Chapter 55
FIFTY-FIVE
ARYELLA
I told Simeon I’d be gone for a few days, putting a brief halt on our lessons. He was displeased, but I reminded him that he needed me to make the wards just as much as I needed him to teach me, and he reluctantly let me go.
It was early morning and we were just outside the Caves’ western opening, preparing to depart. Mina dug around in Mavic’s bag, taking inventory of his supplies, since he tended to be forgetful, while Marin wagged her finger in his face.
“Stay by her side the entire time,” Marin ordered, “or I swear to the gods, I’ll have your hindquarters.”
Mavic threw his arm around my shoulder. “She won’t leave me. Her Highness and I have a special bond.” His voice grew noticeably louder as Elias strode closer. “Ever since we shared the most wonderful kiss?—”
“Get on your horse, Reed!” Elias snapped as he passed, his shoulders tight with jealous rage beneath his leathers.
Mavic’s mouth curled into a devilish grin. He flashed me a wink before grabbing his bag from Mina, kissing both sisters on the cheek, and moving to tend to his horse.
“Be safe.” Mina threw her arms around my neck. “Promise?”
“I promise,” I answered, my words muffled by her shoulder.
When she pulled away, her pale green eyes were worried.
About my mind. About the words carved into my thighs.
She worried about my heart, too, even if she didn’t know the true reason why that was still hurting.
I still hadn’t told the twins about him.
“I’m fine,” I assured her, but she didn’t look convinced.
Her instincts and urge to help others were too strong.
“You really shouldn’t be going,” Marin scolded Gemma, who was finally sporting a tiny bump beneath her leathers. Finn gave her a boost onto the gray stallion beside my white-and-black-spotted mare, then climbed up behind her, because he refused to be more than five feet away.
“If I’m going to vomit all the time, I might as well do it in the fresh air,” she retorted.
“Hey, that’s what I always say.” Caz had baby Ari situated comfortably against his chest in an outward-facing wrap.
The sweet boy, now two months older than when I met him, cooed and played with his father’s finger while watching birds and trees sway in the gentle breeze.
My throat closed as I watched them. The ache was intense, but it was getting a little easier.
Right as I was about to mount my horse, Ezra strode past me and Shera without a single glance or word. His shoulders were tense, and his face was drawn into a tight scowl. He’d volunteered to come along, which made me cautiously hopeful that he might be ready to make amends.
Caz gently squeezed my arm as we watched him take a horse near the rear. “Just give him some more time. He’ll come around.”
I forced a smile and nodded before mounting my horse and trailing behind Elias leading our caravan. When I looked back, Mina, Marin, and Caz stood together, waving goodbye. Caz held up Ari’s pudgy hand and waved it for him.
All I could think about was the fact that I might be just a bit closer to answers that Simeon refused to give me, and how proud Gavin would be that I refused to give up.
The journey took three days. It was an uneventful trip save for a few rogue beasts that our fighters had no trouble slaying. I’d wanted to take care of them myself, but Elias insisted I stand back.
“I know you can incinerate them or turn them to ice with a wave of your hand,” he’d said, “but your guards need to keep their instincts sharp. Let them handle it.”
Gemma insisted on sharing a tent with me every night we stopped, claiming she’d missed me so much last spring that she needed to make up for lost time.
Finn wasn’t pleased, but she insisted. I knew she was only doing it to give me an excuse not to sleep in close quarters with Elias before I was ready to.
We traveled mostly through forests, climbing only a few hills and valleys along the way.
It was almost the month of Soltum and growing increasingly hot.
Gemma and I, along with a few other females on the journey, shed as many layers as we could while the men, including Eli, insisted on riding shirtless in the afternoon sun.
Elias’s back, rippling with muscle and glistening with sweat, was objectively miraculous.
Though the sight did stir something in me, it was faint.
As we grew closer to the ocean, the air thickened with humidity and the soil beneath our horses’ hooves grew softer with sand. Oaks and maples transitioned to palm trees, and Shera gleefully chased new species of critters around.
Someone shouted in surprise when she pounced out of nowhere into his horse’s path, right on top of a dark green lizard, sending dirt and sticks flying.
“Sorry, Cartwell,” I called to the lieutenant she’d frightened, and then to Shera, “ Don’t eat anything poisonous. ”
“No apology necessary, Your Highness,” Cartwell answered in a deep, steady voice as Shera skewered the lizard with her claws, though he looked like he was about to heave up his breakfast. After two months, nearly everyone was still as terrified of her as they were enamored.
