Page 32 of Edge of the Wild

Erik’s throat moved as he swallowed. His eyes glowed like gems in the low light. “The beads…they’re those of a royal Aeretollean spouse. For a consort.”

“Then put them in my hair, you silly king.”

Erik stared at him a long moment. Then, expression resolute, urged him to sit back up. Ran fingers through his hair, and started a new braid, this one before his ear. At the end of it – all that pleasant pressure on his scalp – he fasted it with one of the round, ruby-studded beads. And then he caught Oliver by the jaw and gently dragged him around to kiss him. Deeply. Thoroughly.

Oliver scrambled into his lap, grinning. “Consort, huh?”

Erik’s smile was grim. “You may regret that, once we get to the festival.”

Oliver leaned down to kiss him again, just as deeply, just as thoroughly. When he pulled back: “Don’t question my commitment, darling.”

Erik growled against his mouth; gripped him around the waist and laid him back against the bench. Pushed up his tunic to get to skin.

“What about my hair?” Oliver protested, choking back a laugh – and then a groan as Erik’s mouth landed on his bared stomach.

“It can wait; this won’t take long.”

“No exactly something to brag abou–oh.”

Later, hair neatly braided, dressed warmly and richly in crimson, blue, and black, and silver, as befitted a royal consort of Aeretoll, Oliver stepped out of the stable doors, beneath a clear, star-studded sky ready to give ground to a bright dawn. Tessa approached, bundled up in a heavy cloak, and he walked out to meet her.

“It’s freezing out here,” Oliver chided. Behind him, the reindeer and horses stamped and snorted in the chill, impatient to be off as the last minute preparations were made. Torches crackled, and lords and ladies and servants bustled about the stable yard, mounting, checking bits of harness; ladies climbed into sleighs and snuggled up beneath furs and lap blankets. It was a merry sort of pandemonium – made all the more cheerful by Erik’s earlier announcement that Rune seemed to be out of the woods and on the mend. A cheer had gone up, and Erik’s smile had been unusually brilliant. “You should have stayed inside.”

“I wanted to see you off,” she insisted. It would take days of rest to wipe the exhaustion from her face, but she looked lighter, buoyed by deep relief. In a quieter voice, gaze cutting to the side: “To you and Leif.”

“Ah.” Oliver glanced, too, and found the prince checking his saddlebags, hair golden even under torchlight, braided intricately and heavily beaded this morning. “How’s that going?”

Tessa shrugged, and for a moment looked something like defeated. “I honestly have no idea.” She offered a wan smile. “It’s poor timing, his leaving, before there’s even an official contract. But I suppose absence makes the heart grow fonder.”

Or, Oliver thought, allowed the heart to settle fully on the prince who was still upstairs, healing in his sick bed. He smiled back. “I suppose.”

She gave a small shake of her head. “Look atyou, though.” She ran her fingertips down the black wolf fur of his cloak, where it was secured with a silver stag pin at his shoulder. “Don’t you look every inch the prince.”

“King’s consort, actually.” Despite an attempt to sound dry, he heard a shocking note of pride in his voice.

She laughed. “I wish Amelia and Mother could see you like this.”

“Your mother,” he said, stomach giving an unpleasant lurch, “is going to throttle me when she learns that I brought you up here to marry the king and I wound up in his bed instead.”

She winced. “She might find that out sooner than you think. My last letter…”

He groaned.

“Well,anyway, an alliance is an alliance, right?”

“Go wish Leif a fond farewell while I contemplate my imminent murder.” He caught her before she could walk away, though; reeled her into a fast, tight hug, and kissed her cheek. “Be careful, cousin. We have friends, here, but we have enemies, too.”

“I know.” She kissed him back, and offered a brave smile when she withdrew. “Try not to infuriate all the clan lords. Or get eaten by a bear.”

“I’m honestly less worried about the bears.”

“You can’t talk your way out of being eaten, though.”

“No, that’s true.”

~*~

Leif looked lovely this morning, sapphires and rubies glinting in his hair – but, then, he always looked lovely. He also looked as though something still weighed on his mind. He’d smiled all the previous evening in Rune’s chamber, while his brother demanded solid food, but now, brows drawn together, mouth set in a flat line, he seemed troubled, and Tessa thought she knew him well enough by now to determine that it wasn’t simply fatigue.

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