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I gripped his arms, then righted myself and pulled away, turning in a slow circle to see where we were. At the end of a street that stretched into forever, most of the lights out save for two sconces outside a large wooden door with many a metal lock.
The door was open, laughter and raucous noise emptying out onto the street from inside. I nearly smiled, relieved to have found some truth to the tales we’d all been told, and steeled my shoulders for what may greet us on the other side.
But the king walked past the door, and I frowned before hurrying to keep up, wondering where he was going.
He stopped outside a darkened store, knocked once, and murmured words to someone I couldn’t see when the white door with its blue trim opened a crack. “Of course, my king. Come on inside. I’ll just be a moment.”
The king looked back to where I still stood in front of a dark bungalow that sat between the tavern I’d thought we’d be entering and what I soon realized was the king’s preferred dressmaker.
Her shop was lilac painted walls, lavender-scented candles upon every surface, and fabrics that tempted me to drool as I flitted about like a fly at a picnic.
When the female returned, a brunette with sharp honeyed eyes and short curls that bounced around her neck, she curtsied. “Apologies, my son needed the last two pages of his book read to him or he’d have screamed the place down.”
Dade chuckled. “A tyrant in the making is what you have, dear Olivia
The female gri
“Princess Opal, it is a pleasure.”
I waved her off, my a
Afterward, over tea, she divulged that her son was conceived that night, and although she was not in contact with the male who’d chosen to be with another and to serve in one of the king’s legions, she thought it was a sign.
“It wasn’t even that I’d mended it that well.” She leaned closer, laughter in her eyes. “It was that I’d enjoyed it and had wondered what it would look like if I’d made some more alterations.” She poured herself a smidge more tea from a crystal teapot. “So I began to dismantle some of my clothes, and not long after, sought a business loan from my parents.”
“What did they think?” I couldn’t help but ask. “Of your son, and the male who just left you to raise him alone.”
She stared down at her tea, then lifted those eyes that I now guessed were often smiling. “They didn’t know until I was a few moons from giving birth, and by then”—she shrugged—“I was making just enough to keep my new store afloat.”
“So you live upstairs?”
Olivia
We left soon after, Dade loading up the carriage that was now parked across the street in front of a run-down looking butcher with a mountain of fabric.
Guilt gnawed at me, a nibble that wouldn’t cease. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t paid Olivia
No, as much as I loathed to admit it, I didn’t need the material. I wanted it, of course, my heart singing at the sight of all the various cottons and silks and rayon, but I shouldn’t have taken it so far as to actually take it.
I’d not only distracted the king from his murderous ventures, I’d used him to gain something I had no freedom to enjoy.
I had to get over it. I had to grow used to doing such things.
For it would take far more than some pieces of fabric to keep him from hurting more people.
“I don’t know what to say,” I murmured, gazing at the colors attempting to swim out of the storage compartment beneath the driver’s seat.
“I’d say you should thank me, but I’d rather you kiss me instead.”
My cheeks instantly burned, the driver busy but still well within earshot.
Dade brushed his thumb over my warm cheek, then jerked his head to the side of the street we were standing on and took my hand. “Have a drink with me.”
“Oh, I couldn’t,” I said, no longer in the mood to see the violence of this city.
“Nonsense. I saw the way you eyed it earlier.”
The tavern seemed too dank, too dim, to house a royal such as Dade, yet oh-so-perfectly fitting for the beast that lurked beneath his skin.
Behind him, my fingers caught in the curl of his, I watched him prowl toward a barrel-made countertop, all eyes upon us. Their attention was ignored, as was any greeting thrust his way, as Dade leaned over the counter to say something to a silver-haired male with piercings along one arched ear and eyes a blue so deep they were nearly purple.
I stayed behind him, watched the way the muted glow of a fire lamp turned his blond hair to a murky, shadowed sandy hue, and studied the broad expanse of his back beneath his black tunic.
The one he wore tonight was tight, though I didn’t think it was due to it being ill-fitting, but rather, due to the fact that he fit it too well. Muscle shifted, bunched and straightened as he pointed at something on the dark shelves behind the bartender. One leather booted foot was kicked over the other, his weight leaning into the aged wood that balanced atop the barrels and appeared to have been cut from a ship.
Throwing a glance around the mostly empty tavern, I pulled my fingers from his, noting the fear in some lone and older patrons who were finishing their drinks with feigned casualness. There was more curiosity than fear from a group of females, and even hunger in those who were giggling, trying to build up the courage to approach their king.
The easy way the king had communicated with Olivia
I gave him a flat look, and he shook his head with a grin before jerking it to a set of stairs over by the edge of the countertop. We climbed them, finding a few small tables perched before a floor-to-ceiling triangular window overlooking the dark street below. Grime and stars knew what else covered it, but even so, I could still make out the rows of lights, the city of Vordane beyond.
Dade kicked a chair out for me, and I took a seat as he rounded the table and slumped into another with grace a male of his height and muscular build shouldn’t have. The chair didn’t even groan.
He poured us each a glass of what smelled like vanilla frosted wine. “You scared them off.”
Confused, my eyes shot to his, but he was smiling down at his glass. “The females.” He popped the crystal stopper back on the decanter and lifted his glass to his lips, his gaze to mine. “You acknowledged the bond, made sure they could scent it as well as see it.”
Ice trickled down my spine. “I did no such thing.”
Dade half rolled his eyes, his throat bobbing as he swallowed and sat back, one knee tossed over the other. “I’d be inclined to believe you if it weren’t for the fact that I have a fucking nose, sunshine.” With a pointed look, he stated coldly, “I scented it, too.”