Page 5 of Bound to the Shadow Queen
“It doesn’t help that you’re still in your nightdress,” Alaric said easily, dragging me from thoughts of my skathryn. “Not exactly flying attire.”
I shrugged like the choice had been intentional, rather than acknowledge I had been too distracted by dread.
“Sure it is. Perhaps if I give them a real show, they wouldn’t be so overtaken with the mere sight of me every frost-damned day.” And I couldn’t deny that the thought of mooning them held a certain childish appeal at this point. They could hardly be any more horrified.
Alaric chuckled. “I daresay that would only attract more gossip, but to each her own.”
A scathing voice cut in. “If the traitor queen wants to bare her arse literally as well as metaphorically, I don’t see why you’d want to talk her out of it.”
I wouldn’t have thought Alaric’s face was shadowed before, but it was beaming now, lit up from within at the sound of his mate’s shrill tone. He was certainly the only one who felt any sort of peace in her screeching presence.
I clutched my mug tighter, debating the relative merits of shuffling along a little faster. My sadistic uncle to look forward to. Zerina’s barbed personality to get away from.
It was a toss up, really.
“Be nice, Rina,” Alaric chided gently, tugging one of her long braids and touching his lips against her forehead in a gesture that felt too intimate for public.
I looked away, trying not to remember a forehead pressed against my own, a gesture that was somehow protective and relieved and almost awed, from a male who would dream vividly about his hatred of me only a week later.
“Maybe I would be nicer if she wasn’t the reason you’ve been gone so much right before you have to leave again,” she shot back, her voice all saccharine control.
My head shot up, and I stopped so quickly that my tea sloshed over the side of the mug. “You’re leaving?”
They exchanged a look before he nodded, slowly. “I’m being sent on a mission, but Zerina has been cleared to take my place.”
I just barely bit my lip from asking if his mission was to kidnap someone else, to take a Seelie child. If it involved my husband.
“Yes,” Zerina cut in, rolling her umber eyes. “And I’m just thrilled about babysitting your useless arse, but we all do as the Thane requires.”
She left on that note, giving me a sarcastic little curtsy as she went.
I tried to quell the panic rising in my chest at the closest thing I had to an ally being gone so soon, leaving me with his hateful mate as a consolation. Alaric gently nudged me to keep walking, reminding me that there was, in fact, worse ahead than my new guard.
“So nice that the healing springs have worked so quickly.” My tone was not as neutral as I might have hoped.
She had been easier to like when she was unconscious from her injury, but I was glad she had healed for Alaric’s sake. Though all Unseelie referred to their spouses as mates, true soulmates were rare. He would be able to feel her pain, and he sure as hells would have felt her death.
So I didn’t wish that she had died. Just that she could…be away from guard duty a bit longer. Or guard literally anyone else. Though, depending on what my uncle had finally decided to reveal today, it might all be a moot point.
The banter had distracted me from the reality of my situation, but we were nearly to the longhouse now.
Alaric stopped just short of the doors, turning to look me in the eye. “She will warm up…probably. But if it helps you to accept the situation,” he looked around to ensure there were no prying ears, “I will find out about your sister.”
Wynnie.
Every waking moment since I left had been plagued with possibilities of every single horror that might have led to her demise. Over and over I saw her, in the jaws of a Tharnok or shattering into frozen chunks of blood and skin, sliding across the tar-stained floors of the estate she had made into a home.
All because I had left her there, with wards that were failing, and a king that would suspect her of treason. A king that had been dying when I left him bleeding on the ground.
I had all but begged Alaric to ask about her, and now that he had agreed, my lips parted with the visceral need to add another person to his list.
Was Draven all right? Was he looking for me?
And to what end?
Alaric shook his head slightly, like he knew exactly what I wanted to say, and all of the reasons I couldn’t say it. I nodded, bowing my head in all the gratitude I couldn’t speak aloud, for all the kindness he had been given no reason to show me.
Then I walked alone to face my uncle, leaving the only kind face in the village behind. One way or another, everything was going to change.
