“If you say so.”
Travel is notas fun as I’d hoped. There is nothing glamorous about setting up tents and sleeping on the hard ground. We have one horse carrying our limited supplies, but comfort is at a bare minimum.
“Maybe weshouldhave taken a carriage,” I moan as I stretch my sore muscles. Alex and Kian are setting up camp for the night in a small clearing off the main road.
Sera snorts. “I could have told you that.”
“You hanging in there?” I ask. The look of complete loathing that crosses her face makes me choke back a laugh. “That good, huh?”
“I swear, he rides on the bumpiest terrain on purpose,” Sera growls.
I can’t hold back my laugh, and she eventually cracks a smile.
“The only reason I haven’t murdered him in his sleep yet is that he’s not bad to look at,” she admits.
Alex rounds a tree with an armful of logs. “Oh, so you think I’m handsome.” He grins cheekily.
“I wasn’t talking about you,” Sera retorts.
“Suuuure.” He winks.
Sera looks like she’s about to murder him right here and now, so I grab her sleeve and pull her away. “Kian mentioned a lake nearby. Let’s bathe,” I say, swinging a satchel with supplies onto my shoulder.
“Fine,” she grumbles but continues to send death glares at Alex.
The birds chirp in the trees and broken branches crunch underfoot as we pick our way through the dense forest. “He’s really not so bad when you get to know him,” I say.
“Don’t even think about starting with me,” Sera says. “I’m only here because you need me. I’d much rather be cleaning chamber pots back at the palace.”
“You must be joking.”
“You’d think.”
I gasp as an enormous lake comes into view. It would take hours to swim from one side to the other, or at least I assume so; I don’t actually know how to swim. The waning sunlight bounces off the water, making it sparkle like diamonds.
“Wow,” Sera says. “It’s almost pretty enough to make me less angry at Alex.”
I laugh again as I strip out of my travel clothes. “Come, let’s clean up before the sun sets and it gets too cold.”
Sera shivers at the thought and quickly undresses. “What I wouldn’t give for an actual bath,” she complains.
I race into the lake, screeching as the cold water nips at my skin.
“Keep your voice down, Rae!” Sera yells. “Unless you want the men to come running, thinking someone is dying.”
“Good point.” I grin. Not that I would mind Kian coming out for a swim with me, but certainly not in the presence of anyone else. The thought of his naked body . . . This time, my shiver is not from cold.
Not the time, Rae.
Sera swears loudly when she finally gets into the water.
“I didn’t realize you had such a dirty mouth,” I tease her.
She blushes. “I’m sorry . . . I think leaving the palace behind has made me a little too comfortable. I’d lose my position in a heartbeat if other servants heard me talking so familiarly with the prince.”
“Oh, so Alex doesn’t count?”
Sera splashes me, which is answer enough.
