Chapter Nineteen
Serin
“Where are you going?” I grumbled as Jet tried to slide out from under me.
“It’s nearly daybreak. I have to meet with Vishen and Nira. You stay. You looked miserable yesterday. It won’t be a long meeting. I have a meeting with my father.”
“Are you sure you don’t have a few minutes?” I asked, sliding my hand down to where his length was straining and closing around him.
“Fuck,” he hissed, his hips jerking him into my touch. “We shouldn’t. It’s too soon. You’re going to be sore.”
“I don’t feel sore,” I said, stroking him as my own desire ignited.
“You’re making it difficult to say no,” he said as my thumb teased across the head of him.
“So don’t,” I suggested.
His hand was between my thighs lightning-fast, teasing my clit and slipping his fingers inside of me, testing his theory. But all I felt was a familiar ache, a need to be filled.
“Come here,” he demanded, pulling me until I moved to straddle him.
“Like this?” I asked.
“Just like this.” He fisted his length and waited. “Just lower down on me.”
A little whimper escaped me as I shifted, then lowered down into the pressure of him, then the stretch.
There was some of the soreness he’d warned me about, but it was quickly eased by the growing ache, the need for movement.
“What do I do now?” I asked, hips wiggling.
“Whatever feels good,” he said, voice rough, his head ducking to press kisses to my neck.
His hands were all over me as I tried up and down, circles, then, finally, a back and forth that seemed to hit a secret place inside me that had me grinding down and moaning.
“That’s it,” he murmured, his hands sinking into my ass, helping guide my movements. “Let me see you make yourself come.”
That was just what I did, riding him harder and faster as the need for release built.
Then I was riding the waves of pleasure as they moved through me over and over again.
“Fuck, just like that,” Jet groaned, his forehead pressing to my shoulder as he found his release with me.
We sat like that for a few moments before he gently patted my butt. “Well, I was wrong,” he said, making a little laugh escape me.
I slid off to his side and dropped onto the bed, limbless and satisfied.
“Can we do that again?”
“Right now?” he asked, with a huff of laughter.
“Later?”
“Later, yes. After I’ve gotten some food and fluids back into me,” he said, turning to lean over me and press a kiss to my lips. “You rest up. Study your notebook. I’ll quiz you on it later.”
With that, he moved into the water closet, and I heard the water running as I scooted up the bed and reached for the notepad we’d been working on the night before, studying the letters and short words Jet had worked with me on.
It wasn’t much.
But it was a start to a whole new life.
Because that was what this was. I could feel it in my bones as surely as I felt the lake still there. I belonged here. With Jet. With Nira and Vishen. Helping to build a fairer and kinder kingdom for the people who relied on the king to do what was best for them, not just what he wanted.
So I studied my letters and words, then I bathed and dressed in one of my new dresses.
When Vishen and Jet disappeared to a meeting, I requested Nira and I take a walk to clear our heads.
“How are you?” she asked as we walked into the fresh air behind the castle.
“I think I should be asking you that. My water heals me. You haven’t been so lucky with your head.”
“The headache has passed. I’m just annoyed that it wakes me up when I roll onto it. I’ve had much worse. Okay. Jet told me I need to quiz you on your letters. Name two things out here that start with B.”
“B-uh,” I repeated the sound. “Bird,” I decided, pointing to one perched in a tree, watching us with beady black eyes. “B-b-blue?” I asked, gesturing to the sky.
“Good enough.”
“How did you learn to read?”
“I taught myself when I was young. Even back then, I understood how important a tool it would be for my future. Even if most soldiers don’t bother to learn. Okay. Letter C.”
“Clouds. Clover.”
“How do you know how to speak?” Nira asked. “Sorry. But if you were in the lake with little contact with other actual people, how did you learn the names of everything? How did you learn about The Green, about the Courts, everything?”
“I’m not really sure. I don’t remember learning.
It’s just always kind of been there. I guess maybe the lake taught me somehow.
Or maybe I was exposed to more speech when I was younger.
I have no recollection of being a young child.
I suppose I must have had a parent at some point. Perhaps they taught me.”
“Yeah, no one really knows anything about Daughters of the Lake. I think a lot of us just assumed you spawned there.”
“What? From eggs? Like a frog?”
Nira laughed. “I don’t know. Maybe. But, yeah, actual parents make more sense. Even if it’s fucked up to just… abandon your kid.”
