Page 118 of Bane of the Wild Hunt

“Tell her… I remember what she said. And I miss her. Be safe and come home soon,” said the witch.

Chapter thirty-three

THE CORONATION CEREMONY

Amira

“You look…”

Helena hesitated, clearly unable to even find the words to tell me how I looked in my coronation dress.

“You can just saygood,” I teased her when she began to look a little stressed about it.

“Sofia has truly outdone herself,” Helena admitted before she continued on her way into the room with the flowering vines that Sofia had sent her to retrieve.

I was pretty sure my handmaid had all of my guards wrapped around her finger. Helena was fetching flowers. Ares practically drooled on her if she walked by him.

“Those are perfect!” exclaimed Sofia as she walked over from Riordan’s closet where she’d been putting away her extra supplies. “They match her dress exactly!”

“Well, thank the gods. I was worried they would not go well together,” Helena snorted sarcastically. Sofia merely rolled her eyes as she took the vines from Helena to begin plucking off all the best and fullest flowers.

“Alright, hold still,” my handmaid told me before she began threading the stems of the flowers through the elaborate hair style she had designed for me.

I watched her in the mirror but could not help looking at my own reflection too. The fierce woman looking back at me with her caramel-coloured eyes lined in charcoal did not even look familiar to me.

But I liked her a lot.

And it was obvious now I’d also be eternally indebted to the seamstress Sofia contracted for all my new apparel. The iris-coloured dress they designed for me had billowy sleeves that parted around my shoulders with slits on my forearms for dexterity. The torso split open on my belly to show a glimpse of my navel and was fitted with a delicate silhouette of gold chains. The dress was much bigger and longer than any of my usual styles, and the voluminous skirts pooled on the ground around me.

“It will force them to make room for you and give you a wide berth,” Sofia had explained when I asked if the length was practical. The last thing I wanted was people stepping on me, but she insisted they would not dare tread on the mate of the king. And she was the expert, so I was trusting her judgement over my own concerns.

Sofia finished with my hair and then glanced back at Helena triumphantly. My guardian wasstillawed.

“You should let me do your hair,” Sofia suggested, which effectively snapped Helena out of her stare.

“Absolutely not!” huffed my guardian as if offended.

“I do not have to put flowers in it,” Sofia attempted to reassure her, but Helena remained staunchly opposed until my smirking handmaid turned back toward me.

“Ready?” she asked, and I nodded.

“Thank you—” I began to say in earnest, just as I did everytime she would outdo herself again.

“We have talked about this. It is my job, and you do not need to thank me, ” she interrupted in amusement.

I thought perhaps I might be wrapped around Sofia’s finger too. She had been pampering me nightly with all sorts of exfoliation and waxing and had me massaged and oiled until I was soft as butter. Riordan could not seem to keep his hands off of me and often commented on the scent of the oils in my hair. And I’d come to love the feel of my smooth and hairless skin as much as my mate evidently had.

Sofia untied the apron she wore over her nice clothes when she was dressing me. And she instantly went from my handmaid to an Imítheos noble in her pastel blue dress with gold chains that were similar to mine but more understated and simple.

The coronation ceremony was taking place at Ergastiri, the most secure place in all the Vale. Riordan was highly cognizant of the fact that if anyone wanted to cause a big scene or make a statement about his reign, then this was the time and place to do it. It had been a rather unpopular decision among the Imítheos, unsurprisingly, however the nobles could hardly afford not to attend and insult their new king. Not when Riordan was uncontested as the most powerful among them, not only in magic but also in pure military might. And I had come to understand that while the Imítheos might turn up their snobby noses at those they felt were lesser, they were helplessly drawn to power. Especially magical power.

But Riordan was taking no chances. Sofia and I even flew to the school the day before and stayed the night to get ready for the ceremony in his old apartment. It had been a major inconvenience for Sofia to move all her supplies and tools there, but the flight down from the Metropolis would have exposed metoo much. A perfect opportunity for someone to hurt me or take me hostage.

The moment we stepped out of the room, I saw Ares and four other guards snap to attention, and they stood so incredibly still that they might have turned into statues. Once we were in the hallway, we fell into the formation that we had practiced with Helena and Ares beside me, Sofia behind, and two others in front and two behind. Everyone was dressed in their gold armour which seemed to have been polished and gleamed in the torch lights.

The doors opened, and I almost lost my breath when I saw the scene that had been set outside.

It was dusk, the world washed in a purplish-grey hue, and the dirt track had been transformed into a marble path lined by many soft, white lights. The glossy surface of the walkway rippled like water in the lights.

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