Chapter 23 #2
The kitchens are a sprawling maze of floating pots and enchanted stoves.
Wisps of flame heat heavy iron cauldrons.
Chefs with singed robes chop and sprinkle.
Lili and I brush past the dark, iron counters, and I’m reminded of the kitchen under the rule of the previous monarch.
King Herod, The Tyrant King. Quiet and lifeless, grey and dull.
King Aeron had brought life and fair wages to the palace.
The cooks are full of energy and passionate, and now, working in the castle, in any capacity, is a privilege.
Young males no longer need to be kidnapped from their homes to serve in the Volker.
The scents here are delicious, but a more familiar smell rises above them all.
Something so intoxicating it sends a thrill down my spine.
The smell of summer nights and lilac. Aiden’s jaw flexes when he meets my eyes.
He straightens, no doubt recalling some words of his etiquette training.
Always appear a formidable leader, perhaps. His friend salutes.
“My Prince.” We bow. “At ease, Chef, lest your wonderful concoction burn.” I say, throwing him a wink.
The cook chuckles, turning to stir a large pot on the stove behind him.
I might have mistaken him for an athlete if I didn’t know better.
He stands nearly as tall as Aiden, though slightly leaner, and had been thirty-two when he Turned.
His honey-brown hair flops across his forehead, and thick, expressive eyebrows frame sparkling, deep-blue eyes that glint with mischief.
He’s been a friend of the Prince since they were in school, where they had formed a friendship with Eira.
They were dangerously unassuming, but so carefree until Aiden’s life was ripped apart by his father’s treason and his mother’s death.
There are times I feel sorry for him, but he has not grown into someone particularly kind or easy to root for.
Stony-faced and suspicious most of the time, perhaps with good reason.
Sure, he would be a technically good leader; driving things forward, doing the honourable thing most days, but is he a visionary?
Does he inspire? He certainly struggles with compassion.
Perhaps if the ritual, somehow, does not work, the Princess will be a better fit to lead us.
I pray to Rai and Isira she lives. That she becomes willing to help us break free of this curse and that the ritual does not seek to claim her life, like so many believe it will.
I have long since given up praying for Cinder Cliffs to release the information they have.
Perhaps it would do more harm than good.
Cocking my head to the side, I smile at Eira, who is perched on a stool beside Aiden, drenched in beauty and elegance.
Eira is soft. She is delicate, graceful.
And oh so magnetic. I wiggle my fingers in a playful wave, provoking a soft giggle from her.
Beautiful, full lips curling with amusement, and memories from the other night tease my mind. And my body.
“Hi, Nyk,” she says.
“Captain Nyk to you,” I tease. If we were alone, I’d lick her from top to bottom. Again.
Aiden’s head swivels between us. “Acting Captain,” he corrects sharply, locking eyes with me.
“That’s what I am to you, my Prince,” I smile, unable to tear my gaze from her burnt-umber eyes, they drink in the light. “But I am her Captain.”
Lili clears her throat, pausing Aiden’s exaggerated blinks as he looks between us.
“Sorry for the interruption, Your Majesty. We should be going.” Turning for the exit at the back of the kitchens, I nod politely to the Prince, now furiously itching the back of his neck, then stick my tongue out at Eira.
She snorts behind her dainty hand. His stare lingers a second longer than necessary, the suspicion raging through his bones clear.
He gives me the same look during meetings or whenever he walks in on me in the metal shop some nights, trying to convince Eira I can make her forget all about him.
“Must you tease him like that?” Lili snaps once we enter the servant’s passage. She narrows her eyes at me like I’ve said something truly vile.
“We needed a distraction. Trust me, he’s distracted. And I only like to tease Eira,” I say. “Aiden doesn’t own her. He is the maker of his own demise. Must she live a life alone because of something that happened when they were children?”
She hums thoughtfully as we take a turn, descending deeper into the passages.
“I don’t know. But if you were smart, you wouldn’t make an enemy of Aiden. You should go after one of the hundreds of fae throwing themselves at your feet and leave her alone.”
“Only hundreds? You think that little of me?” I raise my eyebrows and rest my palm against my heart.
She rolls her eyes and mutters something under her breath about male egos always coming back to sex.
We pass the odd maid and apprentice, until the corridor narrows and leads us into the final stretch, taking us directly beneath the tunnels to the barracks.
Across from the dungeons that were sealed off and filled in nearly twenty years ago.
Aiden’s mother was the last prisoner held and tortured here by Leander, before King Aeron finally ended the abhorrent, archaic practices.
I nod at a soldier as we turn the last corner.
“Better watch him, what’s his name?” I say out of the corner of my mouth.
“Reiss,” Lili whispers.
That’s it. Theron’s quadrant.
“There’s so much magic here.” Lili’s slow steps echo off the walls she inspects. Pressing and prodding, “I’m always shocked at how strong he is, if simple wards are emanating this kind of magic….”
She removes various bottles from her satchel, laying them on the floor and sprinkling powders and potions around, muttering things under her breath.
I really should have listened more in school; I haven’t the faintest idea what she’s doing but I’m too distracted by a couple of slow heartbeats in the distance to learn. Reiss has company.
“Quicker.”
Her hands sweep over the top of the stone walls.
“Kian said it’s right here,” she grunts.
She grabs another handful of powder and throws it upwards. There’s a harsh, grating sound as sections of the rock ceiling melt away, revealing the top of a narrow ladder. In the distance, the heartbeats are multiplying.
“Fucking Reiss,” I mutter under my breath, scooping up the last of the bottles and shoving them into my pockets. In the distance, a male shrieks, followed by a low hiss.