Page 93 of The Princess of Nothing
“Yes, but wait.” He pointed over my shoulder, toward the mountains. “They have finally arrived.”
“I know them!” I squeaked, rushing toward them until I reached Hawk. He towered over me, looking down with dark eyes. He wore a suit under his thick jacket and smelled like cigar smoke.
He bowed at the waist. “Your Majesty.”
“I’m so glad to see you.”
“I must apologize.” Guilt softened his sharp features. “For leaving you in Berovia. We’d presumed you’d returned. We waited as long as we could, but we ran out of the coins you gave us and had to go back to Magaelor.”
“No, no.” I waved my hand in the air. “You couldn’t have known. No one did, but please, may I talk to you about something?” I looked around us and over at where Adius stood with other soldiers. “That man can never find out you or your men helped me get to Berovia. Well, no one can.”
He nodded. “We have heard the story. We are all loyal to you.”
Something didn’t sit right, but I shrugged it off as nerves. “I will ensure you will all be paid well once we are home.”
“For now, Majesty, we are at your service. Edgar is plunging Magaelor into poverty, us along with it and all we have built. It’s not just me. Others have come who have lost their wealth.”
“Good. We need numbers, Hawk. Please, go join Adius. He is the commander. He will take you to Enchante for some food and sleep, before you all go to Fairmont. There are villages there. Plenty of space. You will have rooms and plenty of meals for your men too.”
He smiled. “I’m glad you’re alive.”
“Me too.” A weight lifted from my chest. They were loyal to me. I mean, they wouldn’t be here if they weren’t. For now, aside from the few men who’d seen me at the tavern—and they hadn’t spoken up—everyone believed me. Was I really about to get away with murder?
***
Pebbles led into thebubbling waves that lapped onto the beach. Seagulls soared through the gloomy sky, and the dark ocean seemed endless beneath the evening sky. Stepping into the freezing waters, I hissed as the cold ran through me, icing my bare feet. I lifted the skirt of my dark-green dress higher, until my ankles were submerged. “Perhaps this was why I’d put it off.”
“Or maybe it’s the creepiness of the mer king.” Cedric grinned, but worry still crowned his eyes. “That’s why.”
They could feel my spirit, or so Aqugar had said when we met. I calmed my mind and my heart, linking myself with the ocean.“I am Winter Mortis, and I am requesting the presence of Aqugar.” I looked around. “The, er, mer king,” I said for good measure, immediately regretting it. Of course they’d know who it was, unless there was more than one Aqugar, like there was more than one Winter.
Cedric cleared his throat from behind me. “Nothing’s happening.”
“Give it time.” I shivered. I wished they’d hurry up. My toes were frozen. I was worried there would be no thawing them.
After ten minutes, I hurried out of the sea. “I can’t.” My teeth chattered.
Cedric lifted me in his arms, fluttering his wings as we spiraled upward. I trembled until we hit solid ground again onto the porch of a rickety, wood house just beyond the beach. It was desolate, except for a scratchy, brown cloth on the ground and a crumbling fireplace. “It’s uh...”
“It’s out of the cold.” He blew heat into his palms and turned toward me. He sat and took my feet, then pulled off his fur coat and covered me with it.
“You don’t have to do that. You’re cold.”
He was slightly shaking, with a blue hue to his normally tanned face.“You’re more important.”
I couldn’t help but smile. “I don’t deserve you,” I said as I rolled my staff between my hands, summoning sparks into a fire. I suspended them over the fireplace, hoping it’d last long enough to bring our extremities back to life.
“Don’t do that.” He rubbed his hand up and down my shin. “We deserve each other. You make me happy, and I hope I make you happy.”
I thought about my secret kiss with Blaise. My lapse in judgement. How sometimes I still thought about it. “You do, but you could still do better than me. I have a lot of flaws.”
“You’re a little stubborn,” he smirked, “hot-headed, and sometimes righteous.”
“Tell me how you really feel.”
“But you’re strong, fierce, caring, and sometimes, you can be funny.”
“Only sometimes.”
