Chapter 33
Chapter
The next few days I spent more often with Minerva and Tristan. Aidenar was occupied with the family holdings and the nearby mines, or so I was told.
Tristan, despite our strange beginning, proved rather easy to be around. I had little choice to be honest. He seemed to seek me out as much for his own amusement as for mine. Life in Durminas moved slowly, perhaps he was simply starved for diversion in such a quiet place.
He even started joking with me over dinners, which clearly irritated Aidenar.
I could see his jaw clench every time Tristan leaned toward me with another anecdote.
Tristan had a gift for talking to people.
Words flowed easily, as if he never had to think about what to say.
He told me embarrassing stories about Aidenar from their youth, and various White City gossip about people I knew.
Some were amusing, others shocking. It was clear he was completely at home in that city, knowing every nook and cranny, every family, every secret.
We were sitting in the library, playing cards. Tristan cheated abominably, but despite his best efforts he was still losing.
“You realize I can see what you are doing,” I said, setting down a card that sealed his defeat once more.
He glanced up and made his infuriating half smile. “But you are still playing with me.”
“Watching you fail so spectacularly has its own entertainment value.”
“You wound me, Nerissa.”
“You’ll survive.” I dealt the next hand, each card falling into place with a satisfying snap. “Your pride, however, may not.”
“I have not yet thanked you,” he said suddenly.
I lifted my gaze from the deck.
“For what.”
“For breaking Magnus’s nose.” He smiled broadly. “Aidenar told me yesterday it was you.”
I laughed softly and set another card upon the table.
“He earned it. And it wasn’t the first time someone should have set him straight.”
“There are many assholes in White City,” Tristan said, turning his diamond ring between his fingers, “but it is a place full of life. Some despise it, others love it. There is always something going on, someone plotting, someone scheming.”
I watched him closely.
“You miss it.”
“I do,” he admitted. He sighed, and his gaze grew distant. “You know, staying here with Mina is hardly thrilling. Life here runs slow and quiet, as if we were cut off from the world. No intrigue, no surprises. Only daily duties and polite talk at the dinner table.”
“So what do you do for fun here?”
“Not much,” he shrugged. “Training, drinking, playing cards…” “Badly,” I murmured.
“Hunting. Sometimes I ride down to the towns.”
“Hunting.” My interest stirred. “What do you hunt?”
“It depends on the season. Deer, boar, wolves if they come too near the villages.” He looked at me with new curiosity. “Why do you ask?”
I hesitated for only a moment.
“Will you take me?”
Tristan’s brows rose.
“You hunt?”
“I used to, with my father and my brother.” I smiled at the memory of those journeys.
“Are all women from the islands like you?” he said, amused, that roguish smile on his lips. “I think I must visit Thalrock.”
For a while he studied my face, as if searching for something beneath the skin.
Memories of Alaric rose up in me. Hunting. We used to go with our father. Alaric had been so full of life. Tall as an oak, like our father. In his own way he reminded me of Aidenar. The perfect heir of the Family. A whole life before him. All that life shattered. Was it worth the price?
I gave a small shake of my head, trying to cast those thoughts from my body.
“If you wish, we can try tomorrow. We shall take guards for safety.” Tristan smiled crookedly. “If anything would happen to you, Aidenar would skin me alive, and I am far too handsome to die young. Quails are in season. How does that sound?”
“Perfect.” A little shiver of excitement ran through me. I needed a rest from Minerva’s chambers.
We heard a clamor outside, and a group of knights returned to the castle. We went outside and saw Aidenar riding through the gates. He was clad in light armour, dark leather and steel plates hugged his frame.
Aidenar dismounted in one fluid motion, boots hitting the cobblestones with purpose. “Unload them,” he commanded.
Tristan moved closer and stared at the wagons. “Is this what I think it is?”
“Yes.” Aidenar said with satisfaction. “You wouldn’t believe how much they managed to mine.”
One of the knights pried open the nearest crate. Sunlight caught the contents, splintering into a thousand green fires. Emeralds. Nothing but emeralds. A fortune vast enough to purchase cities, to buy loyalty, to start wars.
Tristan drew in a sharp breath through his teeth. “Fuck. They will want it back.”
“Back?” Aidenar’s voice cut. “You cannot take back something you stole.”
I struggled to piece together what I was witnessing. Emeralds. My mind raced to the obvious conclusion.
