Page 58 of The Stolen Kingdom

Eyphah shrugged and took a large gulp as she thought her answer over. “Sometimes you marry your heart mate, but then they find their soulmate and they are torn between staying or leaving. There was nothing I could do, so I let her go.”

“Does she still live here?”

“She gave birth not too long ago,” Eyphah said, raising her left brow.

Maris tilted her head and opened her eyes wide. “Coral? She was your wife?”

Eyphah just nodded, her gaze lost in front of her. “She wanted kids. Probably a nice cock.”

“Eyphah!”

Eyphah waved her hand dismissively and kept going. “I couldn’t give her that and then she saw him, and she just knew. I let her go. I wasn’t going to keep her next to me if it meant she would suffer.”

“You loved her then.”

Eyphah snorted. “It wasn’t love…”

“How would you know? How do we know? What’s love, what is infatuation?” Maris sighed and looked down at her cup.

Eyphah shrugged and mumbled, her words slightly slurred. “I don’t know, but poor Cai just experienced his first of many heartbreaks.”

Maris looked back at the square, and just as Eyphah said, Cai was sitting down by the fire, alone and miserable. “He needs company.”

“He needs to train. Get his mind off pussy and he will be an excellent soldier, but then again, I don’t blame him. Most men think with their cocks rather than their heads.”

Maris chuckled and faced Eyphah. “You have such a dirty mouth, you know?”

“Are you going to clean it with soap?”

“Don’t threaten me with a good time.” Maris snorted and drank the last drops of meidaila. “You remind me of someone who also has a horrible dirty mouth.”

Eyphah’s eyebrow arched. “Who?”

Maris’s upper lip twitched at the question, but instead of answering, she ignored it entirely.

“Good night, Eyphah,” she said, pushing herself off the ground.

The instant she straightened her back, regret hit her like a brick. The world tilted violently, and her vision blurred. If it hadn’t been for Eyphah’s quick reflexes, grabbing her elbow, she would’ve likely ended up flat on her face.

Maris clutched Eyphah’s forearm and steadied herself against the wooden column by the short stairs, her breath uneven as she waited for the dizziness to pass.

When the world finally slowed, she caught sight of Eyphah’s teasing grin as the older woman helped her ease back down.

“Don’t.”

“I haven’t said anything,” Eyphah chuckled.

With an annoyed pout, Maris turned back to the gathering crowd at the plaza. The drummers tested the leather skin, tapping on the drums in an asynchronous rhythm.

Suddenly, a melodic cry stole Maris’s attention away from the musicians. Her eyes focused on Kimmi, who stood before the drummers, her voice breaking louder than the drums. She sang a song Maris hadn’t heard before, a song of bad news of destruction and desolation. It was a prayer to Poseidon, begging him for protection for what would soon come to be.

War.

The drummers slammed their hands against the leather skins, the rhythmic strums rippled through the settlement’s plaza. Kimmi sang again, this time a group of women repeated her words, as the song came in full, filling the night with the sound of drums.

Maris smiled, her grip on Eyphah faltering.

“An impromptu gathering. Do you want to go?” Eyphah asked, squeezing Maris’s hand.

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