Chapter 40
JO
It’s pouring outside, freezing rain pelting the windows of the parlor.
The ocean is at high tide and the swell angry.
I turn my back to the view, taking in the somber mood in the main living quarters of the cottage.
The fire pops in the hearth, but it’s as if the weather has added an additional layer to the gravity in the room. No one has spoken in hours.
Messer reclines on a leather settee, eyes closed as he slips in and out of sleep, turning every so often.
Propped on a stool at the bar, Fredrich draws a stone against the blade of a sword.
The fifth he’s sharpened so far, if I’ve counted correctly.
And try as I might to stop myself, my eyes slide to Acker, who twirls a dagger between his fingers.
He’s facing the door, his back to the bar, feet crossed at the ankles.
From my vantage point by the windows, I only have a partial view of his features, but I don’t need to see them in their entirety to know his expression is severe, intense. And not in the way I enjoyed when we were on the stairs last night; the kind that makes me uneasy.
I’m not sure he slept at all after Messer dropped the news of Kai’s impending arrival. He and Fredrich were already down here when I awoke. They’ve been shifty all morning.
I feel off-kilter. My mind volleying between being anxious of Kai’s arrival and reliving the incident on the stairs with Acker only hours ago.
I folded. The honesty spilling from my mouth like a broken accord.
But once it was out there, it felt too good to take it back.
Especially once I saw the stunned expression on Acker’s face, awestruck before it filled with the same longing I’ve been harboring.
Then the way he kissed me, held me in his hands, as if it was with all of his being.
The threat of a blush begins to creep up my neck and I dare a glance in Acker’s direction, only to find his gaze is already on me, a knowing glint in his eyes as he twirls the dagger in his hand, a grin tugging at his lips.
The silence is broken by the sound of Irina’s heels clicking down the main staircase, drawing everyone’s attention to her arrival. Dressed in a formal gown, her hair and make-up are done to perfection, and sparkling jewels hang from her ears.
Messer whistles, his sleep deprived gaze raking over Irina’s svelte figure. “What’s the special occasion?”
She pauses on the threshold, hands smoothing out the silk fabric of her skirts. “In Strou, it is customary to greet dignitaries in our best attire. If I am to represent my people, I’m going to uphold the traditions of my family.”
“Where’d you find the dress?” Fredrich asks.
But it’s Acker who answers. “It was my mother’s.” He gives her a nod of approval.
The flare of jealousy in my chest is nonsensical. I think it’s safe to say Acker doesn’t have any connection to her. Not like what he has with me.
I turn my attention back to the windows and the turbulent waves below. It’s strange to feel as though I can relate to the ocean’s uncontrollable madness.
I’ve just gotten my thoughts under control when I feel Irina’s presence beside me. I can smell her, too, the florals of her perfume forming a sweet cloud in the air around her.
“The mood in here is abysmal,” she says, conversationally. After a tense moment where I don’t respond, she continues, “How much do you want to bet he kills him?”
I pivot my head to look at her. “What?”
She shrugs, a soft grin playing on her painted mouth. “I’d be willing to make a small wager.”
“On…?”
“Acker,” she says, as if the answer is obvious. “On how likely he is to kill your ex-lover.”
The term lover in reference to Kai makes me uncomfortable, and a quick glance back at the room’s other occupants tells me everyone heard it. Fredrich is grinning to himself, and Messer, the same. Acker, however, remains stoic as ever.
I shake my head, keeping my opinion to myself.
If Acker is insistent on taking his father’s throne, then I’d say the odds are in Kai’s favor.
Kai could be a valuable asset if we’re to go against Edmond’s and Wren’s armies.
But that doesn’t mean the chances of Acker harming Kai today aren’t zero; I’d say Kai’s attitude once he arrives will determine the likelihood of his leaving this cottage alive.
“I’m sure everything is going to be fine,” I say, instead.
Irina lifts a brow at my cavalier attitude. “You do lie an awful lot, don’t you?”
Oh, for fucks’ sake. I’m sick of this whole liar narrative.
“I kissed Acker last night,” I say, equal parts ashamed and petty. “Is that honest enough for you?”
