Page 11 of A Tongue so Sweet and Deadly

She’d had that here.

Not often.

But there had been nights she’d forgotten all about the king, about what she’d left behind in Vastala, and had just been in the moment with her friends.

But now her time was up. She didn’t know what the king wanted, but it couldn’t be good. And she couldn’t risk bringing her friends into it.

Especially with the secret they harbored in the rooms beneath them.

Pellie waved goodbye as she dragged the soldiers down the stairs, no doubt bringing them to her apartment, and Lessia nodded at her before she disappeared.

Soria and Pellie were key to keeping up the appearance that all she and her friends did was drink and bring home different men—and sometimes women—to warm their beds. While neither knew of the children or what truly went on in the warehouse, they were aware they were a distraction, and they made the most of it, both enjoying the freedom they’d been offered.

A few years ago, Lessia and Ardow had helped the sisters get away from their abusive mother and now paid for their apartments and living expenses. The sisters were clever enough not to ask any questions that might risk theirnewfound freedom, knowing there wouldn’t be any answers anyway.

Lessia remained quiet while Ardow and the soldiers talked, the men telling them of their lives in the navy. They’d been at sea the past three years, traveling between the human isles to ensure peace, but had been called back with the elections in Ellow coming up.

Lessia nodded. She hadn’t been here the past election, had only arrived right as it wrapped up. But she’d heard it could get intense.

When her eyelids fluttered, Ardow followed the soldiers to the door while she cleaned the dirty cups and wiped the spots on the counter where they’d spilled some of the liquor.

Leaning against the bar, she smiled at the scruffy leather chairs and the scarred wooden table before them—the first furniture they’d brought in here. She, Ardow, and Amalise had slept in those chairs, poor as ever, while they searched for the first place to open a tavern.

“You daydreaming over there, or did you fall asleep standing?” Ardow grinned at her from across the room, his arms folded over his chest as he leaned against the doorframe.

She smiled back at him.

He was devastatingly handsome, even with a slightly rumpled leather tunic and his dark hair tousled from him dragging his hands through it all night. With his muscled build, six-foot-two stature, and broad shoulders, he rarely had to fight for a man’s or woman’s attention when he wanted it.

Ardow wiggled his brows. “Admiring me?”

Rolling her eyes, she blew out the candle beside her and hurried to the door, where light trickled into the dark room. Ardow stepped aside to let her out, and she let out a breath when she left the darkness behind.

She winked. “Always.”

When she made to walk to her room, Ardow caught her hand, and she turned her head over her shoulder to look at him.

“You want company tonight?”

Lessia bit her lip. It had been a while since Ardow warmed her bed, but she was exhausted and confident she’d have nightmares after the meeting with Merrick.

Shaking her head, she said softly, “I think I just need to sleep.”

Ardow’s smile didn’t falter. He only nodded and kissed her cheek. “Good night, Lessia.”

Waving at him, she slipped into her room, making sure the fireplace was lit and lifting a lantern off the wall to bring inside before she closed the door behind her.

Chapter

Five

When she woke, the stars still winked at her through the floor-to-ceiling windows behind her bed.

Amalise had laughed when she’d picked this room—they’d moved in during summer, after all, and the window faced south, so her room was bathed in sunlight most hours of the day. But she’d stopped laughing, understanding instead filling her eyes, when Lessia had refused curtains, unwilling ever to block the sun again.

In winter, though, the sun barely peeked over the horizon in Asker, the island too far north. She’d hated it at first, had only ever known Vastala, where it was warm year-round, the Fae island several weeks south by ship.

But she’d gotten used to it. Even if she still hated the dark, the snow made up for it, and the coastal town was still bright and perhaps even more beautiful in winter, with ice coating every building, making the town sparkle.

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