Page 18 of The King's Queen

“You won’t find him, he finds you!” He laughs heartily. The jovial man moves to take another step before he pauses and spins around again to face me. “Oh, and Vera? Pleasure meeting you.”

I can’t stop the matching grin that grows on my own features.

“Likewise.”

The clamoring of the guard grows closer, and in a blink, Finneas is gone. I’m left staring for at the spot where he used to be but find no trace of the unusual man. The sly fox and her loyal brute, indeed.

Flipping my cloak up over my head, I take a deep breath to steel myself against the foreboding presence of home and the monsters that lay slumbering within it. One step at a time, I make my way to the palace wall.

“Good morning!” I say cheerfully upon entering the kitchen through the back door. I had left my gifted cloak tucked into a crevice in my hidden passageway and was careful to pull my pant legs down to cover any wounds I had sustained. Miraculously, they never tore during the events of last night.

“Mai Reinhavich.” The cook curtsies deeply. “What are you doing here so early in the morning?”

The kitchen wallpaper is peeling from the heat of the stone stoves, and what is left of it is charred black. The stones along the floor are smooth and worn with the hurried footsteps of the kitchen staff, all who wear matching ivory aprons and silk slippers embroidered in golden thread with the family crest. Busy as always, they scurry along, their arms weighted down with heavy golden platters of fruits and tarts. Never is anything silver.

“I went for a walk early this morning to clear my head,” I answer, snatching an apple from the tray of a passing maid. “But between you and me, I couldn’t sleep.”

The diminutive woman nods curtly, understanding clearly written across her pinched and ruddy features. Something over my shoulder catches her eye, and she leans in closer to whisper in my ear.

“Well, I don’t think someone else could either.” I trace her gaze to where Blaine stands in the entryway, his powerful frame leaning hard against the wall. His eyes are downcast and his shoulders bunched tight. It tells me enough.

“Excuse me for a moment.” She bows her head, and I brush past her without a second thought. Ten paces have me standing before Blaine, my arms crossed tightly across my chest.

“Were you ever going to say something or were you going to sulk in the shadows all morning?” My voice is colder than I had expected and laced with fatigue. Blaine’s mouth sets a hard line, and he jerks his chin towards the now empty kitchen.

“Point taken.” I sigh, leaning heavy against the wall across from him. “What did you want?”

“What are you planning?” I quirked an eyebrow.

“What ever could you mean?”

Then those shoulders are back, his hands flexing at his side before bunching into fists. I feel a guilty twinge of satisfaction at that. That even though his walls are up again, they’re there because of me, and he still cares enough to give a reaction, no matter how negative it is.

But then he looks at me, and his gaze levels on my face. Before I can blink he’s there, his calloused hand brushing back my carefully placed bangs to reveal that nasty gash and the mottled flesh around it. I wince as he gently prods, and he withdraws his hand immediately.

“Who did this to you?”

I glanced between us then, at the space between us. Even in his protective fury, he bears more weight on his bad leg, careful that no part of him touches any part of me. A low boil of fury pools in my gut, and I shove him hard in the chest.

“What’s it to you?” I hiss through clenched teeth as I stalk towards him now. “You knew the whole time anyway.”

He stumbles a bit before righting himself, his eyes hardened again. “Did he-“

I laugh, a sick sardonic sound even to my own ears. “No, but gods, you knew this whole time. And you didn’t even bother to tell me I was going to be sold off like cattle, married to the highest bidder.”

“It’s for the kingdom.”

Wrong words. Those are the wrong words for him to say.

“Oh, and you’d know wouldn’t you? That’s all that matters to you, anyway. My whole life, I’ve made decisions for the good of the kingdom, and what about me? What about what happens to me in the end? Does that matter to you after everything? By the gods, if you weren’t going to fight, I thought you might as well have given me the chance to!”

My throat burns as I swallow the sob rising and blink back my traitorous tears. I won’t give him the satisfaction of seeing me cry. Never again.

“Conveniently, there were no guards outside your room last night, were there?”

There’s silence, and then the offbeat echo of his footsteps as he melds into the darkness of the hallway, leaving me to be fanned by the flames of the bridges I just burned. Despite the heat of the kitchen, I find myself shivering again.

The stables are undoubtedly the grandest part of the palace, with walls of tall white brick and trellises coated in ivy and wisteria blooms. The flooring is pure, polished cobblestone, and the stalls are of the richest grenadil wood. Horse and rider are constantly coming and going, not a single speck of dust on the fine animals. It is exactly where I need to be right now.

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