If I expected Irina to be shocked or appalled by my admission, I’m sorely mistaken. “Oh, I’m aware,” she says, lips upturned. “Everyone in the cottage heard your quarrel on the stairs.”
“I think that’s putting it mildly,” Messer interjects, from where he reclines on the settee.
I narrow my eyes at him. Whose side is he even on? He doesn’t see my scowl from behind his closed eyes, but his smile only grows, undoubtedly feeling the heat of my glare.
Irina leans in closer, voice conspiratorial and barely above a whisper when she speaks.
“The second night following our wedding, I waited up for him in one of my most daring lingerie sets.” Her gaze is locked on the view outside, but smiles to herself with an almost pitying expression, like she’s talking about someone else.
“I waited in bed with champagne and chocolates for hours, and it was near midnight when a man I’d never met before walked through the door of the bedchamber.
When I demanded to know who he was, he introduced himself as Wesley, and said that he was there under the prince’s orders.
” Her eyes flick to the side to meet mine.
“It was then that I realized Acker was offering me something he could not.”
My heart thuds in my chest at the realization. That Acker refused to bed her, at least after the night of their wedding. I can’t imagine how much that hurt. Her pride, her heart.
“I refused at first, of course,” she says, a genuine smile returning to her face. “But, after an unhappy year went by, I finally accepted the sliver of happiness Wesley gave me. He was very persistent.”
“I’m sorry,” I say, at a loss for words.
She scrunches up her nose in distaste. “I gave Acker hell for it. Hated him for a long time. You too, and then myself, before I realized there’s no one at fault here but the man on the Kenta throne who forced his son to marry a woman for political gain.”
With those final words, she squeezes my elbow and leaves me to go and sit on the settee opposite Messer’s.
I look at Acker, whose eyes briefly meet mine.
A part of me hates that the truth of his relationship with Irina didn’t come from him, but I think he always knew I would be suspicious if he tried to discredit the validity of his own marriage.
Especially considering what I witnessed the night of their wedding, when I was forced to watch them.
The memory of it has haunted me for years.
Acker stands to his full height. “Someone’s coming,” he says.
Fredrich and Messer react in turn, standing as they watch Acker still the blade in his hand, eyes closed as he concentrates.
“How close?” Fredrich asks.
“Within minutes,” he replies, opening his eyes. “They’re moving fast by carriage.”
He strides to the fireplace, where he places his dagger on the edge of the mantle, the tip aimed at the doorway.
It’s then that I begin to notice the other weapons.
Not hidden, but positioned with precision around the room, and I’m not sure betting against Irina regarding Kai’s safety would be a good decision.
Acker turns toward me, using the tether to send an unspoken request for me to join him by the open doorway, a strong tug emanating from below my breastbone.
I want to defy him, a stubborn part of me urging me to stand my ground, but there’s a larger part of me that wants to be by his side when Kai walks through the front door.
The truth is … I’m nervous of being near Kai again.
If Kai did influence me, is it possible that I’ll fall under the same spell the moment he walks through the door?
The last time I saw him was on the dock in Alaha when Acker and I were making our “escape.” It was a ruse meant to cover Kai’s involvement in my leaving, but the words he spewed in those moments hit too close to home, felt too real. Humiliating, even.
I don’t have to voice my shame or nerves out loud for Acker to sense it, his eyes turning soft in the glow of the fire. “Come here,” he says with a gentle tip of his chin.
And I don’t hesitate this time, weaving through the ornate furnishings toward him, slipping my hand onto his upturned palm.
He threads our fingers together, pulling me to his side. “You’re the queen of Maile,” he says, eyes holding mine. “You do not falter before anyone, remember?”
I nod, indeed remembering how he told me something similar when I was forced to kneel before his father that first day in Kenta’s palace.
He dips his face into the crook of my neck, inhaling before placing a chaste kiss there. “Besides,” he says, letting his lips drag along the skin as he pulls away, before speaking directly into my ear. “He’s going to know exactly who you do and do not belong to.”
There’s no mistaking the blush flooding my cheeks, and at the same exact moment there’s a knock at the front door, I realize that may have been his plan all along.
To distract me just long enough for the evidence of my blush to be splashed across my face when Kai and his party arrive, knowing that Kai will draw his own conclusion.
As if my hand in Acker’s isn’t telling enough.