Page 81 of A Bride for the Winter King
Chapter 32
Dark Whispers
LORI
Asoft knocking sound wakes me. My eyes snap open, and I sit up on the unfamiliar bed, my spine straight as an arrow.By the spindle…
Sara creaks open the door. “Good morning, Lori. I’ve brought you some fresh clothes.”
Blood gathers in my ears and cheeks, and I wonder if I look as guilty as I feel. Maybe it’s for the best that Elio didn’t spend the night in my bed, after all. I might have blurted out senseless apologies for accidentally dream-fucking his brother. A man I’ve never even met.
“Are you alright?” Sara asks as she lays down the clothes on the dresser.
Fuck no!
“Yes, of course. Morning,” I say instead. The haze of the forbidden sex blazes inside my dumpster-fire brain, my pulse running off in spikes. “I had a terribly…sweaty night.”
“You have time for a quick shower before I escort you back to Tundra.”
“Tundra? I thought we were supposed to visit Glacier’s Edge next?” I shoot out of bed, but the bedsheet gets caught around my leg, and I untangle myself from the knot of fabric with a wince.
“That’s canceled.” Sara doesn’t elaborate and glares at me instead. “You’re all red. Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yes, why wouldn’t I be?” I grab the clothes and cower inside the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind me.
The hot shower burns off the leftover bite of shame I carried back into my body with me, and I scrub myself down vigorously. Even though I couldn’t control or change anything, I stillfeltit all. The taste of him is still in my mouth, for Morpheus’ sake!
I brush my teeth three times and join Sara back inside the bedroom. Since my mask is still safely tucked inside Seth’s lockbox, I need a babysitter to travel through the sceawere, but Sara doesn’t look in a hurry to leave.
“Mortals and foreigners aren’t usually allowed inside the Ice City, so you shouldn’t mention your visit,” she explains.
My fists curl and uncurl at my sides, adrenaline still sharpening my senses. “Right.”
“And the healing springs are a royal secret. Each basin’s energy takes years to replenish, so we have to keep them private.”
“My lips are sealed,” I answer, but inside, I’m eons away, straddling two timelines. Two bodies. Two men.
I can’t pretend this isn’t happening anymore.
The starkness in Elio’s eyes when I asked about Iris last night tied a knot in my belly, and the revelations from my vision only deepened my anguish. Yet, I can't bring myself to believe that Elio killed the woman he loved out of jealousy. There must be another explanation. If his brother Ezra is as wicked as he seems, perhaps he was the one who killed her.
“What is going on with you today?” Sara interrupts my reverie by placing a soft hand on my shoulder. She pauses for a second, perhaps searching for a polite way to describe my erratic behavior. “Did something happen last night?”
“Sara… How did Iris die?” I whisper.
I have to know. I can’t go to sleep tonight in fear of reliving every moment of her death—or suffer through another extramarital tryst with her winged fuck boy.
The royal chief of staff tucks her silver hair behind her pointy ears without meeting my gaze. “I can’t say. All the facts pertaining to the investigation are confidential?—”
“Was it Elio? Or his brother?”
Her face doesn’t only fall at that, but becomes all shades of flustered. “His brother?” she squeaks.
“Ezra, the guy who was fucking Iris behind his back,” I snap.
“How did you?—”
“Irelivedit, Sara. In a multi-sensorial and vivid technicolor vision.” I wave my arms at the pile of twisted bedsheets. “So don’t give me some bullshit answer about confidentiality or write me off because I’mjusta foreigner?—”
