Page 94 of The Chaosweaver's Daughter
Her eyelids fluttered closed and her lips parted as she waited with bated breath for his kiss.
The door behind Kas wooshed open, and Ataht’s animated voice cut through their dreamlike moment, the haze of lust dissipating in an instant. “Uncle Kas! There you are!”
Kas straightened and turned to face his nephew before he offered his hand to Nesrina and guided her down to the landing.
Friends. We are friends! Stop this immediately,she scolded herself for forgetting that important fact. She was angry at him for his secrets and the lavish gifts. A whole bloody wardrobe!
A tutor and a duke, Nesrina. Friends. Friends is all.And to ensure so, Nes promised herself she would not—absolutely not—be alone with Lord Kahoth again.
Ataht craned his neck to peer down the hall. “Della! I found them!” he bellowed.
“What can I do for you?” Kas gave his nephew a tight-lipped smile as he adjusted the tuck of his shirt.
“We’re going to play billiards! Mumfinallyagreed to teach us, and we want you to join.” He beamed from ear to ear. “You too, Miss Kiappa.” The little prince reached out with both of his arms to grasp their hands, attempting to bring the whole trio through the rather narrow doorway all at once.
After a quick bit of shuffling, they made it into the hallway and headed off toward the games room on Stormhill’s lowest level.
“Oh, I almost forgot, Mum said to tell you there are drinks. I’m not thirsty. But you can have some!” With that Ataht scampered away, leaving Kas and Nes to catch up on their own.
thirty-three
Nesrina slams a door.
Nesrolledoverinbed with a sigh. She’d been working to avoid Kas at all costs since their argument. It wasn’t going well. Queen Hevva’s presence should’ve helped to distract him; unfortunately, Kas insisted that Nes still attend nightly dinners . . . and breakfasts, too. He also made a point of hanging around every afternoon, either immediately before or following her lessons with the twins.
Butalone,just the two of them? In spite of the odds, she’d managed to keep the promise she made herself after Ataht interrupted them.Thank the gods for his poor timing.She wouldnotgive in to temptation. She would not allow herself to compromise her position as tutor.
Nes had been starting to think Papa was wrong about nobility being ingratiating and calculating. She’d begun to convince herself that people like Rihan were the issue, regardless of social class. There were good folks and bad folks in all echelons of society—and that was true. She knew that. She wasn’t dumb. The issue was, she’d also begun to convince herself that people like Kas were not inherently a problem, regardless of social class. Now, she wasn’t so sure that was true. Papa certainly lived throughsomethingthat made him feel the way he did. Had she just livedherthing? Was it the dresses? Was Kas being intentionally manipulative? And what did hewant?
Aylin announced her presence with a series of soft raps on the bedroomdoor, and Nes bade her entry, hoping the kind maid may have, by some stroke of luck, brought breakfast so Nesrina wouldn’t have to brave the presence of Lord Kahoth quite so early in the day.
Alas, Aylin came empty-handed.
“Good morning, Miss Kiappa.” She grinned.
Nesrina attempted to return the smile but was fairly certain she produced no more than a grimace.
“Would you like my assistance dressing for the day?”
She didn’t, not really, but the slightly overbearing woman was already halfway to her closet, so Nes bit back her reply, climbed down from the bed, and made her way to the bathing chamber.
“I’m going to freshen up,” she called to Aylin, who was using a finely honed stream of water to flick through Nes’s clothes, manipulating her magic so it didn’t drench the priceless items.
When Nesrina emerged a few minutes later, Aylin had laid out one of her old dresses, the pink floral, upon the chest at the foot of her bed and was finishing fluffing up pillows.
Did she know about their argument?
“Ah, let’s get you ready.” Quicker than Nes expected, given her ample size, Aylin plopped down the final pillow, spun away from the bed, and herded Nesrina to the vanity across the room. “Sit. Sit. You don’t want to be late for breakfast.”
“I wouldn’t mind, actually,” she grumbled as Aylin began tugging at her tangled waves.
The maid chuckled and swatted her shoulder playfully. “Oh, you don’t mean that, Miss Kiappa. Those children love you, not to mention the duke.”
Nes choked on her own spit.
Shedescendedthestairsalone, having somehow managed to shake off Aylin, who was ready to escort her to the breakfast room. The woman seemed to think Nes would stop by the library for a book and scurry out to the garden to hide. To be fair, it wasn’t a far-fetched idea.
She went straight to the breakfast room as promised—basically—taking the longer route to see if anything exciting came in the morning’s post. She’d been corresponding with her mother recently and was expecting a response in the coming days.
