49. Chapter 49
Chapter forty-nine
Audrie eyed me, backing away as I clutched at tulle and gossamer and satin.
I had pulled everything from the armoire that had been filled with endless dresses, all beautiful. Beaded gowns in silver and lavender, gossamer skirts in teal, sienna and navy that looked as smooth as carved marble and as light as stardust.
But I didn’t want just any dress. I wanted the dress I chose to hurt Kaed when he saw me in it. Not hurt, but I wanted to make him squirm. Ache. Just as he had done to me. He would beg me.
“Can’t you just wear this one?” Audrie pulled out a white and silver piece with a high neckline and no sleeves. Its sheer fabric was beautiful. It looked like spider silk under moonlight.
I half smiled. “And before you suggest it, no, I’m not asking Kaed for anything.” I hesitated. He’d definitely tie me to his bed again if he saw even the slightest opportunity to. No outfit? Well, I suppose you can’t attend … I shook my eyes clear. “He’s busy, regardless.”
Tymon and Kaed were currently downstairs discussing tonight.
Tymon was obviously stricken that Sapphine would do something so heinous.
But the point of the conversation was not to make Tymon feel sick at his wife’s actions.
There were twelve council members. And we only needed to speak with ten of them.
Celeste and Morgana were not on our suspect list tonight.
We each had our targets. Ashen and Hael, Audrie’s friends, were even being enlisted to help with the human council members.
I would stay with Kaed because he insisted on it as a condition of my attendance.
I didn’t like that he was being so imperious about this, but I could see his perspective.
I’d just been threatened and attacked. And he hadn’t been there to stop it.
And part of me was glad to know he’d be close by.
The second reason was at my behest. To soften dispositions to Kaed.
“You’re panicking,” Audrie stated, as a bundle of fabric spilled out of my hands.
“I just … I need it to be … more?” Audrie’s head tilted to one side. “More …enticing.” I restrained a smile again.
I didn’t know why I thought this sweet person could help me, but I was out of options with everything I had in front of me.
“Help me?” I pleaded, handing her the garments.
Reluctantly, she grabbed the dresses. And then she grinned.
In true Audrie form, she was out the door, shouting something about being back soon. I caught the tail end of her saying something about Kaed’s credit in Viverna.
It didn’t seem like Audrie would be back any time soon at all, so I grabbed a book and headed for the orange trees in the garden.
I had been reading for hours in the sun, and the blossoms of the orange tree overhead had dappled the dazzling rays.
So far, the heavy text was mostly just a dense historical record of every fae born in Aurora.
Pale hair, beautiful with moon-kissed skin and power that rivalled the sun.
Mostly, it was an ode to Aurorans. It wasn’t very objective.
I wondered if I had read my parents’ names—possibly my name—and hadn’t noticed.
It was a relatively new volume, judging by the clean pages and unmarked edges.
But I might as well have been reading a dead language for all the clarity it offered.
I scooped up an orange from the grass and began peeling it, the zest fizzing into the warm, lazy air. I could have fallen asleep on that bench. There were few worries in this garden as the sun danced with the leaves.
It lasted only for a moment, until I felt something tug on my senses. It was like a whisper. A breath of wind that drifted to me. If the wind had colour, it would be silver as it spoke to me here.
Opening my eyes, I found myself moving towards the back of the garden, to the door Kaed had led us through just a few nights ago.
The whispering intensified until it sounded like a voice.
A male voice.
“Eryk?” I said in disbelief through the closed door in front of me.
“Imogen. Good, you came.” I couldn’t see him, but there was a wire of tension wound into his tone.
My head and the world spun like I was drunk. “What do you mean?” I looked around to see wisps of white air, like steam, vanish under the threshold of the door.
“Imogen, I’m sorry,” he rasped. I felt his hand land on the other side of the door. The door I knew Kaed had glamoured.
“How did you even know to look for me here?”
“Kaedian might be good at glamours, but I’m better at whispering through them.” And I could practically see his charming grin as he said it.
“You can’t be here,” I said, pressing up to the door. I didn’t open it.
“I’m sorry, Imogen. I’m so very sorry. I shouldn’t have kissed you. I just—”
I bit my lip as he spoke. He sounded wracked with remorse, but I didn’t know if I could forgive him.
“I didn’t want to see you with him. With Kaedian. You deserve better. You deserve more. Maybe not me, but you deserve a chance to be happy. On your terms.” Eryk paused. “I can get you out of the city.”
Eryk didn’t know Kaed had already offered me as much. And I’d forgotten that was something I wanted.
Not long ago, I had wanted to leave here. I’d been consumed with the chaos of Eryk’s kiss and then Kaed’s … everything. Not to mention, the discovery of the missing archives. It had all just blanketed over my own worries.
Did I want to leave now? It all felt so different. Like I was mourning a desire that belonged to someone else. Kaed had already said I was free to leave if that was my choice.
And I was still here.
For a moment, silence was my only answer.
“You can’t really believe that anything can come of this, do you?
” Eryk’s words were like whispered shards of glass as they burrowed into my skin.
Their sharp edges cut deep into me until my pulse throbbed in my head.
“He’s a prince. The prince. He has duties beyond games.
Whatever you think he has given you, he cannot make it real.
He has never cared about anyone but himself.
He will toy with you, use you, and when he’s done … ”
I shook my head to clear the heaviness of his words.
My breath became white on the air that should have been warm. But a chill and a haziness had disturbed the brilliant sun that had been in the garden.
I wanted to refute what Eryk said, but something about the words he’d forced into the space between us settled deep into me. Maybe he was right ...
“I’m offering you something real.” Eryk’s cadence shifted until it was low and steady in the air. “You’re just a game to him, Imogen. And he will cost you.”
The echo of Eryk’s warning to me before now drifted into me. He’d been right before. Eryk had said everything had a price. And maybe caring for Kaed, getting too close to him would too.
It took a moment to find my voice, and when I did, it was shallow and unsteady. “You need to go, Eryk. Please.”
There was a pause, and then I heard his hand slide away.
“If you change your mind,” he said through the door, “I will be at the celebration tonight.”
Great, I thought to myself as I slumped against the door.
I rubbed at my temples. Maybe Eryk was right … I just couldn’t think about that now.
Tonight, I had to woo and spy on councillors and keep Kaed from killing people on the guest list. Well, just one person.