Chapter 9
Morning brought with it a thunderstorm. I woke to the sound of thunder rumbling and opened my eyes to see Incendis getting out of bed. When he picked up his robe instead of heading for the bathroom, I frowned.
“You’re not going to sneak out, are you? Because I’ll follow you and I won’t even bother wearing a nearly see-through robe while I do.”
He turned with a smile, which helped me feel slightly less vengeful. “I was going to kiss you good day before I left,” he said, “but I do need to get to work.”
Oh dear. I sat up in bed to better give him my whole focus. “Babe, we talked about this.”
“I know, but—”
“Nope.”
“Zalman, I can’t sit about and do nothing!” He fluttered his wings so fast they were a blur, but they didn’t lift him off the floor. “What kind of prince would that make me?”
“No one’s saying you should do nothing,” I said with every ounce of patience I could muster at the butt crack of dawn and without a drop of coffee.
“I just think—” I had to pause as thunder roared again, closer this time.
“I just think you could let someone bring you problems that only you can solve because you’re the prince. You know what I mean?”
His wings drooping until they all but disappeared behind him said everything. I hated to circle back to this, but he did kind of bring it on himself.
I threw back the covers and went over to plaster myself all down his lovely warm body, looping my arms around his waist. Smiling, I asked, “What’s something you’ve wanted to do but hadn’t had the time for? Because you can do that now. Whatever it is.”
I didn’t mention reading beside fountains or shopping in town, but I hoped my attempt at forced relaxation was still front and center in his mind.
Incendis heaved a sigh. “I’d like to visit Father.”
Aww. Poor baby. “Well, if he comes around as Lars, I’ll definitely make sure to—”
“No, I mean his physical form. Where he’s inside the ruins of his castle and trapped in amber.”
“Oh. Yeah, sure. Of course we can do that.” I assumed it would be like visiting someone’s grave. “Would bringing flowers to leave for him be appropriate?”
“If you’d like.” He smiled softly then and curled around me in a hug. “Thank you for wanting to go with me.”
This poor guy. I was really starting to feel like he was very lonely, all on his own, despite being surrounded by people. I pushed into him and held on tight.
“You’re welcome, hon. I’m happy to.”
When he lifted his head, I gave him a little kiss and smiled as he blushed so cute.
But then I eased back and tried to look stern.
“Now go on back to your room, bathe, and get dressed. Then come back here and we’ll have breakfast, and you can tell me all about where we’re going.
” Because, so help me, he was done having dry toast and water like that was even food worthy of a sunrise.
“Yes, dear,” he said with a grin before doing to the door.
I admired the view as he left and almost called him back so I could tumble him all over the bed again. But no, we had things to do help him feel like he had a purpose without being a micromanager and we were going to do them.
After I finished bathing, I had a moment’s worry that I wouldn’t have anything to wear since those footmen had previously brought clothes to me.
But when I opened the wardrobe, I found a whole bunch of shirts, vests, jackets, and trousers in an array of colors.
Was there some magic left in the court that let someone whip up a whole closet full of clothes for me?
I had no idea, but I managed to make a pirate’s shirt and tight navy blue pants look wicked.
As I was just about to leave my room, there came a knock on the door. I opened it to find Incendis dressed in gold—his jacket literally glittered—and a few servants holding trays. Smiling because he’d listened, I stepped back to let everyone in.
We had omelettes and some kind of nutty bread with a tea that I dearly hoped had a very high caffeine rating. I didn’t want to rub it in that this was so much better than his usual breakfast, but I think he knew by the way I grinned at him.
“So tell me about where we’re going.” I sipped the tea. It was good, bold, and I was going to pretend that it would do for me everything my usual espresso would’ve.
“Father’s castle is in the center of the courts. The barriers quite literally chopped it into quarters and his…tomb is in the very center of that.”
It occurred to me that— “You saw it all happen.”
He nodded at the tabletop. “I did.”
Wincing internally at what that must’ve been like, I didn’t know what else to do but reach over and take his hand. He gave my fingers a squeeze and went back to his breakfast.
Incendis cleared his throat. “The journey should take us two days.”
“Oh, okay. Can I get a bag so I can pack?”
“They’ll come in and pack once we’re finished.”
I gave him a look. “Incendis, are there people waiting in the hallway?”
I watched realization dawn on him before he got up and went to the door. “Please come in and do what you need to now,” he said and held the door open while a woman and two men carrying a trunk entered.
Incendis came back to the table and sat down again without looking at me, but I could tell he knew I’d smiled and wiggled in my seat, happy that he wasn’t being such a prick.
It wasn’t like they interrupted anything.
While the woman bustled about gathering my things together, she and the waiting men seemed to ignore us completely.
Part of me wanted to just handle it myself, but I knew that was these peoples’ jobs and to stop them might be insulting.
So I finished my breakfast as Incendis told me about traveling.
“We’ll have tents for sleeping, simpler meals, and may need to stop if storms make it too dangerous to remain on the road. The drivers will know more about that.”
The current storm had moved on while I’d been in the bath. “So a bunch of people will go with us?”
“Yes. Oh, would you prefer we go alone?”
“Would you?”
“I…hadn’t thought of that.”
I watched him think about it now, sipping his tea and staring out the window behind me. Maybe this was just how princes traveled—which it seemed to be—but the castle ruins and visiting what amounted to a grave could be something to keep more private.
Eventually, Incendis shook his head. “We could take my unicorn and be there in under an hour, but I think I’d rather take our time getting there and back.”
The look he gave me—little smile, blush, a twinkle to his eyes—made me think he just might want to take our time so we could have nothing more to do than hang out together. I grinned at him and nodded, perfectly okay with getting to know him better on a camping trip.
Which reminded me of how I’d been on such a trip with my friends when all of us fell through the fairy ring.
“Incendis, do you think it’s possible that my friends have landed in different courts? Knowing what we know about the curse and all that?”
He paused in taking another sip of tea and set his cup down. “If all of them went through as you did, then I think it’s very possible that’s what’s happened.”
I was glad for that. If we— When we broke the curse, we would all be able to reunite.
And then, instead of trying to convince them of what had happened to me and them thinking I was nuts, they’d know everything was real and true.
Now I wondered which of my friends had gotten which prince and how they were handling them.
He chuckled a little. “I’m quite hopeful that your friends are as determined and strong-willed as you are so that they can handle my brothers.”
“Oh, don’t worry about that,” I said with a wicked laugh. “They’re kind and considerate, but absolutely stubborn and bull-headed, too. The princes won’t stand a chance.”
With breakfast done, Incendis made me put on a jacket that matched my pants before we followed the men carrying my trunk down to the waiting carriage.
I understood what entourage meant when I realized that three other carriages and maybe twenty knights on horseback were lined up and waiting to go with us.
If this was normal, no wonder Incendis had never considered going anywhere alone.
I climbed into the carriage for us and found Love in the Loaves waiting on the bench seat. I picked up the book and showed it to Incendis as he sat down and someone closed the carriage door. “Did you do this?” I asked him with a smile.
He shook his head, and then we stared at each other. I knew he was thinking the same thing as me—had Lars left it? If he had, that was about the sweetest thing he’d done yet.
“Will you read it to me?” Incendis all but whispered.
As the carriage gave a little lurch forward, I settled in and used the book’s ribbon to open to where we’d left off on Incendis’s forced relaxation day.
“Today,” I read, “Liandra was going to try sticky buns. That man couldn’t possibly miss what it meant when a woman licked frosting from her own finger, let alone his…”