I fastidiously ignored her; it was like a game to me now, and I wanted to see how far I could push her before she cracked completely.
“Or am I simply not worth your time?” Ellowyn huffed, handing the reins to a stable boy with a quick nod of thanks. She peeled off her gloves next, exposing thin, pale fingers. My eyes were drawn to the movement even as I felt them shake in their sockets. Kaos’ magic was draining me faster than usual lately.
Time is running out.
“It’s interesting because you seemed to have plenty to say to Sasori. Or did you talk with your cock rather than your mouth? I’m sure she’d love to sit on it for you, if she hasn’t already,” she spat, red coloring her cheeks and the tips of her ears.
A slow grin spread across my face.
“Jealous, wife?”
She shook her head and scoffed as she crossed her arms, which only served to push her breasts up against her tunic. “Of course that’s what you would reply to.”
I grinned with a shrug before handing my own warhorse off to the stable boy.
“If you were going to offer, I’d dutifully accept.”
Ellowyn simply rolled her eyes before striding from the stable. “You’re impossible.”
I quickly caught up to her, our strides nearly equal in length.
“Follow me and we can have that conversation you’ve been dying to start,” I intoned lowly as we walked down the sidewalk toward the manor.
“This better not be some sort of trick, Alois,” Ellowyn grumbled as we made our way inside the manor. Instead of heading up the staircase to our respective rooms, I gestured for her to turn down the hallway that led to the basement. We descended the stone stairs, the air growing colder the further underground we traveled, before the floor leveled out into a long hallway, the monotony only broken by the occasional lit sconce.
“Creepy,” she muttered, but there was no heat behind her words.
“This is our personal passage into the Academy,” I explained as our steps echoed in the tight space. “You are free to use it as you wish. I only ask that you do not speak of its existence to anyone else.”
She nodded her head once and we fell into silence once more.
I led Ellowyn through the singular door at the end of the hall before leading her down another few flights of stairs. There was a Mage Orb locked door at the very bottom that only responded to Rohak’s and my signatures. I swept my hand across it before undoing the heavy metal latch and pushing the oak door open. It was dark beyond, and I felt Ellowyn tense slightly, her face an unreadable mask as we entered the blackened space. A quick touch of a button on the wall had the space flooding with magical light.
“An empty room?” she asked dryly, and I shook my head, turning to face her.
“This is a failsafe room,” I explained, and she cocked her head at me quizzically, her blood-and dirt-matted braid falling to one shoulder. “It’s an in-between of sorts for what lies beyond. If someone happens to get through the outer door then they’d be trapped here. It’s a security measure.”
Ellowyn simply raised her eyebrows at me, waiting for me to continue.
“How do you feel after Cellia?”
Ellowyn reared her head back and blinked rapidly at me. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, what do you feel? What is running through that beautiful mind of yours?”
“You know I’m worried. Concerned. Frustrated. Disgusted,” she explained, fastidiously avoiding my compliment.
“Yes, but you have a personal attachment to this, yes?”
Ellowyn crossed her arms in defense, her chest rising and falling with the deepness of her breath. “I’m . . .”—she shook her head—“I don’t know what I am. What’s all of this about, Alois?”
I smiled thinly at her.
“I’m simply trying to gauge your headspace right now. Because, once I take you through those doors, you cannot unsee what is there. There are certain . . . things you inherit wheneveryou take a throne.” I gestured behind me. “What is behind those doors is one of the things I inherited. Every kingdom has their secrets, their threats to security. Behind there is how General d’Alvey and I deal with ours.”
Recognition and understanding flashed in her cool grey eyes before she gave me a jerky nod.
“I understand, Alois. I think after Cellia, not much will surprise me.”
