Page 77 of Rook of Ruin
The ginger gives me an evil grin, clasping his hand in mine. “Thanks for the engagement present.”
I smile just as wickedly. “I’ll make sure to deliver the Panther’s head with a bow. Now let’s get back. I need to discuss the Wraiths with the queen’s council.”
Home. But it doesn’t feel like home. My chambers feel claustrophobic, and I’m desperately lonely. My visits with Ralin are brief because the baby is pushing down, and she is miserable. Days turn into weeks and then into months as I spend my time with Simon or in the stables with Salann. No one mentions my kidnapping two months ago; it’s as if it never happened. It’s both a relief and a worry. There is no gossip or curiosity; I’ve not been invited to any social events. I have been left to my own devices.
Trudging back through the massive stables, I run into Ossian coming in. He narrows his eyes and opens his mouth to speak, but I stomp past him, only turning around to throw a rude gesture with my fingers. It causes his eyes to widen, his mask to slip, and an odd expression to show through,sadness. He moves his hand to his heart, as if I just stabbed him. His unemotional mask reforms, but there’s more tension between us, so heavy, it could crush us. We glare at one another and our braces light up, both daring the other to make the first lethal move.
“Here to finally kill me?” I sneer.
“Kill you?” he repeats in a daze, then anger bursts through. “You think I would kill you?”
Venomous words roll off my tongue. “Of course. Why not? That’s all you’re good for. Killing. Stealing secrets. You are nothing but the Spider, and you care for no one but yourself and your knighthood. Selfish ass.”
A deep feral growl comes up from his chest. “I am more than you think.”
“Oh, I don’t think of you at all, and I never will.” I laugh at him through my lie. He takes a step forward and reaches for me. Coward that I am, I recoil instead of punching him in the face. I don’t outright run to the groom holding Sal, but I quickly mount her and take off. Ossian yells my name several times, but I don’t turn back. A deep despair brands my heart.
Leading Sal to the edge of the castle property, I dismount and kick off my shoes, and she follows me as I sit under a weeping willow. Tears fall down my face, and I curl up, bringing my knees to my chest. Rooks are supposed to stand by one another, have each other’s backs. Why does he think I’m unworthy to save?Because he has hated me for so long.Sal nudges my shoulder to try to calm me down. I rub her sweet face and shove my feet back into my boots. I mount her, and we head back to the stables. Relief fills me when Ossian is nowhere in sight.
Simon left yesterday morning for a trip, and I find myself missing him. He seems to be the only one not avoiding me, the only one I can speak to. Nora only briefly converses with me, Patsy is still off healing somewhere, and with Tess and Paul on a mission, I’m more lonely now than I was when I was a child.
The majority of my time with Simon is spent with him teaching me the fighting techniques of Bethalian Warriors. Although we talk, I know as much about him as I did when we met. I want to know him, I want him to know me, and it’snot from a lack of trying. Simon is constantly pulled away for messages or surprise meetings with the queen.
I slide my feet slowly across the dry stone path, trying to perfect the footwork he’s been teaching me as I wait patiently by a corral with Sal for a groom.
Once a groom approaches, he removes Sal’s saddle, and I watch as he takes her out into the corral to brush and feed her. “Have you chosen a name for the foal?” Niall, my favorite groom, says from behind me, bringing me back from my thoughts.
“Elliot.” I smile brightly, but then a sadness overtakes me, one I don’t understand.
“A strong name,” he says with a toothy grin and goes back to work.
I watch as Elliot runs in the corral and Sal eats gracefully. A prickle goes up the back of my neck—someone watching me. Cautiously, I look around. Niall is now busy with hay, and a stable boy is shoveling shit. I don’t see anyone else. I wait a few minutes and leave the stables.
Before I make it to the castle, a voice breaks me out of my thoughts, “Lady Verlan?” A servant hands me a letter and gives me a quick bow. Tearing it open, the neat handwriting greets my eyes.
He’s back.
I smile to myself as my feet float through the castle and into my room. As I dry off next to my bed, I notice a red leather bookwedged between my soft mattress and the wooden headboard. I pick it up, and a slip of paper drops out. It’s an interesting sketch of a circle with a ranunculus blooming through it and a dagger piercing through both. Iloveit. I rub my finger over the ink of the page, then I flip through the book, a definite erotic book that I will absolutely read later tonight. I must have picked it up from the library and forgot. I put the leather book into my night stand drawer and gently lay the drawing on top.
Nora breezes into my room, a large bouquet of white roses in her arms, and hands me another note.
I’m grinning ear to ear as Nora busies herself with a white-and-silver sheer lace corset and the queen’s stylists come in. Nora and I look at each other for a moment, taking in their large black boxes with silver bows and their surplus of supplies to dress me up. I know what Simon is planning, and I believe Nora does too.
This is it. This is happening. He told me he would ask, and I know exactly how I will respond.
“Please sit.” The tall stylist twists my hair into an elaborate updo, this time with silver flecks dusted in my golden brown hair.
The shorter one applies kohl to my eyes and shimmery powder to my face before using a small brush to place goopy black tar on my lashes. Finally, she dabs a deep rouge to my lips, and when she finishes, I stand. Nora and the two stylists cover the restof my body in a shimmering lotion, making my pale skin glow. A large white gold diamond-and-pearl crown is placed on my head, a matching necklace dripping down my chest.
The tall stylist brings out a delicate gown, and all three of them help me into it. It’s a beautiful off-the-shoulders white silk gown with silver lace starting at my hips, then flowing down into a puddle. It hugs every single curve and makes me look like a regal princess. I grin at myself in the mirror.
“Perfection,” the stylists say together, and they help me into white-heeled shoes. Nora gently hugs me as another knock on my door draws our attention. She answers it and hands me a note and a small box containing a pair of earrings made of diamonds and two perfect pearls. I smile and open the note.
“How do I look?” I ask Nora after she clips them to my ears.
“You look like an angel. Really. Breathless, my lady.” Nora smiles stiffly.
Finn walks in at the same time he knocks on the door, and his eyes widen. I can’t help but grin at the man who has become a footman of sorts for Simon. “My lady, you look beautiful.”
