43
A female was draped across my bed.
Distracted by an unsettled Dusk, I didn’t notice the intruder until the door closed behind me. Tense, I looked back at it—tempted to leave. But a walk along the drive to relieve herself had left Dusk shivering, grumpy, and in need of a towel.
“Who are you?” I asked.
The intruder didn’t move. Her chiffon and velvet gown swam around her lithe form in hypnotic crimson ruffles and ripples. Long silver hair curtained much of her profile. “It’s snowing again.”
I frowned.
Even Dusk ceased fussing.
“Tell me,” she said. “Does it truly never snow in the other kingdoms?”
“It doesn’t.” Taking a step deeper into the bedchamber, I said, “Now answer my question.”
I was being rude, but these were my quarters. The only place I felt somewhat safe in this palace of predators.
And after Voran’s warning and spending all afternoon searching for sightings of Celestine, I was finding it difficult to keep my fear and hurt contained. I wanted to do more than cry. I wanted to flee into the nearest woods and scream at the treetops until my lungs rattled.
An airy and low laugh shook the female’s body. “Either you’re in a bad mood or you are not as sweet as they all say.” Sighing, she pushed up onto an elbow. “Elynia.” Her long hair slid over her shoulder as she finally took her gaze from the window and gave it to me. “Princess Elynia.”
Her eyes were an olive green. But her harshly hewn cheeks, that silver hair…
My eyes widened. “You’re—”
“Dead?” she asked, then huffed. “Sadly not.”
Still stunned, I shook my head. “Voran’s sister.”
She was alive, and as strangely beautiful as rumor suggested.
“Know him, do you?” Another airy laugh. “But of course, you do.”
Questions stacked and pushed at my teeth. But her hidden existence was none of my business and the least of my concerns. All I needed to know was why she was here and how I could make her leave.
The princess surveyed me with a slim brow raised. Waiting.
Carefully, I said, “Well, the prince spent some time at the archives, and his reputation…”
“I have heard it’s as monstrous as he.”
“Yes,” I said.
She hummed. “How was it?”
“How was what?”
“Your time at the archives.” A feline smile lifted her cheeks. “I imagine all of those books give you plenty of places to hide.”
My laughter was stale. I hoped she couldn’t see the heat creeping up my neck. “When trying to escape the priestesses and chores, certainly.”
“Certainly,” she said with a smile that was more a slight gnashing of her teeth. Her gaze fell to the wyvern in my arms, and that smile died. “You should do that babe a kindness and take a blade to its throat while you still can.”
As if she didn’t like Elynia’s solemn tone, Dusk made an odd noise. Not quite a growl. Not quite a grunt.
“I’ll do no such thing.” I crossed to the bathing room. “She’s mine.”
“For now,” the princess called after me.
Bristling, I wrapped Dusk in a towel. She snarled, tugging at it when I took her into the bedchamber. I settled into the armchair in the corner. “He won’t take her from me.”
Though if I failed to survive this looming bride trial…
“You know he will.” Now sitting up and watching us, the princess swung her legs over the side of the bed. “If you ask me, we are all better off without the beasts.”
I stiffened.
She went on, an absentness to her eyes as she stared at Dusk. “So much death, so much bloodshed, and for what?” Blinking, she seemed to come back to herself. “Protection?” A light scoff. “We are the ones we need protecting from.”
“I’m inclined to agree. However, their presence is still enough to deter the curious from coming too close to our shores.”
“Yet many of them refuse to even stay in our lands once they’ve grown.” Gazing at the window again, she mused, “Cannot say I blame them.”
Dusk fluttered from my lap to the floor. She dragged the towel behind her into the dressing chamber, where she would destroy it or make a bed out of it.
“I know.” Sighing, I slumped in the armchair—tired and surprisingly hungry. “I intend to protect her until she decides to leave or I no longer can.”
“Foreboding words.” Looking back at me, Elynia murmured, “Raxon has told you his plan for you, then.”
My eyes narrowed. “He’s told you?”
“He tells me everything. After all”—she smiled and leaned back on her hands—“who am I going to tell?”
“I don’t understand.”
“I’m the lowly secondborn, remember?” Eyes agleam, she whispered, “No wolf gene. I exist solely to keep my monstrous brother in line until—”
A female fell into the room with the opening door.
Her golden eyes immediately found the princess, and they thinned. Her lip curled. “I’ve searched every fucking room in this goddess-forsaken palace. Every.” She slammed the door. “Fucking.” Stomping toward us, she snarled, “Room.”
Heart racing, I froze.
“Myishla.” Elynia pouted. “You disappoint me. This should have been the first place you looked.”
That word.
Dusk waddled out from the dressing chamber, wings flapping and coughing smoke from the roar she tried to unleash.
