Page 196 of Starside

I have a feeling that being here will be filled with winning and losing battles. This, I think, is something easy to agree to.

“Yes,” I say. “I’m starving.”

He sighs again.

“But at least give him tea for the fever. Please.” I’m not sure Raker will make it even a few hours without it.

His eyes narrow. “Fine.”

I try not to show my knee-wobbling relief.

Then, Vander shifts his grip on the hilt of his weapon, and I tense, but a moment later, an attendant walks through the door, as if called. By his sword?

“Ethel. If you would please show—” He frowns, turning back to me.

“Aris,” I say.

He frowns even more after hearing my name. “Aris to the guest chambers.”

The woman looks like she would rather do anything else, but she bows and strides forward. She practically drags me away from Vander, past him, and up the stairs.

“I can walk myself, I assure you,” I say, yanking my arm back after her nails sink into it.

She just huffs at me. I wonder if Ethel is this unpleasant to everyone or if I have somehow already made her dislike me. Perhaps she heard my conversation with Vander.

His castle, I admit, is commensurate with his ego. It is enormous.

The halls are made of marble as cold and pale as its owner. We stride down a grand hall, and the immortal woman turns toward me, eyes narrowed. “Your insolence will not be tolerated,” she spits.

I raise a brow at her. So, she did hear our conversation. She seems unconcerned by the blade on my back. Her glare, I think, is practically just as sharp.

My silence only makes her angrier. “Do you know anything about the lord?”

I snort. “Do you really call him that?”

“Of course we do. He’s the greatest heir of the last millennium.”

I roll my eyes. “So I’ve heard. Have you even been alive a millennium?”

She bares her teeth at me. “Lord Evren is the only reason any of us is alive. He does not make us call him ‘lord,’ but we do, because he has given every part of himself for us. In ways you could never understand.”

Interesting.

“He was about to leave me for dead,” I offer.

She lazily looks me over. “You’re human. How much time do you have left, anyway?”

My glare casts flames. She doesn’t look at me again, but turns down another hall, then opens two towering double doors with more force than necessary. “Here,” she says, before turning on her heel and leaving me, grumbling something about already being busy enough with preparations for a houseguest.

I’ve spent nights on cave floors, in cold waters, in ethereal woods, against a rock face with a ruthless warrior pressed against me. I’ve seen magnificence.

Nothing compares to this.

It isn’t a room—it’s a wing. I walk through space after space, all crafted out of white and silver-speckled marble.

There aren’t many attendants, at least from what I’ve seen. If this castle is full of rooms like these … it would be impossible to keep them maintained.

The bed is a monstrosity, with columns and sparkling fabrics cloaking it. The windows are enormous, showcasing a garden that is manicured to perfection. Right now, at dusk, the statues and ponds and shapes are shrouded in darkness. I wonder what they look like in the sunlight.