Chapter Thirteen
Serin
“You’re a quick study,” Nira declared as she lowered her sword for the last time. “I bet it’s all that food you’ve been eating.”
I felt a flush rise on my cheeks. It was no secret that I’d been shoving as much of this ‘cooked’ food in my mouth as possible. Though I did learn enough restraint so that I didn’t get a stomachache from overindulging.
“Don’t be embarrassed. I’ve been swiping food each time I move through the kitchens. Vishen said he was the same way when he first came to work here. He says it will level out once your mind and body get used to the fact that food isn’t scarce anymore. And that it can taste so good.”
“Yeah, that makes sense. I ate two loaves of bread the first day. I’ve slowed down a bit.”
“It’s not a bad thing. You were a little frail. There was no way you could swing a real sword. But at this rate, you might get there. But not tonight. Tonight you have to get all dolled up and play the sweet, mute princess.”
“Don’t remind me.” My stomach churned just at the thought of having to see Grimwood again.
“I doubt you’ll be seated anywhere near him. You should be sitting with Jet near Cass at the head of the table. Grimwood is important, but Cass suspects Grimwood. Which is probably why he wanted Jet to marry Gemma in the first place—to force Grimwood to stand down.”
“He just didn’t plan on Grimwood outsmarting him by putting me in her place.”
“Exactly. Honestly, this is probably the easiest event for you. You just say nothing. Jet and Cass will back you up. And Grimwood will need to as well if he wants to avoid being beheaded at the table.”
“What if there are other people there who know the actual Gemma?”
“I’ve been wondering that too. The thing is, I don’t think anyone would make a scene at the palace.
Not with the rumors about Cass’s unpredictability spreading like wildfire.
Too many people have gone missing, never to be seen again.
And, trust me, no one wants to be shipped off to the work camps or tossed into the dungeons because they pissed off the king.
Nothing will happen tonight. But if someone who knows Gemma sees you in her place, it might start some rumors afterward.
I just hope Jet and Vishen’s plans are shaping up. And soon.”
“Have you heard things?”
“I’ve been hearing things for a long time.
It’s always been in my best interest to keep my ear to the ground.
The Dark Court has been unstable for a long time now.
But it’s getting worse. People are getting louder with their dissent.
That is never a good thing. And if the common people are talking, I can only imagine what the wealthy and powerful are doing. ”
“Do you think something will happen before the tournament? And the ball?”
I wouldn’t admit it aloud, given how tense everything was, but a part of me was excited for those events.
I loved my lake. I missed it in my bones.
But I was starting to see how many things I’d been missing my whole existence: things like hot foods, soft beds, pretty clothes, and, yes, silly, extravagant things like balls, like jousting and sword fighting and everything else I might see at the tournament.
In addition to that, I’d mostly been missing out on… people. On connection. Which had been fine back before I knew there was something else to the world but my lake and the creatures around it. Now that I did, though, I wasn’t sure how I could go back to such isolation.
I would miss Nira and Vishen and Jet.
Jet, especially.
In such a short period of time, he’d become such a large part of my life.
Technically, I spent more of my day with Nira, but somehow, we talked more, shared more.
But I felt like I spent my days counting down the moments to when I would see him again.
Even though he hadn’t put his hands on me again since that time in his study, where he’d showed me something else I hadn’t been exposed to before.
“Alright. I need to show you something,” Nira said, heading toward the door.
“What?”
“It’s a surprise,” she said, leading me into her room.
There were even more plants and flowers around.
And her food stores were now organized. Her workstation was dominated by a large swatch of black fabric.
“Before I show you, I want to be clear that there is no pressure. I know Jet spent a lot of coin to get those gowns made for you in time for the feast.”
He had.
I’d been measured and pinched and squeezed into devices that laced up and cinched in my already small waist and made it difficult to breathe.
Then I’d watched a long line of seamstresses and assistants bring in gown after gown into the bedroom just that morning, placing them all in the wardrobe with Jet’s clothing.
Was the fabric on the table a gown?
Had Nira made me a dress?
That would explain why she was shifting her feet and wringing her hands. I’d never seen her anything other than confident, almost breezy and at ease. She was anxious as she moved to the table.
“This is just a hobby of mine. And when I heard you needed clothing, I thought… why not? I’ll never have an occasion to wear a gown.”
“Let me see,” I demanded, excited to see what she had spent her limited free time working on.
She walked over to lift up the dress, shaking it until it flowed down.
“I didn’t make the dress,” she clarified from behind it. “I just did the beaded embroidery.”
And the beaded embroidery was what made it so breathtaking.
Delicate silver, white, and icy blue beads created a constellation of stars across the dark sky of the dress and led up to an intricate design around the square bodice.
