Chapter 56
FIFTY-SIX
ARYELLA
“Hands. Off.”
Elias’s command silenced the room.
Melonius, unfortunately, did not appear afraid. Excitement gleamed in his ocean-blue eyes as they darted between me and my betrothed.
“Why, Commander Winterton,” he sputtered out, laughing, “in all my years of knowing you, I’ve never seen you so incensed .”
“Hands off , or your blood will paint your precious marble floors.”
I stood up and rested my hand on the arm Elias didn’t have curled around the duke’s neck. “Stand down, Commander Winterton.”
Elias glared at me, incredulous. I wanted to appreciate him standing up for me, even though I could do so myself, but all I felt was persistent anger that he only cared more because I was his queen. After a subtle shake of my head, Elias released the duke and returned to his seat beside me.
“My skills in the bedroom are not for sale,” I remarked, my voice as threatening and disgusted as I could make it, “and never will be.”
Melonius readjusted the collar of his open shirt and sat up straight. “Unfortunately, this does not surprise me.” His chuckle turned cruel. “When I first saw you today, Your Grace, I suspected you were a soft ruler.”
Fire simmered beneath the surface of my skin. I used Nevelin’s ice in my veins to quell the threatening burn. “Soft,” I repeated. “Is that so?”
“Incapable,” he confirmed with a challenge in his eyes. “Hesitant to do what it takes to ensure the safety of her people.”
His claims were horseshit. There was no way they’d been gossiping about what kind of ruler I was when I was only now beginning to rule. Until today, many of them thought I was dead. He could call me soft and weak all he wanted. I knew the truth.
For the first time in weeks, I felt his fire. Maybe it was our fire. Something we built together, and it lived in me, alive even now.
“ Shera ,” I said mind-to-mind. “ Just like we discussed. ”
“On it.”
I narrowed my eyes on the duke and waited, and a few seconds later, plates, bowls, and glasses clashed together.
Multiple screams erupted from around the table that Shera had leapt onto, only to brace her paws on Melonius’s chest. One curl of her claws and she would break through the thin cloth of his shirt and puncture his skin.
One bite, and his throat would be ripped out.
“Perhaps I am, as you say… soft ,” I repeated, then looked over at my umbra, “but she is not.” I smiled and cocked my head at the duke. “Are you understanding now?”
The color drained from the duke’s face, and his muscles locked in fear. Mavic watched with his jaw nearly on the floor. Finn looked a little nervous, but Gemma’s face was bright with a wide, maniacal smile. At least one other person was enjoying this as much as me.
“I understand, Your Highness,” Melonius said with a shudder.
“Good.” When I snapped my fingers, Shera released the duke and leapt off the table. “I keep my umbra well fed, but I don’t want to overfeed her, so please don’t give me a reason to. Bring the volumes to my room before noon tomorrow. After that, we’ll make our departure.”
Melonius gulped embarrassingly loudly. “They’ll be brought to you immediately.”
“Thank you, Melonius.”
As the duke regained his composure, I caught Ezra with his hand over his mouth, concealing a laugh. For the first time in months, he was smiling at me. It was small, a little unsure, but it made my heart swell in my chest.
While Elias stared, I ignored him and took a bite of my dessert.
After dinner, Melonius told us that a few Peradine residents wished to make pleas to come live in the Caves. I didn’t want to spend one more second in the duke’s presence, but I also wasn’t going to turn away innocent people.
“They should all be able to come to the Caves if they want,” I told Elias, who sat beside me with a glass of wine. Gemma had moved to sit on my other side. “We can make room, can’t we?”
“It’s possible,” he muttered absent-mindedly, his attention focused on the line of people filtering in, waiting to speak with us.
The first woman admitted that she feared her children weren’t safe in Peradine.
The second person, an elderly man, said his wife had died and his only living relatives were in the Caves.
Elias didn’t have much to say, so I decided to welcome both.
When we reached the third person, he tensed beside me. The approaching tall young man had thick dark hair with a sharp jaw, green eyes, and freckles over the bridge of his strong nose.
“What’s your name?” I asked him. He looked to be just a few years younger than me.
Elias took a heavy swig of his third or fourth glass of wine since dinner. He’d begun to toss it back like it was water. Gods, how much was he planning on drinking?
“Ben,” the young man answered.
“Ben… ?” I smiled gently and waited.
His brown eyes darted nervously to Elias, then back to me. “Just Ben, Your Highness.”
Elias’s chair scraped on wood as he abruptly fled the room. After offering a quick bow, Ben placed a folded letter on the table before me and stalked off in the opposite direction.
