Page 53

“Please, ’tis just an audience. I already warned him you will not go back to Castle d’Almerita. For me?”

Covering his face with his hands, Kipp rubs his eyes in annoyance.

“I’m sorry, Kipp. Please do this. I promised him.”

He folds his hands together, aggrieved, and asks the one question I cannot answer. Not unless I plan to tell him all.

“Why would you promise such a thing?”

Kipp is angry with me, something that has only happened once before. I snuck onto his ship once as a young girl of ten and two, Kipp being five years older. He found me after less than a half day at sea and promptly turned back to the shore, refusing to speak to me until we spotted land. We laugh at the incident now, yet it is still a matter of debate between us. Young boys voyaged, and yet I was not allowed. He argued it was my father’s wish, but even so, the inequality rankled.

“I . . .”

Part of me wishes to lie. But despite that one occasion when he sided with his father over me, Kipp has always been my staunch defender. And I know down to my bones he would never, ever lie to me.

So neither can I lie to him.

How do I say this? Or, more precisely, what do I say? That Vanni has already launched over the walls I spent years putting up?

“Aedre?”

I swallow.

“If he has dishonored you . . .”

“Nay, he has not. Do you think so little of me that you’d believe I would beg a favor for a man who has done me wrong? Vanni is all you’ve been told, and more. He’s honorable and kind, and has done nothing to incur your wrath.” I add quickly, “Certainly nothing involving me.”

For he is, after all, King Galfrid’s man. And that ensures Kipp will never call him a friend.

“Tell me.”

We’ve discussed plenty of sensitive topics before—the sort of things some people dare never speak of aloud. My training as a Garra ensures I’m not overly sensitive. And yet, I feel my cheeks warm.

“He kissed me.”

Kipp waits as if to say, Is that all?

“’Twas nothing like the others. Not even a bit.”

Kipp knows about my insecurities—my fear that I’m a hypocrite for helping others with love and desire when I’ve never experienced much of it myself. And so he softens, if just a little.

“I’m glad for it, Aedre. Truly, I am. But of all the men you could choose . . .”

“But I did not. Not truly. He is a noble, nearly a royal. And yet, when we met, I could not deny my attraction to him.”

Kipp seems to have calmed, though I worry about what that means. He has to agree to meet with Vanni, even if just to tell him no himself.

“So what happened?”

What indeed?

“’Tis a story for another time, but for various reasons, I have found myself in his presence almost every day since he arrived.”

Kipp makes a sound in the back of his throat. “Reasons? Ones contrived by you? Or by the very noble commander?”

I cross my arms. “Maybe by Vanni. But that matters not.”

“Ha! It matters, my dear Aedre. He seduced you.”