11. Chapter Eleven #2
“Oh, come on, it’s likely just a bear.” Delainey rolled her eyes with a scoff.
She was a selkie, with gray skin covered in inky spots.
Her eyes were big on her face, but it made her pudgy cheeks adorable.
She brushed her long silvery hair over her shoulder to get it out of her food.
Shoveling down her breakfast, she took smaller bites than Ramone did but at twice the speed.
“What if it was a Yeti?” I giggled, nudging Ramone’s mug of coffee with my own.
He leaned in close, eyes wide, “I heard Yetis can roar so loud they cause avalanches!”
“Oh, you two are impossible,” Delainey grumbled into her food. I opened my mouth to tease her about being a spoil sport when she stiffened, immediately wiping her face clean with one of the cloth napkins. “Your Lunarence! Good morning.”
I twisted in shock, finding Keida settling onto the bench next to me. She bowed her head curtly to both the other clerics. They sat up straight like someone shoved two iron rods up their shirts. Her tone was formal but not unkind, “Good morning, Delainey. Ramone. Melrose.”
My gaze roamed her face as she glanced my way, a twinkle of delight in her icy orbs when she said my name. Like it was a stand-in for a better name, like Troublemaker or Wicked Girl. I flushed a little around my jawline as I turned to face my plate. “Good morning, how did you sleep?”
“Well, thank you,” she answered, taking a bite of her breakfast like she hadn’t spent last night spanking me to completion.
I woke up a smidgen disappointed not to find her crawling into bed with me.
I’ll have to suggest it, see if she takes the bait.
Keida sipped her coffee and squinted at Ramone.
“Did I hear correctly in the fact you think a Yeti is outside the castle walls.”
“Yes,” Ramone and I hissed in excited unison.
Delainey and Keida rolled their eyes, shaking their heads together. However, it wasn’t Keida who spoke next. “Yetis are preposterous. It’s likely just a snowy Gryffin.”
It was a firmer voice from over my left shoulder. A voice I’d only recently thought about. Someone so confident and charismatic that it intimidated me. My shoulders tensed and my spine tingled as I twisted to face the newcomer.
“Peony,” I breathed, staring up into the face of a knight I’d not seen in years.
“Hello, Rosie,” she winked at me, an easy smile spreading on her lips. Peony Bernstein propped a fully armored boot up onto the bench next to my hip and leaned over her bent knee to smile at me. “Long time, no see.”
“Pardon me, Knight Bernstein, but this is breakfast held for those in the order. If you’re in need of assistance, there are clerics in the Cathedral major that can answer any questions you have.
” Keida’s answer was short, dry, unimpressed.
I was still too stunned to speak because I hadn’t heard or seen from Peony Bernstein in six years.
“Oh, my apologies, Your Lunarence, I am actually here for the Lady Melrose. It is of the utmost importance that she come with me at once.”
“Really?” I blurted out, eyebrows up to my hairline.
Peony sent me another wink, and it did something in my stomach.
Something…wrong. It felt forced. Slimy, unwelcome, and derived from a strange place that put me on the defensive.
I cleared my throat, looking back at my plate of food, completely turned off from another meal.
At least this one I got more than halfway through.
“Melrose St. Augustine is in my care while her father is away on sabbatical. Any inquiries go through me. Please inform me of this utmost importance and I shall determine if it needs her attendance or not.” Keida shifted beside me, climbing to her feet.
Having not eaten more than a bite of her breakfast, nor more than a sip of her coffee, Keida abandoned the table completely to stand between Peony and I.
I felt her hip against my back. The difference between the two was stark.
Peony Bernstein was massive, nearly seven feet tall, with broad shoulders and choppy brown hair.
She wore a deep red scar across her lip like a badge of honor and there was a cut in her right brow.
Peony was made of brute strength and her hands were the size of my face.
Keida, however, was closer to my height. Slim in stature, slight in nature, with a hardened face and frosty tone.
“She’s a grown woman,” Peony chuckled, dropping her boot to the floor. “I’m pretty sure she is capable of making decisions for herself even in her father’s absence.”
“I am not implying her inability. I’m implying yours.
Let me make this as monosyllabic as possible for you, Knight Bernstein.
While her father is not here, you speak directly to me.
Now, please, leave. As I said, this is an Order specific mess hall.
I know not all knight’s understand boundaries, but this is a place you cannot be without an invitation. ”
Keida snapped two fingers and two paladins stepped away from their tables, putting their imposing, full platemail-covered bodies on either side of Peony.
I peered at the knight, finding her face twisted up in a petulant scowl.
She, wisely, didn’t pick a fight, especially one she knew she’d lose.
A singular knight without a broadsword in a room full of clerics and paladins under the roof of their goddess’ holy place?
Fools have tried more for less. There was a part of me that considered everyone was being ridiculous. Peony Bernstein was a knight.
Then she cocked a brow at Keida. “I’m a knight captain. Know your place, Cleric.”
“Yes, you are, Knight Bernstein. You answer to the queen.” Keida stepped forward till she forced the knight to step back.
I could only see her from behind, how tense her shoulders were as compared to the curl of her fingers in the small of her back.
“But I do not. When you are in this cathedral, I am the highest authority here.”
Peony didn’t give me a second glance as she tore away from the table.
Just outside the door were two knights, both wearing their glistening helmets.
Morning light reflected off their armor as Peony stormed past them.
They marched after her and I watched in horrified confusion as the knights disappeared from the doorway.
I even glanced at Ramone and Delainey for clarification that that actually fucking happened.
Ramone sat, shocked, like someone slapped him with a wet towel.
Delainey’s upper lip curled in a snarl, eyes narrowed and her cute little fangs barred.
Keida put a hand to my shoulder and squeezed. “May we speak in private, Melrose?”
Sure! You want to talk about how weirdly hostile that was?
“Of course, I’m no longer hungry,” I murmured, climbing to my hooves to follow her out of the room and deep into the belly of the cathedral.