face-to-face with glass-paned double doors.
“What’s this?”
“Another hidden part of the castle,” he replied. “Or at least it was hidden until it was ready for you.”
Alisdair pushed open the doors, and the gift of speech was stolen off my tongue.
My mind flashed back to that first night wandering the halls with Eadaoin. I peeked out of a blurry, frost-covered window and saw what looked like a conservatory. I forgot all about it when Alisdair chased me away from the tower.
Warm, misty spray washed over me—delighting my skin as it did the thirsty plants.
Lettuce, peas, tomatoes, peppers, spinach, carrots, and herbs.
Strawberries, blueberries, melons, cucumbers, and figs.
I named all the plants and fruits I recognized, then jumped up and down, clapping to see even more that I didn’t.
The greenhouse was incredible. So big, my gleeful cries echoed against the cavernous ceiling. I walked the rows of the plant stands, stretching my arms out wide, and just barely brushing their leaves from fingertips to fingertips.
“Alisdair, what is this? It’s amazing!”
“I told you everyone in Lumenfell must be self-sufficient.” He plucked a ripe, juicy strawberry and tossed it to me. I took a bite and moaned. “Castle Riagin is no different. This is the greenhouse that feeds our table. I thought you might like it to be your greenhouse—”
“Yes.” I knew culture dictated that I hemmed, hawed, and demurred before accepting a large gift. We were supposed to go back and forth with me saying that I couldn’t possibly accept. “Fuck that. I want it. I want it so much, Alisdair, it’s perfect. It’s the best gift anyone has ever given me!”
I ran to him, arms out—then abruptly remembered I couldn’t go around throwing myself on men who were only days out of their sickbed.
Chuckling, Alisdair came the rest of the way, tugged me off my feet, and buried me in his arms. I melted against him—bursting with so much love for him I couldn’t breathe for wanting to shower him in it.
I hadn’t told him I loved him since that night I held him dying in the snow. It wasn’t possible he heard me, and with each day that passed with me not saying it again, the words hung heavier around my heart.
Alisdair asked me to stay, but I didn’t know what that meant for us. For me. As much as I wanted to go home to my family, it was Emiana, not me, who would walk through their door. It was also Emiana who would walk right out and return to Lumenfell.
I knew this because over the last few weeks during the times she’d taken me over, she was nothing but pleased that I fixed things with Alisdair, and now she would get her war. If anyone could’ve wanted to be high empress of Elva more than Constance, it was Princess fucking Emiana of Lyrica.
She wanted to stay here so that Alisdair, and his spies, and his army could give her everything she desired. I wished to stay because Alisdair was everything I desired. But only time, and not very much time at that, would tell who would get their wish.
All I knew was that the war plans were already in motion. And Alisdair still hadn’t told me he loved me, and he didn’t know my true name.
I slid out of his arms, dropping back down on the floor. “I love my gift,” I said, forcing my mind away from my thoughts. “But I will need help if I’m to feed an entire castle.”
He chuckled. “You will have it. This area is your domain. Request all the help you need.”
Smiling, I curled my arm through his, resting my head on his shoulder. “Will you show me around? Tell me what some of these plants are?”
Alisdair did just that—giving me the tour and introducing me to the foods they nurtured to thrive in their cold, barren home.
“And in here”—we passed through a small door into another enclosed section of the greenhouse—“is where we grow the tropical flowers. You needn’t continue scratching away at the ground outside. Grow your flowers here.”
I poked his side. “I quite like what my scratching away has produced, but yes, I can do so much more in here.” I tossed my head, mind blown.
“We have to introduce Lumenfell’s greenhouse system to all of Elva.
Especially the magics used to keep plants growing in the wrong climate happy.
This would feed so many struggling families. ”