Page 22 of Crownless King

All that time, she also had to deal with Voron, who acted uncharacteristically unsettled. He paced around, raking his hands through his hair, or tried to help her but mostly just got in the way.

By the time a servant brought a tray with tea for me, Brebie had had enough of Voron and his “assistance.”

“I’ll settle Sparrow for the night, my lord. Why don’t you retire to bed, too, now. I made the corner bedroom in the south wing ready for Sparrow. But since she’s staying here, you can sleep there.”

“I’m staying here.” He kept pacing in front of the bed.

Too distracted by his thoughts, he almost bumped into Brebie on her way to the bathroom to dump my bath water out. She shook her head with an annoyed eye roll.

“Really. Sparrow will be fine on her own, and I’ll check on her first thing in the morning. You should go get some rest.”

“I’m staying here,” he repeated stubbornly, then plopped into the chair next to the bed, the same chair where I found him when I woke up about a day and a half later.

“Suit yourself,” Brebie blew out an exasperated breath.

“Can you get Alcon in here?” he asked as she opened the door. “I have to deal with the queen before she sends an army to search for me. No one can know Sparrow is here.”

Voron had stayed up, worried about me and watching over me.

“It’s all my fault.”There had been so much regret in those words of his.

He felt guilty and responsible for me in some ways, but there was more than that in his voice. Whether he liked it or not, Voron had grown to care about me.

I reached for the image of him over the page. The silver light broke into shimmering dust under my fingers. It swirled around my hand before settling back into the open pages of the book.

The urge to turn the page for more images nagged at me, but I closed it and locked the clasps.

It was late into the night now. But more importantly, the main content of the records was about Voron and his family. It didn’t feel right for me to snoop behind his back and learn things he might not even know himself. The right thing to do would be to let him know I had the book. Then maybe he would let me read it with him.

I got up from the chair and stretched. After unlacing my dress, I got out of my clothes, then changed into a long, light nightshirt.

The night was hot. The reprieve from the storm the night prior didn’t last long. The dark clouds churned ominously in the sky, blocking the stars. The moon was but a pale patch of light barely visible behind them.

I used the bathroom and was brushing my hair, ready to go to bed when the approaching stomping of boots sounded in the corridor behind my door. I paused with the brush in my hand.

The door to my room suddenly swung open, and Voron barged in. My heart flipped from both excitement and worry.

“What’s going on?” I dropped the hairbrush back on the vanity table. “Why are you here?”

My breath hitched at the sight of him. I hadn’t heard him return, probably because I was in the bathroom when he arrived to Vensari.

Now, there he was, his riding cloak gone already. His boots were splattered with mud from the road. His black shirt undone on his chest that rose and fell with his rapid breathing.

He groaned, taking me in as I stood by the window wearing nothing but my transparent nightshirt. Closing the door, he leaned with his back against it.

“You really, really need to lock your door, Sparrow.”

“Why?”

“To keep me out, if nothing else.” He ran his hand through his hair that was in a worse disarray than ever.

He really looked like a man at war. At war with himself.

I shook my head.

“I’m not going to fight this battle for you, Voron. I like you. I enjoy being with you. I don’t belong to anyone anymore but myself. And I want you to have me. But that’s a decision you’ll have to make on your own.”

He peeled his back off from the door and stalked toward me.

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