But it wasn’t. And I knew that.
“Shit, shit, shit,” I mumbled under my breath as I stepped outside. There was an undeniable attraction—the reason I had been so upset that we weren't talking.
I was falling for him, even though I didn't want to.
Sebastian stayedtrue to his word and met me outside of the dormitories mid-afternoon. The air was a bit warmer than it had been that morning, but the bite of cold still nipped at my cheeks. We got lost in conversation as we ventured to the castle as if we’d never spent the past few weeks in silence.
We arrived at the door that separated us from King Hawthorne’s study. I took a few deep breaths in an attempt to calm my nerves before entering, but struggled to release the dread that consumed me every time I had to see the king. Sebastian noticed my apprehension and waited for my approval before twisting the golden handle and holding the door open for me.
My sudden halt was unexpected. Sebastian walked right into my back, the weight of his body pushing me forward a few inches. He placed his hands lightly on my waist to steady me. I'm sure he felt the way my body shivered in his grip, buthis touch was so gentle that I doubted anyone besides us noticed it.
He released me, and I shuffled to the side so he could enter the room as well.
There were three more attendees at our meeting—Professor Stoll and Lucan being two of them. The other man I had never seen before.
His broad figure stood tall beside King Hawthorne’s desk. He lacked hair, but black stubble covered the lower half of his face. He was gifted with an onyx stone that shimmered on his hand as he extended it out to me.
“Maeve Willawood, I presume?” The man shook my hand with a firm grasp.
“Um, yes. That's me.”
“I am Duke Sinclair. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”
Sinclair.
“Sawyer's father?”
“That I am,” he said with a smile as he directed me to my usual chair. “I assume you have met my son?”
I cleared my throat and sagged onto the chair’s plush cushion. “Uhm, yes. We’ve met.” I spared him the details.
My vision scanned the room in confusion, noting Sebastian’s blank expression as he stood guard of the door. I assumed he had no knowledge about our extra attendees, either.
“I'm sure you are both wondering why the duke is here with us this afternoon,” King Hawthorne addressed Sebastian and me.
I heard Sebastian's sarcasm from over my shoulder. “Very much so.” With a quick change of tone, he addressed the duke. “Pleasure to see you, as always.”
The duke nodded with a grin. “You too, Sebastian. It’s been a while.”
“It has. A few months at least, right? Hey, has Sawyer toldyou about?—”
King Hawthorne interrupted their reconciliation with a grumble. “As I was saying,” he cleared his throat, looking towards Sebastian and I, “Lucan will be taking notes, and Professor Stoll’s part here will come into play later on. For now, I will let the duke take over. I expect you both to give him your undivided attention.”
“Thank you, Aldous.” Duke Sinclair moved to sit in the unoccupied chair by my side. “As Sebastian mentioned, my absence from the kingdom has come with great reason. I have been stationed in the city Craterra, which if you are not familiar with, borders the southernmost portion of Caelestis.” He spoke to me directly. “It is our closest village to the Kingdom of Draemor. Have you heard of it?”
“Of course. I’ve lived in Caelestis my whole life.”Duh.
“Very good. Well, due to Craterra’s location, we occasionally have stray Draemornian’s cross the border. They use the city's lack of wards to their advantage, using it as a passageway to reach us. To spy on us. As you know, they, like us, are forbidden to cross into the other’s land, so when they are discovered, we are required by royal law to question. From there, we decided whether to release them, or execute them for trespassing.”
I gulped. That was another thing I really hated about how King Hawthorne ruled our kingdom. Innocent lives taken for simply stepping foot over a border—it was so wrong that I didn't even have words for it.
“I’ll spare you the details, but you should know that recently, a roaming Draemornian crossed into Craterra, and thus the individual was interrogated.” The duke took a deep breath and released it in a sigh. “Long story short, it has been confirmed that there is a traitor in our kingdom.”
“What does that mean?” I stuttered, fear gathering inside of me. I had a general idea of the answer, but needed confirmation beforeallowing myself to freak out.
“Maeve, it has been brought to our attention that word of your gift has been spreading rather rapidly.”
My eyes widened, and I gulped as anxiety rose into my chest.
