Page 82 of Crownless King

Aithen finally lost his patience completely. Bouncing in the chair, he screeched and smacked with both hands against the table.

“Okay, okay.” I hurried to him. “Let’s get you out of that chair already.”

As I lifted him out, he stopped fussing and started pulling on my hair instead.

Bavius’s deep voice unexpectedly came from the outside. Who was he talking to?

“Do you think Sauria came for a visit?” I asked Aithen with a smile.

Sauria popped in whenever she could. She had been a huge help, too. I didn’t think I’d manage without her.

Aithen cooed, stuffing a loose strand of my hair into his mouth.

“You like Sauria, don’t you?” I retrieved my hair from him and propped him on my hip, then leaned to the window to look out.

Sauria wasn’t there. Instead, Bavius was talking to a man—a highborn man dressed in fine clothes that even the wind and dust of travels couldn’t make any less dashing.

I recognized his gray-brown wings.

Alcon!

Panic shot through me like a bullet. I shrank away from the window and leaned with my back against the wall. My heart thundered so hard, I feared they would hear it through the wall.

What if they came into the house?

Pressing Aithen to my chest, I rushed to my room and shut the door behind me.

Would this door hold them?

Would they try to force their way in?

And why on earth did Alcon even come here?

Any possible reason I could think of for his visit had to do with me. No one ever visited Bavius’s farm. He had no family left. He made no friends and had no neighbors other than Sauria.

Aithen squirmed in my arms, demanding I set him down. The boundless energy of this child urged him to start on his usual morning rounds of crawling all around the house.

“Not yet, baby.” I kissed his soft, silky hair. Just as ink black as on the day he was born, his tresses had grown longer since. They curled adorably around his ears and on the back of his head.

I inhaled his sweet familiar scent, cuddling him to my chest.

“Shhh.”

All seemed quiet out in the main room. But from here, I couldn’t hear or look out into the front yard.

Did Alcon leave?

The door between the front room and the main room opened and Bavius’s heavy hooves thudded on the wooden floors. A set of footsteps accompanied them, sending me with my back into a corner.

I looked around in desperation, searching for a way out. Did I have enough time to get out through the window? Would it be enough to stay hidden? Or did Alcon know I was here and would keep searching and chasing me?

What would happen if he found me? If they wanted to finish what they had started and throw me into the River of Mists, what would happen to my baby boy?

I pressed Aithen to me so tightly, it was a miracle he didn’t start crying yet.

The door to my room was flung open, and I froze.

“Here she is,” Sauria announced cheerfully.

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