AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Something—anything—that’s on your mind. Something I don’t know.”
“You don’t know anything about me.”
“Then start with one thing.”
I saw his tongue dart out across his bottom lip while he appraised me. I shivered a little and brought the blanket further up over my shoulders, though I didn’t think it was the chill that caused my body to tremble. I was pretty sure it had more to do with his proximity.
Even when he hated me, Ladon looked at me like he really saw me. Other people either paid me no attention or only reluctantly did so because they knew I was of noble lineage. Not Ladon. His eyes had always pierced right through to my soul, even if he didn’t like what he saw.
And experiencing it now while he was only inches from my face…I shivered again.
“My favorite color is green.”
I snorted.
“What?” he asked. “You said to tell you something honest, and I did.”
“I somehow imagined you might’ve shared something more substantial. Like a favorite memory or something you’re proud of.”
“And I bet you’re so willing to share personal details with me?”
I blinked a few times and racked my brain. I could’ve chosen something easy, like how much I enjoyed my brother’s company and how I missed him when he left home. But there was one truth that landed on the tip of my tongue and demanded to be let out. “I wanted you to like me.”
“Why?”
“You know I didn’t have a choice. I was sent to marry Cyrus without ever being asked what I wanted. I know your hesitations. That you think I’m more of a liability than an asset. That I’m a poison seeping into your kingdom. That because of my lineage, I’m somehow inferior to you. And I won’t argue that my mother isn’t a power-seeking, money-hungry, conniving woman. It’s why she didn’t think twice about sacrificing her own child. But I thought…I thought that at least I’d find a family in Renoa, one who cared for me more than my own. And Cyrus and Sophia are loving and generous, but Renoa will never be home so long as one of the members of the Castelli family wants me gone.”
Ladon stared at me, attempting to digest the weight of the truth I’d given him. His throat bobbed as he swallowed. By the way his jaw rippled, I assumed he was grinding his teeth. I braced for an angry retort, but what he said next surprised me.
“Perhaps I was quick to judge you, princess.”
Chapter Nineteen
Emilie
The next day, Reyna had us scrubbing the dog kennels. It smelled like something had died and then I realized, something probably had. Who knows what she fed those vicious beasts. At least she’d taken them out for some exercise while we worked.
Ladon held a shovel, flinging piles of shit into a wheelbarrow to dispose of. I had the great displeasure of working on my hands and knees, scrubbing blood stains from the stone floor. An impossible task, but Reyna seemed to enjoy handing those out best.
By midday, my hands were covered in brown muck. I tried not to think about what lay beneath my fingernails. If I didn’t consider it too much, I could trick my brain into thinking it was simply dirt.
A creature under Reyna’s command stopped by to deliver lunch. She was a half-human, half-bird sort of creature with black feathered wings and talons on her feet. She didn’t say anything as she laid a tray on top of a wooden barrel.
“Thank you,” I said. She peered at me with owl-like eyes, widened with trepidation.
She opened her mouth, but nothing came out. Her cheeks flushed pink, and she scuffled through the door.
“Was that a harpy?” I asked once I assumed she was too far to hear.
“I think so.”
“Hmm, the ones I’ve seen in books were more bird than human.” I’d never seen one myself. To my knowledge, harpies weren’t native to Lourova. In fact, most mystical creatures belonged to the continent of Moridia.
“I wouldn’t put it past Reyna to be dabbling in breeding.”
I shuddered at the thought. Gods knew what other creatures she had stored in this mountain.
The afternoon passed in the blink of an eye. Ladon finished early, so he offered to help me scrub the rest of the grimy floor.
