Page 83 of Daughter Of The Ninth Line
Standing, he shrugged off his jacket, coming over to drop it around my shoulders before heading back to his own workspace, diving back into whatever observations he was transcribing. The coat was thick wool and smelled distinctly of Vox. It was hard toexplain Vox’s scent, which was somehow electric and soothing. Like a sea breeze through a bonfire. Like whiskey on the cliffs of home. It made me snuggle down deeper into the residual heat of his body as I worked.
Finally, when the moon hung high in the sky, Vox snapped his notebook closed. I was basically finished with three sectors, as he called them, and I’d started a small sketch of Ebretha in the corner of the large sheet of parchment. She was naked, her hair spilling down her body, one hand raising a torch to the sky and the other cupped around the glowing heart in her chest.
He stared at it for a long time, and my cheeks began to heat. I shouldn’t have been doodling on something he probably wanted to use for official study one day. “Sorry. I’ll erase it,” I told him quickly, grabbing the putty from the table beside me.
Quicker than I could fathom, air wrapped around my wrist, stilling my hand before I could reach the page. “Leave it.”
I flushed, glad that the darkness hid my flaming cheeks from his view. Still, the air didn’t release from my wrists. If anything, it spiraled further up my forearm like caressing tendrils, stroking softly. My eyes flicked to his, trying to read his expression, but his features were shadowed by the moon.
“Vox?” I asked roughly, my breath catching in my lungs. He turned his face from me, and I could finally see his features in the light. His jaw was tense, his full lips turned down. He looked like he was struggling with himself.
Did he want to hurt me? I’d heard all about the cruelty of the Vylans, but as someone who’d had to dodge violence her entire life, I had a pretty good grasp on that tipping point when a person was spiraling into something dangerous. Violence had a flavor I could almost taste, yet I didn’t get that feeling from Vox.
His tongue dipped out to wet his lips, and I saw his fist clench and unclench a few times, before a sigh spilled from his lips andthe air around my arms dissipated. “Apologies. Thank you for your assistance, Miss Halhed. Same time tomorrow night?”
My mouth fell open. “You want to do this every night?”
Fuck.Me and Vox Vylan, in the darkness together every single night, seemed like a recipe for disaster.
He inclined his head. “Yes.”
“And if I say no?” I didn’t take orders well—even from the Heir to the entire country, apparently.
His jaw tightened again, but that was the only sign that he was tense. “That is your prerogative, Avalon.” The sound of my name on his lips echoed through my soul. He said it softly, without any of the hard edges that normally accompanied his words. “I won’t force you to be here if the work doesn’t interest you.”
I was packing up my tools into a neat little leather rucksack that was laid out on the table. Once everything was stowed away, I looked up into the silent face of Vox and the words came spilling out before I could take them back.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Your Highness.” My tone was teasing, hiding the turmoil of my thoughts. The corners of his lips turned up, and he nodded once, turning and leaving the rooftop.
Feeling as if I could finally breathe, I sucked air into my deprived lungs. Leaving the rooftop before someone asked me what the hell I was doing up there, I was two flights below the atrium before I realized I was still wearing Vox’s jacket. I turned my nose into the collar of the soft gray fabric like a creep. The smell was so familiar, like the echo of a memory.
When I made it to the Ninth Line dorm, I scratched the disgruntled head of Braxus and headed straight to my room. I laid the jacket along the other side of the bed as I changed into my nightgown, not shifting it to the closet before I climbed beneath the blankets.
When I woke up wrapped in the jacket the following morning, I didn’t think about it too hard.
Acacia and Viana sat either side of me at breakfast the following morning. They put their trays beside mine, both giving me the kind of look that I figured a mother would give her daughter.
“Uh, morning?”
Viana smiled. “Morning, Avalon.”
Acacia drew closer. “Yeah, of course, good morning. What the fuck is going on with you and the Heirs?”
My cheeks flamed, whether I wanted them to or not. “What do you mean?” Playing dumb was my go-to response until I could get a better handle on the situation.
Acacia held up a finger. “One, you’re seen walking in the gates of Boellium holding hands with Hayle ‘Donkey-Cock’ Taeme, after spending the afternoon in the woods.Alone.”
Okay, so maybe their expressions weren’t exactly maternal.
“I don’t think anything happened. Link said he didn’t think she was waddling, which would definitely be happening if she’d been dicked down for six hours by Hayle Taeme,” Viana pointed out, oh so helpfully.
“Nothing is happening. Well, not really. No one is, uh, dicking me down, as you say.” You could probably see my burning face from one of Vox Vylan’s stars at this point. “And I’m just helping Vox map some stars.”
“Is that what the First Line are calling it these days?” Viana’s laugh tinkled lightly, her eyes sparkling. “If you were just mapping stars, I’d be interested to know why both Taeme and Vylan are switching between eye-fucking you and trying to glare each other into oblivion.”
Against my will, I looked between Vox and Hayle, who were indeed glaring like they were trying to kill each other from a distance. Braxus huffed by my feet, and I reached down to scratch him behind the ears reassuringly.
I looked back at my newest friends, already settled deep in the warmth of the Twelfth Line and their sense of community. Apparently, rescuing me from near death had created a bond that they took very seriously. My life was now theirs to hold safe, or something like that. A life debt, though I’d asked why it didn’t go the other way, since I’d been the one rescued. Acacia had explained that the Twelfth Line was a follower of the Goddess, and saving one of her children was an honor that the entire Line would uphold.