“Are these Dorthal’s emeralds?” I asked.
“No,” Aidenar said, cold as ice. “Dorthal’s mines are running dry, they have been for some time.
They don’t have the reserves they pretend to possess.
It turns out our mountains, right along the border with their territory, contain rather substantial deposits.
When Dorthal discovered this, he started sending miners across.
They excavated everything they could reach, shipped it back to his vaults, packed into their chests and pretended they got them from their own lands.
“They worked mostly during the Gathering. Dorthal thought I would be too distracted with the Election to notice. I sent Tristan to station patrols and we began intercepting shipments. These”—he nodded toward the crates—”are the last his people managed to extract before we shut them down.
I’ve reinforced the border patrols and sent out people to reclaim the mines. ”
“Dorthal will be pissed” Tristan crossed his arms. “Think he’ll send his army?”
“I hope so.” Aidenar said. “Better yet if he sends that worthless, piece of shit, son of his.”
He glanced at the emeralds once more, his expression unimpressed with the fortune, only cold calculation. “Take them to the treasury.”
The next day I rose before dawn. I dressed in a dark blue leather suit, bound my hair in a tight braid, and rode out with Tristan and four guards.
The day was pleasantly cool, and a light mist lay over the meadows. The horses snorted, eager for the freedom of open ground. The air smelled of damp earth, pine, and adventure.
Tristan led us through the forest as if he were part of it.
He knew every path. He often called upon the Elementars he wore, for he had several on him.
He flushed game from the undergrowth, scattered the mist over the clearings, turned the wind to help me mark the birds.
He did all this with ease, as if it were no more than lifting his hand.
Despite the long break I managed to bring down one bird, a clean shot from the bow that filled me with quiet pride. Tristan himself took several, but he did not boast. He was good company, and I found it easier and easier to pass the time with him.
I was content, feeling the tension of the past few days melt away with each step through the forest.
We were riding back toward the castle when the sun began to sink, painting the sky in shades of orange and rose.
“You wield your power well,” I said, watching his diamonds glimmer in the evening light. “You have a gift.”
“Thank you.” He smiled, almost modestly. “It is still not as strong as Aidenar’s.”
I smiled faintly at the thought of the price our Families had paid for that so-called gift.
“And yours,” Tristan added, glancing at me from the side.
“Peter told me. He saw you upon the shore, that you grabbed the sea in your hand. He said he had never witnessed anything like it. You could drown White City if you wished.” He fell silent for a moment, then said with a note of awe, “Lady of Water and Sea.”
He watched me openly, without hiding his interest. I sighed under my breath.
“It is not so simple. Stirring the waves will not save us from what hides in the shadows.” I looked toward the darkening horizon. “But we will learn soon enough what we are truly capable of.”
“Are you afraid?”
I weighed the question.
“I don’t think so. Not any longer. I have made my peace with it. Besides, I have a certain debt to settle.”
I was not thinking of Dricus, nor even of the Dominium, but of the dark-haired man to whom I had promised death. Malric.
When we returned to the fortress, the sun was already slipping beneath the earth, leaving strokes of gold across the sky.
As I swung down from the saddle, Tristan came nearer and said suddenly, “You are bleeding.”
I looked at my arm. Blood ran down from my elbow, darkening the torn leather of my sleeve.
“I must have scratched myself on a branch or thorns.” I shrugged. “I didn’t feel it.”
He stepped closer and examined the cut, his fingers surprisingly gentle. He drew out a white handkerchief and bound my arm, staunching the blood.
He stood very near. Too near.
Then he began to study my face, not the wound. He was just like Aidenar. I knew exactly what women saw in him.
I was willing to bet he’d broken more than one heart with those eyes.
“Nerissa, are you alright?” came Aidenar’s voice behind us, full of concern.
Tristan didn’t move. He still stood close, as if he meant to provoke. I turned to Aidenar.
“It is only a scratch. Nothing serious,” I said.
“Tristan, step away.”
“Aiden?” I gave him a questioning look.
Tristan only glanced at him, and did not move, a faint smile on his lips.
“I said. Step. Away.” Now Aidenar spoke in his mother’s tone, that icy, lordly voice, his eyes hard as steel. I could feel the power in him crawling on the surface. He was always allowing it to show more than he should.
