Page 69 of Ocean of Silver

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Patricia wasin my room setting up my dinner as I entered. She did her awkward half curtsey and went to leave. “No, please stay,” I begged. “Have dinner with me.”

“My dear, I don’t think that’s a good idea. Not tonight,” she stammered. Sweat was beading into her brow, and she looked pale, sickly even.

“Patricia, what’s wrong?” I asked as I rushed to her side, pressing the back of my hand against her forehead. She was burning up. “You aren’t well.”

“I’ll be fine, dear. I just need to go back to my chambers.”

“No, I insist. Rest here, you can have my bed. I’ll go fetch you water.”

Patricia ripped my hand away from hers and sprinted toward the door faster than I thought was possible on her wobbly legs.

I didn’t know if I was ill myself because it looked like she was growing. Her rolls were disappearing, stretching to a taller height, and her ankles were now showing underneath her long skirts. Hairy muscular legs were staring back at me. I looked up and saw a beautiful, messy mop of blonde hair.

Peter.

He turned around slowly. His green eyes—the same as Patricia’s, the same as the nice guard who gave me bread—met mine. “Surprise,” he said with a smile, flashing his dimples.

My mouth dropped open. I went to speak. Stopped. Tried to start again. Then stopped.

“Well, I did tell you that it would be more fun for me to show you my ability than to just tell you. So here it is. I can shapeshift.” Peter shrugged, tugging awkwardly at the dress.

I sauntered over to him, my mouth still fully gaping open, as I slapped him hard across the cheek. He went to speak, but I slapped him again.

“Ouch. I was expecting more of a warm welcome.Peter, I missed you so much. Peter, oh my gosh, you are here. Peter, you’re so cute. Peter, I love you,” he mocked.

“You saw me naked.” It was all I could register at the moment. My first night here, Patricia—no Peter—helped me bathe with the rags. He, at least, had the decency to flinch now.

“Scottie, I had to make sure you were safe.Wehad to make sure,” he admitted softly.

“And now?” I asked, gesturing to him wearing a dress that was falling off his lithe frame. “You saw that I was safe. Why did you keep parading around like a girl? Why didn’t you just tell me? Why are you even here?” The questions were rolling off my tongue.

“I wanted to tell you, but I couldn’t, not after I saw Kole was here. I couldn’t risk the King going into your memories again and finding out.”

My anger, although still there, was being overpowered by worry for him. “They will kill you if they catch you.”

“Ah,” he smiled, “there is the adoring, concerning Scotlind I know.”

“Peter, I’m serious. You shouldn’t be here. Why did you come?”

“We needed to make sure you were going to be okay.” His smile fell, and my heart ached. He kept sayingwe. All those days of thinking Peter abandoned me, that he didn’t care… But he had been with me this entire time. I reached into my pocket, holding the note that he gave me. It was something I found myself doing often ever since Tezya gave it back to me.

“Sie and I were worried. We didn’t want to send you here, but Synder was going to kill you. He was going to force Sie to be the one to do it too. He didn’t have a choice, so I offered to watch over you. We didn’t know what the Lux King would do with you, and when I saw you in that cage…” He stopped talking. I looked up at him. Agony and anger were written across his normally fun-loving face. “I just couldn’t leave you.”

I rushed over to him, flinging myself into his arms for a hug as the tears swelled and rushed down my cheeks. “I missed you.” I hugged him tighter. “I love you, Peter.”

“I love you too, Scottie,” he said into my hair as he squeezed me back, not letting go.

We talked all night. I filled him in on what Tezya told me about the Lux King’s plan, and Peter told me about his time meeting up with Sie.

Peter didn’t mention Sie’s engagement to Reagan. He either didn’t know or didn’t think I wanted to hear. Either way, I was thankful. I wasn’t ready to discuss that. It was hard enough to wrap my mind around the fact that Sie sent me here to protect me. No matter how many times Peter explained what happened, it was hard to believe. I saw the distant look and hard demeanor Sie gave me the day he annulled our marriage. He could barely stand to look at me. Hedidn’tlook at me.

I also knew I couldn’t afford to sort through those feelings right now. We had bigger issues to deal with, so I buried them deep inside me and locked them away for later. King Lunder was dead, and Synder was now ruling over Tennebris. If Tezya and I succeeded in our roles, Sie would be off the throne, leaving only Synder to remain.

“When are you going back?” I asked my friend as the morning sun was starting to fill the sky. We were sitting on my bed together—as we had been all night—with a plate of mostly eaten croissants in front of us. He turned back into Patricia once his reserves were refilled, in case anyone walked through my door, but now that I knew it was him, I had no idea how I never noticed before. At least now, he didn’t mask his voice.

“I don’t know yet. I have to be back by Sie’s coronation. I mainly came to watch over you, but when I’m not with you, I’ve been snooping around. It’s the reason you caught me last night. My reserves were low from shifting too much. It’s draining to completely take on a new shape.”

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