The female, a guard judging by her black ensemble, halted beside the bed. She scowled at the tiny wyvern, then stepped back and muttered, “Excuse the intrusion, Princess Ayla. We will take our leave.” Glaring at Elynia, she barked, “Now.”
Exhaling dramatically, Elynia pushed off the bed to her feet. The guard seized her hand and dragged her to the door. As she reached it, the princess sang over her shoulder, “Do come visit my cage, Princess Ayla. It’s much nicer than yours.”
Dusk waddled to the door as if she’d chased them out, and huffed when it closed.
Due to searching the palace for Celestine again, I’d missed dinner being delivered.
So when Theela arrived the following morning, I was ready and waiting. I yanked open the door. “Theela, thank Goddess.”
“Apologies, Princess. I will bring breakfast shortly.” She struggled past me with a basket of wood. “I wanted to make sure you got some wood before today’s delivery is ravaged for the commanders and kitchen.”
Dusk woke with a snort.
I closed the door. “If you know where she is, you must tell me.”
Remembering the maid, Dusk settled but kept an eye open.
Theela set the basket down. She blew strands of red hair from her face, then asked, “Where who is, Princess?”
“Princess Celestine.” I dragged the heavy basket to the hearth. “That commander has her.”
“Oh.” Walking over, she gathered her skirts and crouched to transfer the wood to the basket beside the hearth.
“I don’t think Commander Ruvus will harm her.
” With a slight laugh, she tossed a log into the fireplace.
“Though I doubt he’s happy about her presence in his rooms. He’s rather…
” She seemed to catch herself before saying, “Set in his ways.”
“Where are his rooms?”
A piece of wood in hand, she looked up at me. “I could be punished for telling you.”
“So don’t. Just tell me what floor they’re on.” I snatched my cloak from the bed and threw it over my shoulders. “I’ll knock until I find it.”
“North,” she said, and so quietly, I almost didn’t hear. “This floor.”
“Thank you.” I collected Dusk and hurried out into the hall.
Snow had heaped upon the glass panes in the center of the palace, rendering the halls dark. In each one, brass handles gleamed. Passing them, I wondered what lurked beyond the doors—if more of the king’s council and command resided on this floor, or if many rooms were empty.
Reaching the northern hall, opposite to where my room was, I slowed and knocked on the first door.
No one answered, and I moved on to the next. After tapping twice, I gnawed at my lip while looking at the last door down the hall.
“Took your time,” Celestine said before she’d wholly opened the door. “I’ve been losing my mind to boredom.”
A shaken laugh escaped me. I lurched forward and hugged her, forgetting about Dusk until she mewled in complaint.
“Why?” It was all I could manage to ask as she pulled me into a lavish and extremely tidy bedchamber.
Celestine took the hatchling. “Letting you go into that cupboard with the wolf prince is one thing.” Dusk purred as the princess scratched behind her tiny ears. “But knowing his uncle had captured you?” She huffed. “I left as soon as I could.”
Tears filled my eyes.
Celestine moved to a crimson divan along the wall. “Don’t waste our time with weeping. I don’t know how long we have until he returns, but he’ll probably want you to leave when he does.” Scratching beneath Dusk’s chin now, she murmured to the wyvern, “He’s a prickly beast.”
“Ruvus,” I said, eyeing the male’s bedchamber.
His bedding was black silk and furs. Upon the gleaming cherrywood nightstands stood a neat pile of books and a gold candelabra, all free of dust.
“He’s less than thrilled that I’m here.” Celestine snorted. “Actually, that’s putting it far too kindly. He’s said I’m not to touch anything, and that he’ll find me somewhere else to sleep.”
My eyebrows jumped.
Dusk curled into a ball on the princess’s lap. Morning light splashed them from the window behind the bed. But despite her circumstances, Celestine’s smile seemed genuine—her cerulean eyes more vivid than I’d seen in moons.
Turning her smile to Dusk, she stroked her head. “I suspect that’s what he’s doing now.”
A chest of cherrywood drawers behind me looked recently polished. I refrained from leaning against them. “Finding you other accommodation?”
She hummed in confirmation. “He won’t succeed, of course. I’m not sure if this is merely a jest on the king’s part or if Ruvus has done something to annoy him, but we all know Raxon isn’t the type to back down.”
Although Theela had told me Ruvus wasn’t likely to harm my friend, I still had to ask, “Do you think he’s cruel?”
“Oh, most certainly.” Noting my expression, Celestine laughed softly. “He’s arrogant, grotesquely blunt, and perpetually on edge.” Sweeping a hand across the room, she said, “Take a peek at his dressing chamber, I dare you.”
I peered toward the dark room by the door.