Page 71 of A Dagger of Ice and Intrigue
Up and up we went, in that same deepening silence, until we reached a small hallway devoid of any warriors and with just two doors, side by side.
He opened the second one and waited as I wandered in, slow and alert. He’d said we were going to my room and a warm bath sounded amazing, but what if this was a torture chamber?
It wasn’t.
It was a lavish, light-filled bedroom, decorated in white and–shockingly–silver. No sign of the pretentious gold and red velvet the Blood Brotherhood loved so much.
“Mrs. Thornbrew couldn’t find any of your Protectorate blue on such short notice,” the Commander said low, as I openly stared, mouth open.
My own bedroom back in Aquila was half the size of this.
The bed alone–with a plush duvet that looked so light and fluffy I wanted to drape my naked body with it–was larger than any I’d seen, with a draped canopy that would keep me toasty all night.
“Thank you,” I whispered, caught off guard. I’d expected a hay bed and a bucket to wash.
A familiar heat blasted my face and soothed the chill in my bones as soon as I walked inside. It was so similar to the temperature on the balmy spring Aquila nights.
“You magicked the room.” I stepped onto the plush carpet, my feet sighing in relief as they sunk into it.
“Only this one.” He leaned against the doorway, watching me with those sparking eyes, but not setting a foot inside what was supposed to be my space. “You still need to wear proper clothes and boots when you step out. The cold doesn’t show mercy.”
He nodded at the open wardrobe, where a row of coats awaited, perfectly straight on the wooden hangers, like soldiers in a line. They were sleek and made of leather in shades of brown, grey, and white, while the insides, hoods and cuffs had been trimmed with fur. I could move easily in them. Underneath them were a few pairs of boots, all of them sturdy, with mean-looking soles that would surely help me walk through snow and over ice when I’d inevitably escape.
A pang of guilt wormed its way inside me.
He didn’t have to ready this room or these clothes for me. He could have let me suffer in my torn dress until I either hunted down a deer skin or begged for shoes. That would have been the smart tactic to use when faced with the heir of the enemy Clan.
Instead, he’d made sure I was comfortable.
Yet here I was, already planning to use these gifts for my own means of escape.
The guilt quickly vanished as a new plot began to form.
Kindness was a powerful weapon.
I hadn’t even asked for this. He’d just anticipated my needs and…made it happen.
What trick was this?
We wereenemies.
Was this show of comfort a way to make me lower my guard and gulp up the lies he’d tried to sell me?
“Why did you do all of this?” I said, keeping my voice light, in casehesuspected thatIsuspected his scheming.
Honestly, it was exhausting to keep anticipating every grim scenario. But I didn’t know any other way to survive. After Grandpa Constantine’s death, nobody else bothered to anticipate.
“A precaution,” the Commander said, staring at me even more intently than before, if that was possible. “If we are to be married, maybe this will keep you from poisoning my tea in the morning.”
He drank tea. Of course he did; anything to heat up a body in this frozen place. It was probably made up of stubborn, bitter roots, wolf fangs, and ground rocks.
“It will take a lot more than a nice room and some pretty clothes for that,” I said and meant it. Nice, but this was all stuff. Loyalty was earned in very different ways. “And we’re not getting married.”
“Hopefully. But I like to be prepared.” His gaze traveled down my borrowed coat, which I had no intention of letting go until he left, despite the temperature heating up my cheeks. He’d seen me in my ragged dress that revealed too much and with a shoe dangling from my ankle, but the thought of exposing myself again to his gaze suddenly felt wrong in this lavish room.
That had been all about humiliation. This was so much worse–it felt like beingseen.
His gaze snagged on my ankles again. He shook his head, then nodded at a door next to the bed. “Washing room.”
