Page 18 of Waves
Damn magic and all its horrid consequences.
After a few tense minutes, I was able to regain my rational thought. That’s when I reached up and rapped my knuckles on the ceiling of my carriage. It slowed to a stop, the seahorses pulling it hovering in front of me.
Ugo opened the carriage door, having descended from the spot where he rode next to my driver. “Yes?” my carrot-haired guard asked.
“Can you send Taft over? I’d like him to ride with me.”
The door clicked shut and I waited only a few minutes before the blue-skinned nixe was knocking at my carriage door.
"Come in.”
Taft pulled open the door and folded his bulky body into the seat across from me, right onto the cloak laying across it. His eyes glanced quickly at my face and then down at his lap as he played with his hands nervously.
"Thanks for joining me," I said softly, trying to cut through the silence that bloomed between us.
He nodded, one side of his mouth ticking up and then dropping immediately.
I wondered if the last time I'd ridden in a carriage with him was stuck inside his head and I wanted to kick myself for being so indiscreet with Mateo then. Perhaps I'd made things too awkward for Taft. Clearly, he couldn't even look right at me. Even so, he was my best shot at enacting my plan.
Inhaling deeply, I forced myself to pretend everything was normal. "I wanted to check in and see how you're doing."
"I'm alright."
That was all he gave me. One line as he picked at one of his cuticles. The tension filling this carriage felt as thick as cotton.
"Are you sure?"
A single one of his shoulders lifted in half a shrug as his eyes glanced hesitantly up at me. "Yeah?"
"Your answer sounds like a question." I gave him a small smile, trying not to be too aggressive. Perhaps, there was something more there than lingering embarrassment. Maybe the last attack had thrown him. But if so, why hadn’t he left the tournament?
"I'm not sure what you want me to say."
That answer made me swallow a sigh of annoyance. Shifting on my seat, I tried a second time to approach him with kid gloves. "I just want to get to know you more. You've helped Mateo so much. But the only time we've ever really got to speak, you were with him. I haven’t gotten to speak just with you." I tilted my head to one side.
He sucked his lower lip in, and I was able to catch sight of those teeth that had been missing after the last challenge. I latched onto that as a topic.
"You got your teeth fixed." Brow raised, I attempted a saucy, knowing look that told him I’d figured out his trick.
A deep peach-toned blush overtook his cheeks as he smiled. "Yeah."
"Thank you for helping Mateo."
He nodded. "Of course."
Silence again.
This one-sided conversation began to feel as if I was wrenching teeth out. Instead of continuing with my roundabout questions, I cut to the point. "Why are you here, Taft? Really and honestly. Why are you competing?"
After a long beat, his eyes dragged up my torso and smashed into me with all the force and intensity of a hammer. His attention vibrated my very bones. He waited a long moment before he answered, and his words came out so quietly that I had to repeat them in my head to ensure I'd heard correctly. "Have you ever been hungry, Majesty?"
I swallowed, uncertain what to say because he clearly knew the answer. I’d grown up in a castle. Clearly, I’d wanted for very little.
"I’ve been very hungry. On the brink of starving. You’ll do anything then. And that’s when the wrong people find out and want you to use your magic for whatever they want. You're just a tool."
Guilt clambered up my throat...because that was exactly part of why I'd invited him just now.
"So, you don't like using your magic?" I asked, my throat a bit tight.That makes two of us.
