Page 38 of A Bond in Blood

Adalie’s head shook. “Don’t listen to him. Please, your highness.” Her plea sounded genuine, but I couldn’t be sure. The girl continued, shooting a warning glare at her uncle. “There was no cover. No intended betrayal.”

“If you’re the niece of the king’s right hand, why do you work as a handmaiden?” I replied.

“Because myuncleis my guardian, and he believes I must learn from the experience ofmanual labor,” Adalie responded, her eyes rolling.

I bit my lip at the snark of her adolescence, turning my eyes back to Olen.

The man only gave me a wide grin while the gold earrings in his right ear rang with the shaking of his head.

“Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way,” he said, pulling his hands from his back.

I groaned, catching the gold of the mask in his hands.

“Again?”

Olen nodded. “The more you fight it, the worse it’ll be.”

I stepped back into the bathing room, eyeing the dark blue gown Adalie had helped me pick. Annoyingly, the gold suited it perfectly.

I returned to the bedroom and ripped the mask from Olen’s hand, finding him with his own black mask situated on his face. His hands moved to help, but I held up my palm.

“I’m capable of placing a mask on myself.”

I tied it against my head tightly, then turned on my heel again, right out the open bedroom door. Olen let out a startled soundbehind me and the sound of his brisk stride to catch up with me ignited petty glee in my heart.

“Where are we going?” I asked, holding my hands at my front, keeping my shoulders straight. Like the future queen I’d been trained to be.

“Dinner,” he responded.

I allowed him to move ahead of me, leading the way from this foreign section of the palace. But during the entirety of our walk, I observed my surroundings. I allowed myself to take in its unique beauty for the first time since being locked within its wall.

The grey stone-floors, ones I’d already become intimately familiar with, had a shine to them. A glistening as though they were possibly made up of remnants of the stars above. And the walls, stone as well, lined with candles lighting the way.

Only, these candles didn’t drip wax like the ones I had in my home. These burned brilliantly, never melting. Likely from a magically gifted fae.

I tried to recount the different houses of magic the Unseelie fae possessed and cursed my lack of teachings around the people who made up one-third of our world.

Olen stopped before me while I picked through my tutors’ instructions, startling me.

Blinking, I glanced up, finding a solid wood door with an odd, winged creature carved into the surface.

“What is this?” I asked.

“Where you’re dining,” he replied with an emotionless expression.

My mouth opened to question further when the door creaked open, and my eyes laid on an intimate room with a table in the middle. A table set for only two.

“No,” I gasped, stepping back against Olen’s towering body at the same moment Ulrich appeared from behind the door.

“No,” I repeated, shaking my head. Wincing at the ribbon from the mask tugging at my hair.

“My,Ursa, that colorsuitsyou,” Ulrich said with a smirk.

“Don’t call me that,” I replied, stepping away from Olen.

My body slipped back into the stance of an unphased queen, and I stalked past the Unseelie King. I’d barely made it beyond his reach when his hand wrapped around my bicep.

“Confident tonight,” he sneered.

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