“Dinner is served, Your Majesties.” Removing the domed lid over a large platter, he revealed a single pie, steaming through the long ovals cut into the crust. He lifted the platter, squeezing in between our chairs with hardly anexcuse meand settled it between our plates.
“This is certainly unusual,” Reshina laughed, sniffing over the golden crust.
“Piffle,” I said in a humorous tone, “what are you up to?”
“Why, I’ve prepared your dinner, sire! You’ll not be needing these,” he said, swiping the knives from our settings. “Nor these,” he added, taking our plates.
“And how are we meant to eat this…pie?” I asked.
Picking up our forks, he took each of our hands, setting the silverware in them before closing our fingers around the silver stems. “With these of course! Oh! And one more thing.” Hejumped at the same time he yelled, “DECANTER!” shifting into a golden glass pitcher full of red wine.
I eyed Reshina as he filled our cups. She bit down on her lips, desperately holding in a laugh that was on the verge of shaking her entire body as it built. I closed my eyes and shook my head. “Thank you, Piff. We’ll meet you in the library when we’re finished here.”
With a short pop, he bowed at the waist, wheeling his cart as he backed out of the room.
Reshina’s laughter burst from her lips as soon as he was out of earshot. I joined her, shaking my head. “I should have guessed he’d do something like this.”
She poked at the flaky crust. “Whatishe doing exactly?”
I sighed longingly, looking her over as she bent her head, inhaling the steam. “He’s forcing us to eat this together. To get us closer. In a more…intimate dinner.”
Her head snapped up with clarity. “You mean we take bites out of this together?” She glanced down at the table. “With nothing to cut into it and no plates to serve it on?”
I clinked the tines of my fork against hers. “No plates, no knives. Just two people sharing a meal the closest we can.”
She took her glass, raising it in the air. “To Piffle.”
I clinked her glass with mine. “To Piffle, and to the cleverness of the Changlingfae.” We took our drinks and dug into the meat pie between us.
CHAPTER 35
Reshina
Arthur heldmy hand through the long corridors leading to the library. I pointed out the two tapestries I’d uncovered in the room where we’d kept the Underfae before setting her free back down the western corridor. I noted that with Piffle’s hard work carefully cleaning the fibers, the colors brought a vibrance and warmth to the halls.
He nodded, squeezing my hand as I made him stop at each one, pointing out the patterns and design I thought he’d appreciate.
“If you look here,” I said, pulling him closer. “You’ll see that words have been woven into this one. It’s a language I don’t recognize, but I expect you to have discovered it by my return.”
He bent forward, squinting and brushing his fingers over dark fibers. “It’s Céaduah. The language of the Changlingfae, uncommon outside of the Citrine Cliffs.”
I sighed inwardly, having expected it to take him longer to figure it out. I had planned a few tasks for him while I was away—some I left as secret notes in the books he’d read. Some I had told only to Piffle to spring upon him when he seemed at the edge of despair. I was well aware the language was Céaduah. Just as I wasaware that I was second guessing this plan to the fullest degree. The words were on my tongue to seek another way to reach Ishtak for help when the pull of violin strings sounded ahead.
“What is that?” I whispered.
“I think you meanwho.”
We followed the music to the library doors, propped open with a golden violin hovering mid-air. Two black eyes and a wide smile bloomed at the base of the instrument.
Arthur pulled me into the middle of the room. The couches and chairs had been moved aside, creating a wide open floor.
“Dance with me?” he whispered in my ear, pulling on the dip of my back, taking my right hand into his left.
Every inch of me screamed to stay. To pull his mouth to mine, to give into this threaded desire between us. Arthur was the want I’d denied myself time and again throughout my life. He represented everything I shoved away, choosing duty and title before anything else.
Stay, my fingers urged, threading through his.
Stay, my lungs breathed as he pulled my chest closer.
