Page 93 of A Tongue so Sweet and Deadly

Perhaps she needed to figure out not only Loche’s and the rest of the nominees’ intentions.

But also Merrick’s.

Lessia tapped his shoulder, or as close as she could come from the step below him. “Would you like to join me for dinner?”

Stiffening, he made to turn around but appeared to catch himself at the last minute and instead took the final step into the castle’s entrance hall. “I have more business in town I need to see to.”

“Is it for our friend?” she dared ask.

“It relates to him, yes.” Merrick started toward the door but tensed again, halting his steps. “Stay in your room tonight. The storm is bad.”

Frowning, she watched him stalk out of the castle while throwing on a thick dark cloak that had been hung to dry right inside the double doors.

When the door slammed shut behind him, she glancedtoward the dining room, where Craven’s voice carried across the rest.

With a scowl, Lessia started walking over, trying to convince herself she could stand being around him for the few minutes it would take her to fill up on food. But when a server passed with a tray of something that smelled delicious, she stopped him, asking if he would bring her food into the library.

Offering her a shy smile, he promised to bring something from everything they served tonight, especially the desserts. When he winked at her, her face heated, and Lessia quickly thanked him and made her way to the library.

The server didn’t disappoint.

Lessia had to move the books she’d spread out across the table to the chairs surrounding it when he put down more dishes than she could eat in two days.

Intoxicating smells filled the rounded tower, and she paused her reading—on how the islands in Ellow had rebuilt the crop fields that had been destroyed in the war—to eat as much as she could of the vegetable soup and bread, finishing with pieces of both chocolate and vanilla cake.

As she picked up the book again, her stomach nearly bursting, the words on the pages blurred. Not even finding out how they had managed to transport cattle across different islands to help fertilize the crops could keep her focused.

Yawning, Lessia put all the books back into their places and gathered the food, carefully placing the plates on the trays to bring them down.

“The servers will take care of that.”

She whipped her head up to find Zaddock leaning with crossed arms against the railing of the staircase.

Blowing out a breath of relief to calm her racing heart, she offered him a weak smile. “I don’t mind. The poor mancarried it all the way up here; the least I could do is bring it down again.”

Shaking his head, Zaddock said quietly, “I can see why he’s intrigued by you.”

“Who?”

A loaded silence followed, and Lessia rolled her eyes. “He’s intrigued because I am not the cold, heartless Fae he expected?”

“No. Because you’re up here reading about crops.”

Her eyes widened. “How long have you—”

The smirk Zaddock offered her made her squash a snarl.

That smug grin must be a prerequisite to join Loche’s terrifying group of men.

That and showing up without her noticing.

“Why are you here?” She bit her cheek not to growl at him.

A scowl replaced Zaddock’s smirk. “To walk you to your room, since your guard was seen leaving the castle hours ago and it appears he hasn’t returned yet.”

Brows pulling, she picked up the trays. “Thank you, but I don’t need you to walk me to my room. I am sure you have more important things to do.”

His shoulders tensed. “Lessia, put those down. I’ve already asked a new server to pick them up, and Loche pays them handsomely for their work. It’s not like the old days. They earn more here than in your taverns.”

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