Page 108 of Tides of Shadows

Aidenar came up to me, little irritated.

“I managed to return earlier than planned,” he said, trying for an ordinary tone. “I thought we might eat together before I return to my work. Unless you are… occupied.”

I shot him a fierce look.

“Don’t be spiteful. I would gladly eat with you.”

We entered my chamber together. A small table had already been set for the two of us. Aidenar settled himself with his usual ease, unfastened one button of his shirt so that I glimpsed the line of his chest, leaned back, and watched me for a long moment.

“You look different,” he said at last. “That dress is from here?”

“Yes. The maids brought it.”

“It suits you,” he paused. “You suit here.”

I rolled my eyes. Aidenar also looked different here, less lavish, more rough. But I could not hold myself back from the subject Tristan had opened.

“Tristan showed me around the fortress.”

“I saw,” Aidenar said, his jaw tightening.

“He also spoke of your amorous adventures in White City. And kindly enlightened me on how well you gathered information. I had heard of strategies founded upon bedchamber conquests. But not usually on the part of men.”

Aidenar shut his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose between two fingers, as he always did when something irritated him.

“I will kill him,” he muttered, more to himself than to me.

“Was I another noble girl with valuable information?” I asked, folding my arms and pretending to be offended. I watched with dark satisfaction as his face grew ever darker.

“I will rip his fucking blond head off,” he growled, staring off into the distance.

“Is there anything else you’d like to share?” I asked sweetly, sitting down and meeting his gaze head on.

He looked at me in earnest.

“Neri,” he said softly, and I loved the way he spoke my name like that when we were alone. “I just wanted to spend some quality time with you. Yet it seems that after we are done eating, I must strangle my brother.”

I laughed. Torturing him with his past was my new guilty pleasure.

“Do not exaggerate. I knew well enough what you are.”

“What I was.” he corrected me, his tone hard and cold. “Not anymore.”

I fell silent and studied him.

“And afterward,” I asked at last. “When… if all of this is done. Will you go back to the capital?”

I had never thought of it before. We had lived in the present moment. How would our lives look when the Plague was gone, if the danger truly passed. He looked at me so gravely I almost wished to draw back.

“I will not go back there. My mother can live there. Tristan may go as he pleases. It is not my place. It has never been. I see it more clearly now than ever.”

I was stunned. When I had seen him in White City I had thought he was made for that life. Perhaps returning home had woken something in him. I didn’t wish to press him further. I was not certain I was ready for the questions that would follow.

Chapter

33

The next few days I spent more often with Minerva and Tristan. Aidenar was occupied with the family holdings and the nearby mines, or so I was told.