Chapter 8 #2
She pursed her lips, fighting a smile as she went on.
“I named her Shera—‘silver’ in the gods’ language—because she felt like my treasure.
Even though she was discarded. And“—she looked up at the chandelier above us—”everything around here is gold.
I’ve always liked silver better.” Aryella sighed down at her cat. “And she’s gray, of course.”
Shera meowed up at us and brushed against my leg again.
“She likes you,” she laughed as I squatted to get even closer. “For her, that’s saying something. She hasn’t met a single castle guard that she likes.”
Her whiskers were long and straight; she was lithe and muscular with a shiny coat. Her contentment and good health were a testament to how well Aryella had cared for her since finding her.
“Speaking of guards.” She backed away and narrowed her eyes on my outfit. “Where did you get that uniform?”
I smirked. “Are you sure you want the answer to that question?” Her eyes widened in terror. “No one’s dead ,” I rushed out, voice shaking with laughter. “Everyone’s fine. I promise.”
“Like I said—trouble,” she repeated the earlier sentiment, eyes twinkling with mischief and warmth. She grabbed my hand and opened a creaky door. After sticking her head outside to check for others, she pulled me into the hallway behind her.
“Where are you taking me?” I cringed when my voice echoed too loudly in the empty hallway.
“Inconspicuous!” she hissed in a whisper, then spun around and reached up to slap her hand over my mouth.
It was an effort to not kiss her palm. I drew in a careful breath, which didn’t help my restraint. My mind went hazy; she smelled so sweet.
I promised my silence with a firm nod. She let go and forged ahead of me so I could follow at a respectful distance as a guard would.
I realized I could handle wearing this uniform every day.
Perhaps it was time for a career change.
What would Queen Christabel and her magician brother require of the man tasked with guarding their secret jewel?
How grave would the consequences be if the guard tried to set her free from her barred windows?
Did I care about those consequences?
“Someone’s coming. You go first.” She yanked open another door and pushed me into a dimly lit stairwell.
After exchanging words with someone, she slid inside the stairwell and locked it behind her.
Instinctively, I reached for her hips to draw her into me and keep her close for as long as possible, but before I could, she gripped the fabric of her cotton, cap-sleeved summer dress and hurried up the spiral staircase.
“We’re going up,” she called back to me. I watched the laced ivory hem disappear around the corner and immediately missed the sight of her. Glowing, flawless, and terrifyingly fleeting.
I followed, taking two steps for every one of hers to ensure she couldn’t outrun me. The stairwell spat us out onto a rooftop surrounded by three window-less walls. I felt a possessive sense of satisfaction that she spent time where no one else could see or find her.
“Come sit with me.” She sat down and waved me over. I shrugged off the guard’s thick armor beside the stairwell door, then joined her. “I know it’s not exactly trouble , but I love how quiet it is up here.”
The sun’s rays in the middle of summer were sweltering. The heat burned my skin just enough to cleanse it and leave it feeling renewed and fresh. Sweat beaded at the base of my neck and stuck my black shirt to my skin.
Trees rustling in the gentle breeze and faint seagull calls to the east were all that could be heard. We faced west, looking inland, though I knew the castle’s view of the Brinnean Sea would be breathtaking.
Ella sat with her eyes closed, propped up on her elbows, head relaxed and leaning to one side.
I couldn’t stop staring. In the city below, silence was hard to come by.
On this castle rooftop, if I listened closely enough, I could hear her breathing.
I wanted to listen to that sound of her living for the rest of my life.
I never wanted to experience my world without her at the center of it.
She was a royal. I was a filthy, unrefined commoner. That only bothered me because the disparity made it difficult to spend time together.
“I can feel you staring at me, you know.” She peeked with one eye open.
“It’s extremely difficult not to stare at you.” I shifted to ease the pressure on my cock, which was almost always hard around her. She seemed blissfully unaware.
Her bashful smile accentuated the dimples in her cheeks and seventeen freckles over the bridge of her nose. I had to tear my eyes away before the beautiful sight of her burned me alive faster than the sun ever could.
