Page 27 of Nightingale

“And yet you have the perfect chance to wipe me out and haven’t even tried yet. Suspicious.” She enjoyed the frigid feel of the floor against her bare feet.

“I’ve already explained it to you, Princess, and I really don’t like repeating myself.” Rian kicked his legs up, crossing one over the other as she went to change out of her dress.

“It’ll take quite a bit more than explaining everything once before I buy that bullshit.” Vrea didn’t care to move into the bathing chamber. Parts were parts, no matter who bore them. He’d already seen them once, as well. She started slipping her shoulder off, reaching for the collar so she could drop it at her feet.

“Here?” He looked surprised, as if he’d never seen a female body before in his entire life which she knew to be the exact opposite. “The bathing chamber is right there.”

That amused her.

“I don’t care. I don’t know what you have hiding in there, waiting to attack me.” She shot back, flicking the tattered dressoff with a single motion and stepping out of it. There were things covering her important bits, but he didn’t break her locked gaze.

Admirable,she thought as she bent down and plucked the shirt off the table.

There had been a tub and a sink, as well as a toilet in her confined room so she wasn’t dirty in the slightest. There was no need to wash as she stuck the moss-coloured fabric over her head and flipped her hair out of the way. Her front strands had fallen into her eyes in the form of choppy bangs, and she found that she liked the way they looked.

“There are boots by the end for you. I guessed on your size, since we’re a bit limited on female garments here.” The Prince used the tip of his brown boot to pick the sable trousers off the table and tossed it at her with a quick jerk of his ankle.

She caught it with one hand, shooting daggers in his direction. She shirked them on easily enough, finding them snug around her lean waist.

“They’ll do.” Vrea tugged the stockings on, folding them over when they became too long and shoving her feet into each boot, wriggling them into place. “I suppose I should offer up some appreciation for not leaving me in those garments.” She motioned towards the window where her pinching shoes had most likely found a bush below.

Or preferably landed atop a Prince’s head.

“Sayingthank youdoesn’t suit what I know about you,” Rian commented as he observed her, seeming to find her worthy of whatever his moronic brain was searching for. “But I’ll take the sentiment anyway.”

“When do we leave?” Vrea didn’t sit down, didn’t move around. She just stared down at him, anxious to return home and begin the next phase of her plan.

If Rian would be escorting her home, then he would undoubtedly be entered into servitude by her mother. It didn’tmatter what he’d cooked up when it came to the peace treaty he’d shared with her, her mother wouldn’t hear of it. She’d clap a silver collar around his pretty neck and force him into her service. And because Vrea would have been the reason for his appearance, he would belong to her and her alone.

She couldn’t deny the certain appeal in having a Moordian Prince as her slave. To have him bow to her every whim, fulfil her every wish, with the threat of death on the line if he didn’t.

For a moment, Vrea imagined Rian in the attire

The thin, gauzy slats that would fall over his broad shoulders, the muscled torso that would be on full display with the puffed pants that would be slung low on his waist. She pictured his wrists adorned with the pewter cuffs and the silver sandals slapped on his large feet. She thought about the collar around his neck and the way that he’d look over all. The country of Niroula liked to show off their captives, like walking art and so they dressed them as such.

Vrea decided that it wouldn’t be so terrible after all. Hewasattractive. He knew it too, considering that arrogant way he held himself, the sly curve of his tongue which cut into most of his sentences, the glib way he held himself. One thing that thankfully dulled her level of attraction to him.

“Tomorrow morning.” He responded with a causal drawl that wouldn’t have sounded right on anyone else. “I can bring up some food and you’ll sleep in the closet, where I’ll make up a bed for you. The room locks from the inside, so you’ll be safe in there and the only one able to get in or out.” Rian reached into his pocket and tossed a small key at her. “Just so you can be certain.”

“Tomorrow,” She fingered the key, shoving it into her pants. “You better not kill me in my sleep or I’ll come back to haunt you.”

He just smirked, “I wouldn’tdreamof it.”

Fourteen

“W

hat game are you playing at, Rian?” Castil smoothly asked him as he carefully observed from the doorway. He’d come in twenty minutes prior with a light rap of his knuckles to the curved door and entered a minute after no response came.

“What do you mean?” Rian asked as he absentmindedly pulled shirt after shirt out of his dresser and tossed them onto the nearby bed.

“I don’t buy that she all of a sudden escaped for a single second, and don’t think I’m stupid enough to be goaded into it.” He played with the silver buttons on his black coat, a long number that fit him magnificently. There was grey ribbon on the very edges of it, trailing along the hem and collar with pockets along the side. He wore a simplistic white tunic under it, matching it with charcoal pants and tall boots that were made from a shiny material.

Rian sighed at his insufferable sibling’s scolding tone as he packed his clothes up, one by one. They’d leave in the morning, after she’d had time to rest and eat from the small tray of food he’d brought her an hour earlier. She wasn’t naive of course, and insisted that he eat from every plate first, and drink from the glass before she even touched the tray.

He had, and she was satisfied enough to eat most of it. The water had been laced with a sleeping sedative that worked onlywhen the entire liquid was consumed, which she had. Vrea now slept soundly, resting before tomorrow’s long trek began.

She would be furious with him in the morning because there was no way in the seven hells that she wouldn’t realise he’d basically drugged her in order to get her to rest properly.

---