“Just remember my words, Korithax. I won’t be able to say goodbye before your departure. Please... give Daisy my love. She’s a wonderful girl, and she will make a wonderful queen again.”
“Again?”
Before I can ask more, she rises and walks away. I stare after her, my jaw tight. I’m so tired of riddles.
I grab a few pieces of sweet bread and a jug of pale pink fluid and head back to our room.
Back inside,she’s still asleep—peaceful and unaware. Sariya’s words claw at my skull. She’s wrong. I don’t deserve Daisy. And it’s about time she understood. “Daisy,” I bark her name.
She jolts upright, blinking blearily. “Wha?—?”
“Get up. We leave in an hour.”
She rubs at her eyes, frowning.
“Are you okay?”
Of course, she asks if I’m okay. Even when I’m a bastard, she cares. Like an absolute idiotic puppy.
“I’m fine. Just move your ass.”
“Okay… can you pass me that robe?”
I toss it at her without looking and sit at the table, tearing into a chunk of honeyed bread.
She pads over, robe tied around her waist, and sits across from me. She’s still sleepy-eyed, her hair in messy waves, and absolutely beautiful.
“Oooh! You brought Blytrine,” she says brightly. “Sariya told me it comes from a tree that only grows under Solara’s light; it’s delicious. Want to try it?”
She holds her glass out to me, smiling.
“No.” I don’t even glance at it.
Her smile drops. “… Right. Okay.”
“Just eat.”
“Has something happened?”
“No.” I snap. “And I don’t want to do the whole awkward morning-after thing. Just because we fucked doesn’t mean we’re friends now.”
She flinched like I slapped her. “Wow. Really?”
I shove my chair back and stand, the legs scraping loudly against the floor. “We leave soon. Hurry up.”
“You really think that’ll work?” Her voice rises as she follows me. “That if you’re enough of an asshole, I’ll just pretend last night didn’t happen?”
“Nothing did happen, Daisy. It was sex. That’s it. No feelings. No promises. No delusions.”
She storms after me, absolutely furious. “So I was just convenient? A warm body?”
“You’re reading into it.”
Her face twists. “Was I not good enough? That it?”
“Don’t be dramatic.”
She storms into the bathroom and slams the door shut behind her.
