We ate the rest of our meal in comfortable silence, and as we finished, Rob brought us a plate full of round biscuits to share. The treat carried a scent I couldn’t quite pinpoint.
‘Nutmeg?’
‘Ginger,’ Rob cheerfully offered while taking our empty plates away.
The king sighed, taking one and snapping it in half. ‘It’s an ongoing joke.’
Confused, I eyed him expectantly, but he appeared reluctant to share.
‘Well, when I met the fire-haired Rob over there, I wouldn’t stop pestering him about that hair colour.’
‘Okay?’ I encouraged him to continue as something like shame dominated his features, and he traced his fingers along his mouth.
‘We met about a hundred years ago, just so you know. Eventually, jokes run cold, and as a young, unruly prince, I moved on to demanding ginger biscuits be present everywhere I went if Robert was going to be present as well.’
‘And he didn’t like that?’ Okay, that was a little funny.
The king scoffed, smashing the biscuit into dust and playing with it on the table. ‘He didn’t mind, actually, especially since I couldn’t lay them off and got fat pretty quickly.’
‘I find that difficult to believe.’ The corners of my mouth lifted of their own accord. The image of my athletic brute, now adorned with a hanging belly, replaying in my mind, was far too hilarious to ignore.
‘You best believe it. It took a ton of cardio to burn it off,’ he promised, cheeks reddening as he swiped the dust off the table.
Wonder what kind of cardio, I thought.
His eyelashes fluttered as he shot me a roguish smile. ‘Interested, little witch?’
Heat flared across my chest, neck, and cheeks as I realised I said it out loud. My body betrayed me far too easily.
Using my hand, I shielded myself from the king’s gloating stare. Surely, I was on the verge of self-combustion.
The bastard winked. ‘Oh, relax. You’re not the first princess to throw herself at me.’
Mortified, I defended myself, ‘Um, no? There is no throwing going on here, not even a little bit.’
Chapter Fifteen
Avari
As the trail came to an end, a wall of dense foliage blocked us from going any farther. When River first suggested a hike after our meal at Rob’s place, I thought he was joking, but I’d enjoyed every moment. He was right about the scenery; it was glorious.
I often paused, caught by awe, silently cursing that I’d left my phone in Ortensia. The photos I could have taken would have made perfect reminders of an unexpected and peaceful adventure with the Fogoyan King—a monster who, against all reason, seemed to have grown a heart.
I considered asking to borrow his phone but decided against it. It was a royal device, no doubt filled with things I wasn’t meant to see.
The wooden balustrade encircling the lake’s sapphire gleam splintered softly under my touch. Its crystalline waters shimmered with shoals of bright fish leaping above the surface, their scales flashing like jewels. Some were streaked with purple and pink, while others rippled with rainbow hues.
I laughed when a cloud of tiny creatures drifted past—part dragonfly, part firefly—their wings casting soft blue light across the water.
Eventually, I walked over to where the king sat quietly watching from a distance. When I lowered myself into the grass beside him, our knees brushed, and my fire stirred for the first time in days. Surviving the curse had drained my strength and my power, and I waited anxiously for any sign of recovery.
‘What do you think?’ His voice was gentle as he watched the leaping fish, sunlight warming the edges of his face.
‘It’s magical,’ I said honestly. Now I understood why he had fought so fiercely to keep this place sealed. It deserved protection.
And so I ran my fingers through strands of grass at my feet and let the minuscule coils of green come to the surface and reach out to connect. It still felt dim and unreadable, as if it were still blocked by a grey cloud. Too muddled for a substantial connection. I needed to give it more time. Unable to clear it, I started to pull back, stopping only as the king encircled us in a thick ring of fire.
I didn't know how he'd realised it was exactly what I needed. I also wondered where he'd learnt about the effects of power rings. But in that moment, all I cared about was the fairy-tale scene before my eyes. It was all my power and I could focus on. I drifted away, wrapped in the soft embrace of the surrounding greenery, until his voice beckoned me back.
