We stared at it together, sad and limp in my lap, and burst into laughter. Shaking her head, Diara reached for the bow. She nocked the arrow in a fluid pull, taking aim at a high corner where the wall met the ceiling, and released. The wooden missile launched from her fingers with easy precision, flying straight and fast—but when it struck the wall, it bounced ineffectually away, returning to the floor.
“The stone is too dense here,” she said. “I’ve probably loosed a thousand arrows. None of them stick.” She shrugged again as she dusted her servant’s dress and stood to retrieve the arrow, a glimmer of pride flashing in her pale green eyes.
I reached for the bow again, studying its shape. I was certain I could carve one. “Who taught you to use a bow?”
“My older brother.”
“Draver?”
“Daero.”
I handed her the bow, and she stepped over me, squatting to fit it behind her desk again. “I didn’t realize you had more than one brother.”
Diara paused. “He died in an accident, trying to round up the herd and move them to a pasture.”
My heart faltered. “I’m sorry.”
She shot me a quick smile and waved my words away. “It happened ten years ago. Back when we were still in good graces with the court. Daero would have hated to see our family now, sunk to the bottom of the barrel.”
I watched as she patched her broken smile with a false one, avoiding my eyes. “Was that his bow?”
“One of them.” She dropped the dull arrow back into the chest, hinges squealing softly as she closed the lid.
“How’s your mother?”
Diara tilted her head in my direction, brows twinging. “Why do you ask?”
“You told me she was sick,” I said. Then realized she’d only told me whileincanted.
But she didn’t question my knowledge. Turning back to push the chest under her bed, she sighed. Her throat worked softly. “Not well.”
I gnawed on my lip for a moment. “Are you planning to visit her?”
“No.” Hot iron met my nose, faint and quiet in the air between us. “I’d need special permission to leave. From the King.”
Sitting on the floor, I nodded mutely. Diara’s room was centrally located within the City of Towers. I assumedunderground as well, the way the stairwells had led below the lowest levels of glass. Wherever we sat, we were as deep in the palace as arteries in a heart. The only sound that found my ears was the soft whisper of a candle wick on her bedside table, its small flame shifting as it burned. I laced my fingers in my lap, nervous as I looked up at her. She lifted her brows, sensing I had something to say. Waiting.
I offered an apologetic smile. “I need a favor.”
54
Maren
Afull day later, in the middle of the night, Kye opened the door to the apartment in his west-wing tower.
I was waiting for him.
Waiting in a room full of miniature candles, the wall sconces dimmed, the windows just cracked enough to invite the sea breeze and set the curtains floating in the air. Waiting with the fireplace lit, the floor freckled with winter rose petals like the night of our wedding. Waiting in a flimsy silver-blue gown that trailed past my feet and pooled over the floor, nearly transparent and shimmering when I moved, its sleeveless bodice leaving my skin raised with both the electricity of the cold air and the anticipation of what came next.
He stopped when he saw me, shoulders compressing in a long, quiet sigh. He wore his signature black: leather pants and jacket lined with dust from the road, a silver-tipped fur laid over one shoulder and arm, and my heart seized at the sight of him, tall enough he had to duck his head through the doorway. I was certain he’d never looked so beautiful.
“Sorry I left without saying goodbye,” I said.
Kye crossed the room in three strides, sweeping his hands under my hair and securing my mouth with his. Rain and mint breezed across my tongue, so fresh and piercing it made me dizzy. “I knew where you went. We discussed it in my meeting. What did Thaan want?”
The blood in my veins stopped. “Thaan?”
“I came into the room and found you standing with him. And then I woke up and you were gone. What did he want? Obviously, something he didn’t appreciate me hearing.”