She’d gotten even bigger. Her fangs were longer than my hand, and she weighed more than the average human.
We soon reached the edge of the forest, which revealed a breathtaking view of a beachside city. Unlike Brinnea’s rocky hillside, the terrain was completely flat, with palm trees scattered among white stucco houses and shops, split by winding cobblestone paths.
I rode up next to Eli, my bare arms sizzling in the afternoon sun. His eyes trailed down from my face to where heat caused sweat to gather between my breasts. My sleeveless linen top hugged my torso, chest, and shoulders and gave him a generous view. I was too hot to care.
Finn and Gemma rode up on my other side.
The latter loudly cleared her throat, causing Elias to look back up at my face, then forward.
He swallowed thickly, looking guilty, even though he was my betrothed, and he’d never looked guilty staring too long at Fera .
“The duke’s estate.” Elias pointed to a lavish seaside manor on the opposite side of the city, then clicked his tongue to urge his horse forward.
“I better not be surprised by a single thing or woman in this city,” Gemma grumbled crankily behind me. “If I find out that while you were here, you fell into the bed of?—”
“You have nothing to worry about,” Finn gently assured her. I bit my cheek to keep from laughing. She was hot, hungry, tired, and nauseous all the time. Finn’s unending patience with her was endearing.
I kept my eyes forward as we moved through the city. I could tell Peradine’s residents had an aversion to clothing. Other than silky cloth covering breasts and privates, most of them hardly wore a thing.
Shera walked mere feet away from my horse for her own safety, but that didn’t stop people from gaping at her. A few excited children tried to run up and pet her, much to their mothers’ horrified dismay.
“Remember, he doesn’t know you’re coming,” Elias reminded me as we approached the gates to the manor. “I don’t know if he’s heard that you’re alive, so I’ll do the talking to start. Ary?”
My eyes jerked away from the bright sun glistening off the cerulean ocean waves. It was entrancing. The rushing water upon the shore reminded me of waking up from the dead in Brinnea, in our cabin. How differently I would have done things that day, if given the chance.
“Okay,” I told Elias. “You talk.”
The gates opened, and we were ushered in by scantily clothed servants. Statues of nude bodies lined the stone pathway up to the manor. There were more on the balconies, in the gardens. They were everywhere.
“I’ve already seen enough,” Gemma groaned.
“I haven’t.” Mavic’s eyes trailed after a young woman around our age in a revealing bathing dress, and that was all. He smirked, and she giggled up at him as we passed. “I think there’s plenty more to see.”
“I suppose I don’t know what I expected, bringing you here,” Gemma retorted.
“I don’t know what you expected either,” replied Mavic.
I burst into a fit of laughter that had Elias glancing at me in concern, just as a bald, middle-aged man with piercings along his earlobes emerged from the glass front doors of the manor, arms wide in welcome.
He wore blue, loose silk pants that left little to the imagination and a matching shirt left wide open, baring his tan, naked chest with a dapple of hair and… were his nipples pierced?
“Elias!” he shouted jovially, eagerly descending the stairs. “What has it been, six months?”
My eyebrows shot high, and I rolled my lips together. I knew he loved it here.
“Melonius,” Elias greeted him curtly.
The duke scanned his eyes over our group, ultimately landing on me. Predatory and hungry. “Who is this, Elias?” he inquired, his voice eerily casual.
Elias gracefully dismounted his steed and moved to stand beside mine. He reached up to offer me his hand. “ This is your queen, Melonius.”
I took Elias’s hand and plopped to the ground beside him while the others dismounted behind us. The hungry look on the duke’s face transformed into something more… ambitious.
“My… queen?”
“Aryella Whitlock.” As Elias spoke, he wouldn’t let go of my hand. With the duke staring at me the way he was, I didn’t make him. While Elias wasn’t the safe, warm assurance I craved, he would certainly deter the duke. “Simeon Whitlock’s daughter lives.”
Melonius dipped into a deep, elaborate bow, stating as he rose, “The Selvaren has mercy on us, after all. I take it you are not here for pleasure.” He glanced between Elias and me. “Unless you both ?—”
“No.” Elias’s sharp tone split the air like a whip. “We are not here for pleasure. We’ll be happy to further discuss after you show us to our rooms. I think we’d all appreciate the opportunity to freshen up.”