I watched him go, then looked down at the folded letter, where his first and surname were scribbled.
Ben Wynterton.
“Odd.” I nudged Gemma, who leaned in. “It’s Elias’s surname, but it’s spelled wrong. Are they related?”
She cringed at the paper in my hands. “It’s misspelled on purpose. Elias’s father, he…” Her amber eyes, sad but compassionate, followed the direction he’d gone. “Maybe I should tell you later.”
“No,” I objected. “Tell me now, please. Why is his surname misspelled like that?”
Gemma peeked nervously around the room before turning toward the wall where no one could read her lips. “Because misspelling a surname is how you mark a bastard.”
My muscles locked up. Gemma reached for my hand and squeezed. I had questioned before why Gavin’s surname was misspelled, but like most things eight months ago, I hadn’t questioned it enough.
This time, it was me who took a huge gulp of wine while digging my nails into my palm, redirecting my brain to something more tolerable. I refused to shed tears in the Duke of Peradine’s lavish dinner hall.
I listened to the remaining requests with Gemma and Finn. When the festivities were over, I was exhausted, and there was still no sign of Elias returning. I dragged myself up the stairs, bid good night to the others, and dead-bolted the door to my room.
“ I’m going out to hunt ,” Shera told me before leaping out of the window and scaling down to the first floor. “ I’ll be back in two hours. ”
“ Be safe, please ,” I called after her, plopping down on the bed.
I fidgeted with the ring around my neck. Elias hadn’t asked about it in weeks, but I caught him glancing at it often. He had to notice the larger ring was missing. Buried with Gavin, where Shera had left it, never to be seen again.
I was about to undress and find the coolest nightgown in my bag, curl into bed and read a book to take my mind off everything , when someone knocked. Irritated by whoever was keeping me from resting, I walked over and threw open the door.
Elias stood with one arm resting on the frame, his other hand rubbing at his chin like he so often did. When he saw me, he straightened, his loose white shirt clinging to his muscles as he shifted.
“Can I come in?” he asked, glancing over my shoulder. When he saw I was alone, his relief was palpable.
Who did he think I would have in here? The Duke of Peradine stowed away behind the door like a secret lover?
I stepped back, and he brushed past me, keeping a respectful distance but thoroughly taking inventory of the mahogany dresser and bookshelves and white armchair adorned with ivory lace.
The untouched bed with its shiny, snow-white silk bedding.
The wide-open balcony doors that opened to the humid, salt-teemed air and heated breeze of the night.
Me. My bare feet on the cool, white, black-speckled marble tile and freshly unbound hair.
As his shameless gaze raked over me, I could have sworn his chest shuddered .
“You were, of course, brilliant tonight.” Elias ran his hand through his hair as he paced. Vexed didn’t quite cover it. “I’m sorry if I was overbearing.”
Brief but powerful memories of him flashed through me. Elias couldn’t fathom overbearing.
“It’s al?—”
“Actually, I’m not.” He stopped pacing, clenched his fists, and stared me down with heated desire. “I’m not sorry.”
“What?” I muttered.
“I hated the way the duke looked at you.” His normally smooth voice was unstable, as if he was realizing all this in real time and didn’t have a clue what to do with any of it. He stepped closer. “I hate the way they all look at you.”
“It didn’t bother you when I was Fera.” I crossed my arms over my chest and lifted my chin. Subconscious attempts at self-preservation. “When men looked at me.”
Elias chuckled ruefully under his breath. “Oh, it did. I just… hated myself for having feelings I’d never had before for someone who wasn’t the queen”—hands flexing at his sides, he corrected—“who I didn’t know was the queen.”
“Well, we got what I wanted,” I said, desperate to change the subject.
“What we wanted,” he corrected, jaw flexing. But his eyes darted to the side, unsure. “Ary.” My eyes snapped to him at the urgent plea in his tone. “What else do you want?”
“Well, we’ve secured access to the tome.” I fidgeted with the beaded bracelet on my wrist. “It’s a start, though I have no idea how long it will take me to open it.”
“You know that’s not what I mean?—”
“Maybe only a few weeks if we’re lucky. I think?—”
“I haven’t so much as looked at another woman since I found out who you are.”
My stomach dropped. My skin flushed. “Eli?—”
“And even before that, I didn’t,” he pushed forward, eyes full of longing. Vulnerable, like that day in the woods while searching for Finch, who I reminded myself he wanted me to kill. “Not for quite a while. I didn’t think about anyone else because I just wanted you.”