Page 48 of Between Realms

MAGE

WYNSTELLE

After a sharp knock at my door, I snap awake, and I hurry over to see who’s visiting me this morning. Oakes and Jaden block the entire view of the hallway with their large frames as they stand stoically, waiting for entry.

I step aside and watch their curiously reserved behavior as they stride inside my bedchamber.

Oakes feels distant again. He’s like a glowing crucible of melted metal one minute and an icy creek the next. His words about how much I mean to him echo in my mind and heart. Could he truly mean it? Perhaps his confusing behavior results from wanting a deeper friendship with me, when it’s obvious Eldrin wouldn’t allow it.

“Is everything all right?” I ask, afraid of an unwelcome answer.

“Yes.” Oakes looks confused by my concern.

Jaden relaxes a bit with my pointed question. “We were going to meet with the mage. I thought you might want to join us?”

“Now?” I pat down my messy hair and glance down at my wrinkled nightgown.

“We have enough time for you to get ready,” Oakes says. “Would you like us to come back?”

“No, don’t go. Have a seat.” I gesture to the small table. “I’ll just freshen up in the bathing room.” I grab my new dress and hurry into the en suite. After a quick change, I come back into the room and begin to attack my hair with a brush. The tangles are tenacious. I bite back whimpers as my thick hair catches in the bristles.

“Come here.” Jaden jumps up, offering me his seat at my small dining table. He snatches away the brush as he nudges me to sit down.

“I can do it,” I protest, trying to take the brush back. “My hair has always been hard to manage. It isn’t like elves’glossylocks.” Enviously, I eye his beautiful raven-black hair.

“I’ll have Eldrin deliver you some proper conditioner.” Jaden brushes my hair like an expert. “It will help with your tangles. There isn’t anything subpar about your hair. It just needs a little attention. It’s obvious that you have given it absolutely none.”

“Oh, I just thought I was defectively human.” Then I huff. “And don’t act as if I should know about hair management. It isn’t like servants get a lot of leisure time, so they can look gorgeous while scrubbing the floors.”

Jaden ignores my comment and braids my hair into an intricate plait. The luxurious feeling of having someone’s fingers confidently run through my hair makes me sigh, smile, and lean back into my chair.

Oakes watches the scene with a wistful expression.

“How do you know so much about hair?” I ask in a relaxed haze.

“I’m over a hundred and fifty years old. You can pick up a thing or two in that length of time.” Jaden chuckles.

“I suppose so.” I stand up when he’s done and turn in a full circle for them to inspect my transformation. “Do I look presentable enough for a meeting with a mage?

“You are perfect,” Oakes says.

“Don’t be too nervous,” Jaden adds. “You don’t have to speak to her if you don’t want to.”

I bite my lip. Will I be able to keep all the questions bubbling inside me from slipping out?

* * *

The mage is already seated in the prince’s meeting hall when I arrive with Oakes and Jaden. The elf is of advanced age, assuredly over a thousand years, even if she doesn’t have a proper wrinkle in sight. However, I can read her extensive years just by the look in her eyes—eyes that seem to pierce my soul.

Reacting to the mage’s immense power, I fight off a cringe. What if she peers inside and finds me lacking to even be in the room? Would she send me away and prove to Oakes and Jaden that I don’t deserve their friendship?

Even as the prince’s advisors greet the mage, her attention never leaves me.

Oakes is the first to notice her keen interest in his mortal companion. “Honorable Mage Neven, I hope you don’t mind an unexpected visitor.”

“She wasn’tunexpected, now was she?” Mage Neven’s voice is devoid of how she feels about the intrusion.

I wonder if she also means she knew they would bring me along.

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