Page 131 of Kingdom of the Two Moons

He forgave me.

Against everything, I have to suppress a smile, brush my teeth, and then take the still-hot cup with me in the bathtub.

***

There’s still no trace of Riven when I run down the corridor half an hour later. But I’m very fast, although my whole body still aches from yesterday’s trip to the desert. Faster than I’ve ever been in the human world. My reflexes are quicker too, I realize, as Nidaw stepsout right in front of me, and I slide to a halt, almost bumping into her.

She crosses her arms in front of her chest, her silvery eyebrows raised. I cringe.

“Do I want to know why you come running down the hallways as if chased by wolves?”

“I’m faster,” I breathe. I can tell her, right? “Faster than I’ve ever been. I mean, in the human world. And I ranalot.” I felt it when I fought Kyrith. When I pulled the dagger out of the sheathe on his belt and sliced down his arm. I was impossibly fast for a human. Back then I blamed it on adrenaline, but…

“Of course you are. You’re half-fae. Your strength and speed increase due to the exposure of magic. Probably your sense of smell too,” she says, suddenly gentle, as if I’m a small child who just discovered how to walk, a bemused smile playing around her lips.

“That means I’m as fast as you?”

“I don’t know, my little one. Only time will show,”she says, still soft. “But what I do know is that you are late. Now come. We have work to do.”

***

I cut vegetables until Nidaw shoos me and the others to clean some rooms I’ve never been in before. I notice the servants are strangely quiet around me. I do my best to ignore them, yet the day stretches out too long, seemingly endless.

It’s only in the languorous afternoon hours, when the other servants start to bow deeply or even fall to their knees, that I notice Riven has entered. I’m still on my knees, on all fours, polishing the floor when he strides through the hall, only to stop right in front of me.

This morning, I thought he might no longer be angry with me, but looking up into his stern, set face now I’m not so sure anymore. He’s just as breathtakingly beautiful as ever, frighteningly tall, his short ink hair just a touch messy yet his kohl-rimmed amethyst eyesare cold as they take me in. He reminds me too much of last night and it scares me.

I fear what he might do to me. Might he still decide to punish me? I realize that I expect him to, no matter how much I want to tell him how sorry I am. That I just didn’t understand until it was too late. That I never wanted to harm him in any way.

But then he holds out an elegant hand, his lips purring, “Hello, my beautiful, little darling. May I help you up? You look a bit lost down there.” His tone is gentle, his eyes a touch softer.

I get up without taking his hand, though, still not trusting it. He licks his lips, annoyed, his fangs flashing. And suddenly I’m too aware of the other servants listening. Watching—how I’m looking a high lord straight in the eye with my chin raised high.

When Riven cuts them a glance and snarls, “Leave us,” they scatter in all directions, almost stumbling over themselves.

“Dramatic.”

“Oh, one must know how to keep the gossip about you and me going,” he drawls, looking back to me.

“Is there—gossip?” I ask, blushing against my will, but I refuse to look away.

His jaw is still set in that regal, elegant way, his eyes still blazing, but a smile plays around his lips now as he leans in and twirls a strand of my hair around his finger. A smile I’m not yet sure about either, as ambiguous as the sea.

“I’m sure there is. How else would they explain that you still smell of me other than that you came to my bed last night?”

“It’s not like I had much choice,” I grind out, fighting the embarrassment flushing up my whole body, although I know he’s just toying with me.Do I—still smell of him?I resist the urge to sniff my hair.

“Oh, it certainly looked different last night,” he purrs. “I remember that it was you who came to me first.”

“I did it to win you around and take me to Niavara,” I contradict, glowering at him. I would love to wipe the haughty expression off his face.

“Did you?” Before I can pull back and come up with a sharp retort, he’s grabbed my chin. He leans down to me. “My sweet little villain, I know you can lie, but your eyes cannot.”

This time I refuse to blush. “Maybe I’m just a very good actor.”

He frowns slightly but lets go of me. “If you are, you certainly won’t mind keeping up appearances a little longer. Attend the celebrations tonight, with me.”

I have to look away to be able to say the next words, and they still don’t come out as cold as I wish they would. “You can’t really tell me that you want to be seen with a slave.” A human. Whatever.

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