“Oh, Nira. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more beautiful dress.” I walked over to run my hand over the beads. “Are you sure you don’t want this for yourself?”
“For all the balls I get invited to?” she asked, rolling her eyes.
“I want you to wear it. I made it for you. I know Jet will be wearing black. The seamstresses’ black gowns are lovely, but there is nothing about them that really draws attention.
I thought maybe the princess should have eyes on her. ”
I won’t lie, my stomach felt all shivery at the idea of so many eyes on me. But if they had to be on me, having their attention diverted to the dress might be for the best.
“You are so talented. How did you learn to do this?”
“Basic sewing is necessary in the military. Something is always tearing or getting cut off. But when we happened through Tenray Square, I saw a stand full of beads. Traded precious food stores for a supply of them. I would spend my nights working on threading them onto fabric, eventually learning to make designs.”
“Can you get more beads? If I asked Jet for some coin, could you acquire more?”
“Anything can be bought if you have the coin.”
“I will ask. I want you to do this to everything in my wardrobe.”
Nira’s face split into the biggest smile I’d seen from her. And that was including the time she’d bested Vishen in a sword fight.
“Thank you so much for this,” I said, taking the gown and lovingly running my hand over her work. “I can’t wait to wear it.”
“Well, you don’t have to wait long. You should go and bathe. The bath is full.”
With that, I went into Jet’s quarters, nearly running right into a shirtless Jet.
It didn’t matter that I saw him just like that every morning and night. Each time, it still managed to make my mouth go dry.
“In a rush?” he asked, head cocking to the side.
“No. I mean, maybe. I mean…”
“What do you have there?”
“Nira embroidered a gown for me,” I told him, showing him the bodice.
“Nira did that? The same woman I’d heard claim corsets were torture devices meant to make it hard for women to run away because they can’t breathe in them?”
“Now having worn one, I agree with her. I was wondering if it would be okay to give her some coin to get more beads, so she can embroider the gowns from the seamstresses? I mean, they’re beautiful as they are. But she didn’t have enough time to really do finer details, and I just thought—”
“Serin,” he cut me off, giving me a smirk that made my belly wobble. “Of course you can. There should be some coin in my dresser. Take whatever you need for her. I will replenish it if you need more.”
“Thank you.”
“You don’t need to thank me for anything. How are you feeling about tonight?”
“Excited about the food, if that counts.”
That got a laugh out of him, low and deep. The sound washed over me, making my insides go liquid.
“Oh, Lake Girl, stop looking at me like that.”
“Like what?” I asked, barely recognizing the strange, airy sound of my own voice.
“Like you want me to do what I did to you a few days ago,” he said. “But this time with my tongue.”
“Your… tongue?”
“Mmhmm.”
He took a step closer, backing me up into the wall.
“How… how does that work?”
“I can show you. But you’re going to have to get yourself ready for the feast quickly afterward.”
My voice was barely more than a whisper. “Okay.”
He reached down, grabbing my backside and lifting me off the ground by it, forcing my legs around his waist. I dropped the dress in my arms and wrapped them around his neck instead as he turned and walked us back to the bed.
Jet lowered me down, then grabbed the waistband of my pants and tugged them down my legs until I was bare from the hips down.
He took a deep breath, watching me for a minute as he grabbed my knees, then spread them wide and pressed them to the bed.
I’d never been seen like this, never could have imagined someone would want to see. But when Jet looked at the center of me, his chest rose and fell like he was just barely keeping control over himself.
Anticipation thrummed in my chest, rushed through my veins.
“Jet?”
Instead of answering, he lowered down.
Wrapping his arms around my legs to keep them pinned open, I felt his tongue trace up my cleft. The sensation was foreign, strange, delicious.
A surprised sound bubbled up and burst out as I grabbed the back of his head, holding him against me. But he had no plans to move away. He only made it better as his tongue found that sensitive point and started to move around it in perfect little circles.
All my focus zeroed in on his tongue, on the pleasure coiling tight in my center.
My back arched, my thighs shook, and my hips rocked restlessly against his mouth.
Jet groaned against me, seeming to take pleasure in mine as he drove me closer and closer to unraveling.
It wasn’t long before I was trembling and breathless. I was humming and helpless.
My moans burst out, filling the room as something inside me tipped.
Then the waves crashed through me. And I let them carry me away.
The pleasure seemed to go on forever, but it was still somehow over too quickly as Jet released my arms and lifted his head, then moved to lean over the bed, hands planted to either side of my hips.
“That’s how that works,” he told me before turning and walking into the water closet.
Leaving me in shambles in the bed.
But there was nowhere else I’d rather be.
Not even, I thought in the tiny little corner of my mind, my lake.