Page 1 of A Queen's Game
Chapter One
Marietta, Before
Under the glow of a gas street lamp, Marietta Reid stood in an empty lane, looking up at her future: a bakery. She never intended to become a baker, but fate had a funny way of sorting itself out. Life seldom went according to plan. But that was what she loved about life—the unpredictable adventure of it all.
“You sure you want to do this, Mar?” Her husband, Tilan, rubbed his nape as he watched her.
She hugged him around his waist, his one arm draped over her shoulder. “Without a doubt.” Marietta smiled, closing her eyes as she contemplated how this bakery would changeeverythingfor them.
Marietta had spent over a decade traveling between the cities of Enomenos. As a contact between businesses, her job was to bring people together. If a tailor searched for a specific type of cloth, she would find the right weaver. If a brewer looked for a particular grain, it was likely Marietta knew who grew it. If a tavern needed to organize their finances, she’d tacklethem herself. It was an unconventional job that she loved. The drawback was the amount of travel and time away from Tilan.
“And here I thought you’d be jumping at the chance for me to open a bakery,” Marietta said, swatting Tilan in the chest. “Aren’t you sick of me being gone most of the month?”
The corner of Tilan’s mouth tilted with a smile. The dark strands of his hair frayed from its knot after a long day of working in his smithy. “Most of the month? Try the entire month because we’re only together for three days. Four, if I’m lucky.”
“You know what I mean.” It was true enough. Often she was on the road visiting the businesses she helped. When she returned to Olkia, she spent most of her time working. That left a few days of peace with her husband—too little.
“Of course, I’d be happy if you were home more,” Tilan said as he rubbed the stubble on his chin, smearing a black line into his jaw. “But you also love to help your clients.”
“More than I love you?” she asked, teasing. Marietta stood on her tiptoes to brush a kiss on his marred cheek.
Tilan rolled his eyes and pressed a returning kiss to her forehead. “I want to make sure you’re ready to settle down.” He always considered her feelings over his own. It was another reason for Marietta to love him so much.
“Oh, it’ll be about a year before I’m truly settled.” Marietta twirled one of her dark curls around her finger as she inspected the bakery. “After we move in, there’s still a ton of cleaning to do as well as offload my clients. I’ll have to establish my suppliers, test which goods to sell, make samples, spread word about the bakery.”
“Are you ready for that kind of work?”
“Do you think I can’t handle it?” She shot him a smirk. “Setting up suppliers will be easy since I already have a few leads. I figured out which items I’d like to sell first.” Marietta thought of the former client who taught her how to bake, and herheart ached for the old elven man. This bakery was as much for him as it was for herself.
“True,” Tilan said as he nodded his head. “But what about the location? The street crowds here almost every day.”
“Which makes it the perfect location.” Marietta loosened herself from Tilan, walking to the edge of the building. It sat at the corner of a busy intersection in central Olkia. “Plus, there’s a market only two blocks from here. That’ll make the bakery a convenient place to stop while people are already out running errands. And easier for me to get supplies.”
“That’s also true, but are you sure you want to be in Olkia full time?”
Marietta scoffed, placing her hand mockingly on her chest as she turned to Tilan. “Silly me for wanting to be home with my husband.”
Tilan shook his head. “Olkia was never your home.”
She closed the space between them once more and placed her hands on his chest. Staring into the deep blue of his eyes, she couldn’t stop her heart from fluttering. After five years of knowing one another—married for two of those years—Marietta still felt her idyllic love for him. “Olkia became my home because of you. Home is where you are.” She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him. “Not to mention you’re in this city-state because your smithy is here.”
“I could always move it if you wanted to be in a different city. You grew up in Kentro. Gods, that was always your home—”
“Kentro hasn’t been my home in five years, Tilan.” She slid her arm around his waist once more. “Your smithy does well in Olkia. Though, your work is extraordinary enough that clients would come to you no matter which city-state we lived in.”
Tilan huffed a laugh. “Always exaggerating my talent.”
With a roll of her eyes, she leaned into his chest. Tilan was modest when he had no reason to be. Of all the blacksmiths andinventors Marietta had worked with, Tilan outshined them all. On the day she met him in the dim of his smithing shop, his skill had thrilled her. Weapons with ornate detail carved into the hilts and damascus steel blades etched in intricate patterns filled his store front along with more curious, whimsical creations. It was the first time Marietta had seen a music box: a metal container inlaid with precious stones that played a tinny song. Though impressive, it still paled compared to the dagger with the hilt fashioned after a dancing forest nymph: a feyrie creature rumored to roam the Akroi region long ago. The blade reminded her of her childhood—of her father’s feyrie tales. Tilan had gifted it to her right after they met.
“Perhaps if you quit being modest, then I wouldn’t have to be the one to brag about your work.” She lifted her brow at Tilan. She paused, staring at the broad windows lining the bakery’s front. “At least this wouldn’t be a far walk from your smithy.”
“There’s that.” He sighed, drawing Marietta’s attention. “I want to make sure that this is whatyouwant—that I didn’t persuade you to leave a job that you love.”
“Don’t give yourself so much credit,” she said. The skin around Tilan’s eyes crinkled as he laughed. Though he was half a decade younger than Marietta, he had already begun aging. She knew it would happen when she fell in love with him—a human.
Marietta was half-elven. Her mother was a human from Enomenos, and her father was an elf who defected from the elven lands of Syllogi long before Marietta had been born. Humans lived the shortest lifespans while the elves lived for centuries. Half-elves, like herself, had lifespans that fell between the two. One day, she would outlive Tilan. Such a thought tightened her throat and quickened her breaths. To distract herself, she flicked him in the nose. “If I’m changing my life, it will be my decision alone. You know this.”
“Gods, that’s the truth.”
