Page 10 of A Reign of Roses
Wyn gave a single resolute nod, no eye roll in sight, which would have been hard for me, personally.
The thickheaded guard deserted the ornate doors and the lock clicked outside as it did each night.
My strength had finally returned a bit—likely from the spike of adrenaline that came with the interruption—and I snatched the compress from Wyn’s hands. Patting it along my arms and down to where my veins were wrapped in bandages, I willed my voice to be casual. “Who arrived early?”
Wyn limped, favoring his right leg, over to the carnelian curtains, stitched with that gold-and-ebony detailing. He drew them open and allowed hazy afternoon light to slip in and glimmer over his warm-hued bronze skin and pulled-back dark curls.
With some difficulty, I pulled myself to sit on the edge of the bed. “Early for what?” I pressed, still unanswered.
Wyn only gazed out through the high windowpanes, clearly trying to spy whoever had arrived.
“Why do you let him speak to you like that?”
“He’s my senior,” Wyn said to the glass. “In both age and rank.”
Flipping the now lukewarm cloth in my hands before patting it along my neck, I racked my brain for a question that might reward me with another real answer.
Wyn winced as he maneuvered back to sit in the armchair across from the glossy fireplace, though he positioned himself to face me. With a grimace, he lifted his leg onto the velvet ottoman.
I’d noticed the lame limb the first day we’d met. My heartlurched despite all the unfathomable things he’d allowed to be done to me. “I’m sorry about your knee. I wasn’t aiming for it.”
“It’s fine.”
I assessed him as he massaged the joint. “How young were you?”
Wyn’s expression was one of great surprise. Lowering his brows again, he said, “Three.”
“What happened?”
“I fell from a cupboard. Never healed quite right.”
“What were you doing in a cupboard?”
The corner of Wyn’s mouth ticked up as he appraised his raised leg. “My mother sells hairpins.”
My brows furrowed. I waited patiently for more.
“She crafts them from metal, and solders little hand-bent flowers onto them. It’s how she fed and clothed seven children.”
“That’s a lot of hairpins.”
“Indeed. I was sleeping when I fell. Sleeping in a cupboard because there was no room left on the floor.”
My heart thumped again and I had to reprimand myself. Why should I have any sympathy for this man? Even if he was more boy than man, really.
I told myself it was the principle of the story that hurt my heart, not Wyn’s suffering. Kane had warned me that the vast majority of the Fae Realm lived in poverty worse than anything I’d known as a child—and Abbington was barely more than farmland and a handful of cottages. Based on the bits and pieces I’d gathered in my time here, outside the glittering walled city of Solaris were conditions worse than squalor.
Years ago, Lazarus’s men had reaped both coin and lighte from all major cities until they were shells of their former glory—mere slums—and then used their yields to further fortify the king’s owncapital from all those that would seek what he had stolen. Shelter, resources, safety. But also glamour, amenities, excess…He built another set of walls around the coasts of Lumera, prohibiting any mortal or Fae in the land from fleeing to Evendell. The channel—the only route between realms if you weren’t lucky enough to know a powerful witch to portal you out—was guarded day and night. Kane had said in passing once that Lazarus had plans to seal it off completely.
“You must hate Lazarus as much as the rest of us, then,” I tried.
Wyn’s eyes were sharp on mine. “He is my king.”
I fiddled innocently with a loose thread on the duvet. “The two are not mutually exclusive.”
“King Lazarus has given me the opportunity of a lifetime, despite my injury. A chance to bring my family to the sanctuary that is Solaris. If you’re in his kingsguard long enough, he allows your loved ones within his court. That is a leader of generous heart.”
“I have a hard time believing Lazarus employed you despite your disability out of sheer altruism.”Don’t roll your eyes, bird,Kane’s voice rumbled inside my mind. I nearly sent chills up my own back. Maybe I was finally losing it.