This was their conflict. I preferred not to get involved.
Tristan slowly took a step back, but his gaze remained fixed on me.
“It is easy to understand,” he said slowly, “why you fell head over heels.”
The tension between them thickened, almost something I could touch with my hand.
“Come, Nerissa.” Aidenar held out his hand. “I will take you to the infirmary. This needs to be treated.”
I gave Tristan a small nod in farewell and let Aidenar lead me away.
He did not speak on the way. His jaw was clenched, his steps sharp and sure. He was angry. At me, perhaps. At Tristan, without doubt.
When we entered the infirmary he told the healer to bring some medicine, bandages and leave us. The man obeyed at once, though he cast me a curious look as he departed.
Aidenar helped me out of the leather jacket and the torn shirt beneath. I sat in my thin undergarments, the air of the room cool upon my bare skin. He began to clean and dress the wound with careful hands.
I sat upon the table, he stood so close our legs touched. My face was level with his chest.
“You know how to tend wounds?” I asked, watching his sure movements.
“I used to cut myself a lot. Too much brawling.” He gave a small smile. “It was quicker to mend myself than to listen to the healer’s scolding.”
“Are you angry with me?”
He lifted his eyes from the bandage, his gaze softening.
“With you, no.” After a moment he added, more honestly, “Perhaps a little. That you didn’t tell me you wanted to hunt.”
“If I recall, the last time I wished to hunt with you, you disdained me and ended up in the arms of a young Dorthal girl.” I smiled crookedly. “I didn’t want to risk it.”
A well placed blow. Aidenar sighed and annoyance crossed his face.
“You wanted to ride out with a pack of drunken Lords, most of whom wanted to sleep with you,” he said seriously.
“It’s not that I didn’t want you to go hunting.
I just needed to stop you then. That’s why I said what I said.
I didn’t want a repeat of what happened with you and Magnus. I couldn’t protect you in the forest.”
“Nerissa.” He met my eyes. “As you know, there aren’t many Ladies our age among Families. Then you walked in out of nowhere—a storm of red hair, legs for days—and every man in the palace thought the same thing.”
“And you?”
“I thought about fucking you the moment I saw you,” he said, his face without apology.
My face was motionless. “And now?”
“Now I want more. Now I want it all.”
I wasn’t ready to know what “more” meant. He was finishing bandaging my hand.
“Are you jealous of Tristan?” I asked, unable to resist,
Aidenar’s teeth clenched. I could see the struggle in his face. At last he let his shoulders loosen a little and tied off the bandage.
“Tristan,” he began, then paused. “Believe it or not, he was even more of a woman hunter than me. For him, chasing girls is the highest form of sport. And if he can annoy me at the same time, even better.” His fingers tightened on the linen.
“I can see the way he looks at you. I know what’s going on in that empty head of his. ”
I wondered. Were they fighting over the same girls? Was that the wound beneath his words?
“So you are jealous,” I said, almost triumphant.
Aidenar stilled and looked me straight in the eyes.
“Perhaps you haven’t noticed,” he said, his voice low and dangerous, “but I don’t like to share. And I don’t like anyone touching what’s mine.”
I lifted my chin proudly, meeting his gaze, my heart pounding.
“So I am yours?” I asked, taunting him.
He parted my knees and stepped between them. His hands slipped to my lower back and drew me closer to the edge of the table. He tilted his head and bent over my lips, stopping an inch from them.
“Prove me wrong,” he whispered, his breath warm on my lips.
He had me. All of me. He knew it. He knew I desired him with every part of my body.
I wrapped my arms around his waist and kissed him. I had forgotten how wonderful his lips were, how his kisses set fire to my blood, how they devoured me.
I felt his arousal, hard against my belly. I knew how he had hungered for me.
His hand slipped beneath my thin shirt and cupped my breast. My nipples tightened at his touch, and a soft sound broke from my throat.
He groaned into my mouth. With his other hand he caught the back of my head and deepened the kiss, his tongue moving with mine in a desperate rhythm.
I clung to him, my fingers digging into the cloth of his shirt. I could not stop. I did not wish to stop.
It was Aidenar who broke away at last, tearing himself from me with visible effort. He was in control. He saw I wanted more, but he didn’t give it to me. His eyes were dark with desire, his breath quick.
“Enough,” he said hoarsely, as if he spoke more to himself than to me.