Desperate to think of anything to distract myself from all the ways I wanted her, I asked the first question that came to mind. “How do you know the guards won’t follow you up here?”
“They won’t.” She blushed and looked down. “I told them I’d be up here sunbathing in… compromising attire.”
Fuck.
Before I could stop myself, I groaned and ran my hand over my face, seriously considering staring directly into the sun just to keep my imagination from running rampant.
“What?” she muttered nervously.
“Nothing,” I answered, voice strained. I’d be drawing upon those images the next time I was alone.
Right when I thought I’d recovered from the loss of blood to my brain, a flawless, shiny, silver coin landed in my lap. I chuckled. “I can only imagine how poor you must think I am, Aryella, but are you paying me for my time?”
“No!” she gasped, cheeks flushing. She crossed her legs beneath the cover of her long dress.
“It’s for your thoughts . It’s something my mother used to do before…
” She swallowed thickly. I knew where her mind went: Queen Christabel, sick and bedridden after Molochai’s curse.
“I used to lose myself in a daze or in my imagination. It was just a game she played to pull me out of it. ‘Coin for your thoughts,’” she added, reaching for the coin back. “It’s silly.”
“No, no!” I closed my fist around the coin. “I’ll happily play your little game.” Now was the perfect time to ask something I’d been wondering about for weeks. “I want to know why you came to my blacksmith’s shop a month ago.”
She stared toward the clearing to the west. “I’ve told you. I needed a weapon, and I needed someone to teach me to fight.”
“A lot of people can teach you to fight, Ella.”
She picked at her nails while I waited. I wasn’t patient, but I could be for her.
“I wanted to choose something.”
My brows lifted. “And you chose me ?”
“Shouldn’t I have?” She laced our fingers together, seeking my gaze in earnest. “I’m glad I chose you.”
My mouth parted in shock. Isaac and Eden had cared for me, but I knew they’d taken me in out of guilt rather than a true desire to raise a ward. Especially Isaac, who’d trained me as his apprentice but seemed less than pleased about it.
“I’m glad I chose you.”
Somehow I knew I would cherish her words forever. Even if she changed her mind and decided she wanted nothing to do with me, in this moment, she chose me .
“I’m glad you chose me, too,” I answered, wishing I could return the pure light and goodness she breathed into everything and everyone around her.
I gave her the coin back. She swirled it between her fingers. “Can I ask you another question?”
“Don’t I need the coin to answer?”
She laughed. I’d never tire of that sound. “If you could choose any life but this one, what would it look like?”
“You first.”
“What?” She playfully narrowed her eyes. “You’ve already turned this around on me once.”
I shrugged. “You asked me because you’re thinking about it, so I know you already have an answer.”
“And you don’t?”
“I do, but I want to hear yours before I risk embarrassing myself with mine.”
“Fine,” she sighed. “I would want a small house by the sea with someone I’ve…
chosen.” She blushed. “And no one knows where I am, not because they can’t find me, but because they don’t care enough to try.
Because I… don’t matter. Then I’d know that if someone cares, it’s because they love me , not my crown, my family, or my name. ”
I committed every detail she gave to memory. Everything she wanted, I planned on giving to her.
“And you?” she asked, pulling me back from my sudden house plans.
“I don’t think I care what life I’d live if I had another,” I answered, praying she would hear my words and understand how important she already was to me. “As long as I knew you in that life too.”
My smile dropped when hers faded. Maybe because she looked at me like I always looked at her. Like she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Finally, she muttered, “You sure know all the right things to say.”
I often said exactly what was on my mind, to my own detriment. I couldn’t reveal the filthy things in my mind, and I wasn’t about to say I love you before I’d even kissed her, even if it was true.
I simply stated, “It’s the truth, Ella.”
She pondered for a moment, then stood up and walked straight over to the roof’s edge.
What the fuck?
“What are you doing?” I leapt up. She wouldn’t walk right off, would she? No, she wouldn’t. Unless she’d been cooped up so long that she went insane. I know I would have. Panic choked me when she kept moving toward the edge and didn’t stop. “Ella, what?—”