Page 77 of Fear the Flames
“Stop!” I whisper-shout, pinching his arm. Color rises in my cheeks, which he drinks in like a dehydrated man. Both corners of his lips tilt up, making my insides do a somersault. His smile drops the instant footsteps come in our direction, and his regular cold exterior is back in place.
“Queen Elowen,” Jarek greets me. His gray eyes scan over my body, and I feel Cayden stiffen under my hold. My hand tightens on his arm, silently telling him not to shove someone else into a wall on my behalf. Eagor was fine and also welcomed, but I don’t want to have to diffuse a fight between my ally and my citizen.
“Jarek, nice to see you again.” I extend a hand in his direction with the intention of shaking his, but he brings my hand to his lips and places a kiss on my knuckles. I’m doing my best to keep smiling, but it probably looks more like I smelled something bad. His lips on my knuckles feel wrong. It makes my skin crawl. Even if I had a clean slate with physical touch, and if my relationship with it wasn’t confusing, this would still disgust me. My blood boils in my veins, and I pull my hand back as soon as Jarek’s lips retract. I hardly suppress the urge to wipe my hands on my pants.
“Jarek, I didn’t think you’d come.” Finnian creeps up next to me, standing on my other side. It’s like I’m sandwiched between two guard dogs. He must have gone outside to check on the wagon because his cheeks are wind kissed.
“I didn’t want to miss out.” Jarek’s eyes slide to me again, and his tongue pokes out of his mouth to wet his lips. I think that one move just rendered me infertile. “Vareveth looks good on you.”
“Yes, it does,” Cayden states next to me. Finnian coughs to cover up his laughter.
Jarek takes a long look at Cayden and slightly puffs out his chest. It looks so damn ridiculous, and this time I can’t hide the disgust from my face. Cayden doesn’t feed into whatever Jarek is trying to prove and steps into his line of vision, shielding me with his body and giving Jarek his back, a clear sign he doesn’t view Jarek as a threat.
“I have to run to a meeting to discuss our person of interest.” He’s referring to the final assassin. We have to pile together whatever leads we have and try to come up with something. It’s risky to cross the border without taking the threat out. “It’s a closed-door meeting, but you’re welcome to join,” Cayden offers.
The assassin weighs heavily on my brain, there’s nothing I want to do more than slip away and ponder theories, but I need to take care of Aestilian first. I will trust Cayden to find something amid the reports from his soldiers. “I need to square things away here first. Can we talk later?” I ask.
He nods and raises his voice loud enough for Jarek to hear, “I’ll be back inourroom later, angel.” Then he does something completely unexpected. He subtly angles his body so Jarek can see him grasp one of my hands, the hand Jarek didn’t kiss, and bring it to his lips, just as he did at the ball. “Have a nice afternoon, Elowen. I look forward to spending the evening with you,” he says before locking eyes with Finnian and jutting his chin toward me. I see Finnian nod in the corner of my eye. The smirk on my lips and the way I’m shaking my head give away that I know exactly what he’s doing.
“Overprotective prick,” I mouth to him.
“Just doing my job,” he mouths back, winks, and brushes past Jarek as if he’s nothing more than a chair.
“Jarek, I’m sure we’ll see you later, but you should rest. We must finalize the shipment,” Finnian declares, offering me his arm and escorting me out the front door before Jarek can get another word in. Servants are already descending into the main hall to direct them to their rooms. We step to the left and walk down a small staircase that leads to the side of the castle the wagon is on.
“Well, that was fun to watch,” Finnian says.
“What do you mean?”
“The battle of the bulges,” he winks, and my face distorts in disgust.
“Gross, Finnian!” Why am I laughing? Gods, that’s such a disturbing image.
“What? Cayden won!” He lets me lean on him when my laughter turns painful, and my arm clutches my stomach. “I’m just saying that it would’ve been less obvious if one of them peed on you—to claim you as their one true mate.” He sticks his hands in the air to resemble bear claws. Gods, he’s such an idiot sometimes.
I cover my hands with my ears and regain my balance enough to run away from him. “I can’t hear you!” I shout. It’s easy for him to catch up with me since my laughter makes my breathing short, and his legs are far longer than mine, but he keeps chasing me, never reaching his full speed. “We’re not friends anymore!”
“Fat chance, Ellie!” I hear him exclaim through my hands.
ChapterThirty-Three
The day quickly passed by. Ailliard and I finalized the food to keep in storage, along with a schedule on how to disperse it and spread it out over the winter months. Finnian, Nessa, and I are sitting in front of her fireplace, drinking tea and catching up on our lives since we parted.
“How’s your little girl doing?” I ask Nessa. She and Esmeralla adopted one of the girls from the orphanage. She’s close to five-years-old.
“Moriko is good.” An easy smile filled with love spreads across Nessa’s face. “Esme’s been knitting sweaters for her to wear this winter. She asked for one with a flower on it because it reminds her of you.” Warmth blossoms in my chest; I remember making a flower crown for her a few months ago.
“I’m sure she’ll look beautiful in it,” I smile. Moriko is a short little thing with more curls than body. She’s shy, but an absolute sweetheart once she warms up to you.
“She’s at the age where she likes to hide around the house until we find her. It reminds me of you and Finnian when you were younger,” Nessa says. A soft knock taps on the door and I rise to answer it as Finnian laughs softly behind me, probably getting the same flashbacks of our childhood as I am. I crack open the door and greet the servant that knocked.
“A letter from Commander Veles, Your Majesty.” The servant bows at the waist before turning down the hall. Curiosity licks at my brain, and I quickly break the seal to unfold the letter.
Elowen,
I’ve come to the conclusion that the assassin is in the Inner Kingdom. Ryder and I are heading out to do some investigating in a few minutes. The group of soldiers that will cross the Fintan are assembled and waiting by the wagon. I picked them myself.
I’ll see you soon, angel,
