My Veyra #2
“Point is, he sent me away on purpose.”
“You think Caelan sent you away because he found out about us?”
Caelan squeezed in beside me. The man who had told me not to eavesdrop ten seconds ago.
We both leaned in, completely invested now.
Maelor was frowning at the wine bottle.
Brie shook her head, a smile playing at her mouth. “Caelan wouldn’t send you away because you’ve been having drinking sessions with his sister.”
My shoulders dropped, disappointed. Caelan, however, exhaled a breath of relief.
I turned and stared at him.
“You sent Maelor to the eastern pass?” I whispered.
“Maybe.”
“Why?”
The boyish grin that appeared on his face should be illegal.
I narrowed my eyes.
He waved a hand between us. “He kept interrupting.”
A pause as I let his very unreasonable problem-solving skills settle.
I fought the smile on my face. Failed completely.
“I’ve been trying to get you alone for days,” he said.
“You exiled your commander.”
“Temporarily.”
“Because he interrupted your plans to get me alone.”
He looked entirely composed about this. Like it was a reasonable sequence of events that any prince might undertake. “Yes.”
I opened my mouth.
“Because that,” said Brie, loudly, “is the pettiest thing you have ever done.”
We both turned.
I was a professional assassin with ten years of fieldwork. This was apparently suspended in Caelan’s immediate vicinity. I had not heard either of them approach.
Brie was standing, barely managing her expression. Maelor had his arms crossed and was looking at Caelan with the accumulated feelings of a man recently returned from unnecessary fortification duty.
“What are you doing here?” Maelor said.
“What are you doing here?” I said.
“Fair,” he said.
Brie raised the bottle. “Since we’re all here.”
We sat on the edge of the fountain. Brie passed the wine, and we drank. The garden was quiet except for the water and the silverbells going about their business.
“Where's Riven?” My eyes scanned the shadows as if he would appear in them.
Maelor stretched. “Asleep. He turns in early.”
“Does he?”
“Every night. Like a farmer.”
“I tried to get him to drink with us for decades.” Brie waved the wine bottle as she spoke and nearly hit Caelan in the face. “I gave up eventually.”
Caelan exhaled a quiet laugh, pushing the bottle away from his face with two fingers.
“You try to get everyone to drink with you,” he said.
“It’s great for bonding.” She passed me the bottle. “That’s how Sera started liking me.”
Caelan glanced at me, and I closed my eyes and nodded once.
As the bottle made its way around, we talked about anything and everything.
Maelor was listing things wrong with the eastern pass order in detail.
Caelan talked about the many nobles who recommended their sons for a position as commander in his army.
Then Maelor countered with the reasons why he loved his job and the fantastic experience he had during his time in the eastern pass.
“The food was fantastic,” Maelor said. “And don’t even get me started on the view. So many…trees. Puts Verdant to shame.”
Then Brie said things about Luceris, their brother and prince of Verdant, that surely had to be illegal.
“One time, he had the audacity to say Caelan’s time at the border was an indulgence at best.” Brie shook her head wildly. “Can you believe that? While he and the rest of Primoria hide behind Twilight like—”
“Brie,” Caelan warned.
The soft curve of his mouth did not match his eyes. The practiced smile. But I had learned to tell the difference.
“It doesn’t matter what people think.” Caelan continued. “What matters is that my kingdom thrives. And that Primoria thrives.”
“You know half of the rumors came from Verdant, don’t you?” Brie poked Caelan’s arm with two fingers.
Caelan stared straight ahead and drank from the bottle.
“Sera.” Brie looked at me. “What do people in Thalvarn say about Caelan?”
I gaped at her. “I—well. I mean they—”
“Monster,” Brie finished. She looked at Caelan, who was still not looking at her. “They call you a monster. And guess which one of your dear brothers did that.”
Brie, I realized, was starting to tilt with the posture of a woman who had had enough wine for the night.
She opened her mouth to speak again, and Maelor stopped her with his hand over her mouth. She mumbled incomprehensibly against it.
“He didn’t have to spread anything.” Caelan lifted his gaze from the ground and glanced sideways at me. “Thalvarn would’ve come to the same conclusion.”
I wanted to tell him it wasn’t true. But I had thought of him the same way when I first took the contract.
“People can change the way they think,” I said before I realized I had.
Our eyes met. His expression softened and his shoulders relaxed just enough to notice.
I couldn’t look away.
Brie leaned forward, appearing behind Caelan, amusement clear on her face. All smiles now.
I whipped my head away from Caelan and cleared my throat.
Maelor yawned with the theatrical energy of someone who had done significant labor and needed acknowledgment for it. “Alright. I'm out.”
He and Brie stood up together.
I didn’t miss the way he grabbed her elbow to steady her.
“Goodnight, Sera,” Brie said, and followed Maelor out of the garden.
Caelan and I sat in the quiet with only the fireflies and the sound of the fountain.
I yawned.
“Let’s go back inside,” he said, and pushed off the fountain’s edge. “You need to sleep.”
We walked back together, shoulders brushing and fingers grazing. Each time contact made my pulse pick up. It was ridiculous. I wanted to smile and that was somehow worse.
When we were back inside and away from the guards’ eyes, his fingers found mine. Slowly. Threading through them one at a time. My breath came apart a little more with each.
I looked up at him once they settled.
He was watching me, one corner of his lip tugging up. His eyes soft in a way that I had never seen in the council rooms or anywhere with witnesses. One that felt quiet and entirely for me.
He stopped at the intersection where our rooms stood in different corridors.
Then he lifted my hand. Pressed his lips to my knuckles, his eyes finding mine over my hand. He said something in Primorian. I caught the part that meant goodnight, but he said the familiar word toward the end.
“You said veyra again,” I observed. “What does it mean?”
He smiled into my hand. A sadness in his eyes that hadn't been there a moment ago.
He let go of my hand. His fingers gripped my chin gently as he tilted my face up. Hooded blue eyes moved slowly over my face.
“It’s you,” he said as if that explained everything.
I was standing there staring at him longer than I should have. As if I had completely forgotten what I was doing and where we were.
I cleared my throat and gathered what remained of my composure.
“Goodnight,” I said and fled before my cheeks turned red.
He watched as I walked back to my room.
The corridor felt longer than it used to be. The distance between us felt wrong, and I fought the urge to turn back, grab his arm, and pull him toward his room.
I had kissed a prince tonight. Twice. In a garden at seventh bell with fireflies as our only witnesses. It was a fantastic kiss. The kind that defined your entire day and became the only thing you’re capable of thinking about.
We were still going to Winter for Mirror Lake. Still trying to break a bond that I had stopped being certain I wanted broken.
I did not think about that last part.
I was very deliberate about not thinking about it.
But I knew one thing with complete certainty as I closed my door and stood in the dark of my room.
I was going to kiss him again tomorrow.