Page 69 of Royal Fate

My eyes narrowed speculatively. “How? You have to spell this out for me, Little Mouse. I really don’t understand.”

Mirielle sighed heavily and turned away to slide on top of one of the tables, her legs swinging. “Agnan gave them a sense of purpose,” she explained. “That’s what they needed. Even with him gone, the Order of Souls is still their sense of purpose. We only got rid of the leader. We didn’t get rid of the idea.”

Interesting. I’d never thought of it like that before.

“That’s a matter for tomorrow,” I informed her, reaching for her hands. “It’s too heavy a topic for tonight.”

“It’s too heavy a topic for any night,” she grunted.

“Will you come to bed now?”

She hesitated, looking around the greenhouse. “Can you give me a few more minutes down here? I just want to check on a few more of my plants and take some runeshades.”

I chuckled. “Are you still taking that every day?”

“A runeshade a day keeps the enchantress out of my head,” Mirielle quipped, and I chuckled again. “I don’t want any more mind probes. Thank you very much.”

“Make sure Lacroix doesn’t catch you poking around at this time of night. He’s going to think you’re up to no good, planting spy gear or something.” I kissed her softly, chucking her chin gently. “Don’t be too long. I’ve already gone three days without you. I can barely stand it.”

She beamed warmly and nodded. “I won’t be long. Don’t worry. I know exactly how you feel.”

I turned to leave her alone in the greenhouse, but I lingered at the threshold to stare at her for a long moment, her worry permeating toward me in waves. This matter with the Order really was causing her stress, but I would find a way to resolve it.

Chapter20

Mirielle

Icouldn’t say that things returned to “normal” over the next few weeks because there had never really been a “normal” since I’d been at Silverhold Tower.

But it was the closest thing I could aspire toward, despite the knot that remained in my gut.

I didn’t speak my concerns aloud to Zen again after the night that Agnan died. It didn’t seem to make any sense. He couldn’t do anything more than he already had.

We went about our lives in Silverhold Tower as we had before. Zen attended his daily meetings in Catalonia with the Council of Ministers, and I returned to my apprenticeship with Lacroix, although the old fae didn’t call it that anymore.

“When should I start packing my bags, Luna?” he grumbled every day when he saw me.

“I wish you’d stop asking me that,” I sighed. “How many times do I have to tell you that I’m not here for your job?”

“It doesn’t feel right training you when you’re the king’s… what? Mistress? Concubine?”

I flushed at the titles, particularly the crude one.

“Does it matter what I am to the king?” I sighed. “Can’t we just continue our relationship how it was before?”

“I don’t know. Can we?” Lacroix muttered.

I rolled my eyes, waiting for word that I wasn’t allowed in my beloved greenhouse anymore, but it never came.

I roused the subject to Zen one night over dinner myself.

“Lacroix has mixed feelings about me being his apprentice now,” I informed him, setting my fork down across the long dining table.

Zen snorted and continued eating. “Lacroix has strong feelings about everything all the time,” he reminded me. “That’s nothing new.”

“He rightfully feels strange because of our relationship.”

Zen’s head shot up, his slate eyes narrowing. “He said that?”

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