That was a tender spot for her, I imagined, being abandoned herself. The difference being that she was left to an unknown fate while whatever parents I had would’ve known that the lake would take care of me, protect, provide, and love me in its own way.
“Okay. D.”
“Dog,” I said, gesturing toward Knight, who was a few yards away, sniffing the ground, but his ears were constantly twitching, like he was listening for threats. “Dirt,” I went on, kicking some with my shoe.
“Douchebags,” Nira said, nodding toward the redcaps who were just around the corner of the palace.
“What is a douchebag?”
“It’s a human word. And you don’t want to know. But it’s an insult. Let’s go this way, so they don’t follow us.”
Slowly but surely, I heard the trickle of water before we came across a small stream.
“What is that?” Nira asked as I knelt down near the water, closing my hand around the stem of a blue flower growing near the water’s edge.
“It’s Stillwater. It’s a weed that grows near any water source. Pretty but—”
“But what?” Nira asked.
But, suddenly, I had an idea.
One that might, maybe, not make me completely useless to this cause. That said, I wasn’t sure yet. I didn’t want to say anything until I proved it was possible.
“Hm? Sorry. I don’t know. Lost my thought,” I lied as I gathered a handful of the Stillwaters and held them in my hand, careful to avoid the thick white sap leaking from the plucked end of the stem. “Want to head back? Get some lunch? I’m not sure I feel like training today.”
“Are you sure you’re not an empath because you just read my mind. I want to finish the touches on your gown for the tournament.”
Did I enjoy lying to my first real friend? No. I comforted myself with the idea that if all else failed, and my plan succeeded, I could be saving all of us.
I went into my room, waiting for Nira to leave me with Knight standing guard at the door so she could fetch lunch, then I ran into the water closet with a flask, a jar of my lake water, and the blooms.
I sat on the floor, carefully squeezing the sap into the flask, making sure not to let any of it touch my skin, then pouring water inside while whispering to it to help amplify the Stillwater’s effects.
Finished, I capped the flask and gave it a good shake before carefully hiding it under the bed near the wall.
Sitting.
Fermenting.
Getting more powerful.
The only problem being… how would I know it was working? I suppose I could take a chance and try it myself. Worst case, I had my water to heal me.
Somewhere down below the bedroom window, their eerie chants rose up, an annoying sound that got more grating the longer I listened—like a set of cicadas calling to each other from distant trees.
Glancing down, I saw them.
Standing a few feet away from a frustrated Jet, their red heads glowing with sticky blood.
Jet told me that the Light claimed my lake.
But the fact that I was considering using the redcaps as my test subjects made me wonder if I was maybe a little more Dark than Light.
I mean, it wouldn’t kill them. At least I was reasonably sure. That said, they would have a hell of a few days. And Jet would be a few nuisances short while they recovered.
There weren’t a lot of downsides.
I would let it steep for a few hours. Then once Jet was asleep, I would try one drop.
If I felt unwell, I’d take a drink of my water.
And I’d have my answer. If I didn’t get sick, then maybe it needed to steep longer or have less water.
I didn’t have long to play with my experiment, but I was excited about the possibilities.
If I got the combination right, I would also need to figure out how to mask the bitter taste and find a discreet way to carry it with me.
There was a knock at the bedroom door, making me hop up and rush over, figuring Nira had her hands full.
When I pulled the door open, though, it wasn’t Nira standing there. It was the laundress.
Knight looked at me uncertainly because he was standing guard, but he’d seen the laundress in and out of the room almost daily.
I couldn’t tell her to go away, since I was still playing my part as the silent princess. What could I do but take a step back and wave toward the basket of laundry?
She offered me a polite smile and went to the basket, gathering up mine and Jet’s dirty laundry, then making her way back to the door.
If I was the same person I’d been just a week ago, I wouldn’t have seen it. This new, improved version of me was different. More observant. Quicker thinking. Faster moving.
I noticed the way the laundress tensed, how she reached into her pocket when holding the laundry was a task that required both of them.
Then she turned toward me.
And lunged.
The light caught on something sharp in her hand. Something to prick me with, no doubt. To inject more Bellhush into my system like Grimwood was likely paying her to do.
I had no silly little sword. But the movements to block were the same, weapon or no.
I struck out, using my wrist against her arm, pushing it out wide.
The laundress’s eyes widened.
But she had a job to do. And she wasn’t going to fail now that she caught me alone.