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His friend finally sighed. “Well, just be careful. Watch your back.”
“I will. You do the same. I promise, we’ll be out of here at first light.”
Diogo snorted and pushed to his feet. He stretched his arms over his head and twisted, giving his spine a good crack. “Well, I’m headed to bed. You can sack out with me if you want. It’ll be tight, but we’ve squeezed into worse places.”
Adrian chuckled. “No, I’m fine with the floor. Trust me, I’ve slept in far worse places.”
With a cluck of his tongue, Diogo shook his head and smiled. “Haven’t we all?”
It was a bit of a tight squeeze, but Diogo shuffled past Adrian and into the apartment. Adrian carefully listened to his friend drop his empty beer bottle in the kitchen and wander off to the bedroom without making a stop anywhere near the king. He held his breath, straining to hear the bedroom door close and the apartment fall into complete silence. It was still early in the evening, but Diogo had always been one of those weird ones who preferred to get up stupidly early in the morning.
Adrian had always done his best work at night. Of course, he’d been a thief and an escape artist. He did his best work when no one was around. It had been fun to sneak in past people right under their noses, though.
With the apartment quiet, he directed his attention out to the city. The loss of the sun meant that temperatures were steadily falling, making the air brisk but nowhere near as cold as it was in Stormbreak. The capital should be getting steady piles of snow right now as the storms blew in from the bay. The ice cutters would be working overtime to keep shipping lanes through God’s Throat clear and the waterways from Erya to Caspagir as open as possible.
At this time, the city would be making preparations for the week of winter solstice celebrations. Twinkling green-and-white lights would be hung everywhere along with boughs of holly and pine. It was a time of small gift exchanges and spending time with family. On the last night of celebrations, everyone would head out into the streets singing carols like lullabies to ease the goddess into her deep winter slumber. The myth was that the better Tula slept in the winter, the better the plantings and harvests would be when she woke in the new year.
Of course, everyone believed that the goddess was dead and the tradition was a holdover from the old days before the Gods War. Now people claimed they did it to honor all those who’d passed during the year and ease them into the next life.
Whatever the reason, the solstice celebrations in Stormbreak were always a warm and peaceful time of year.
The way things were going, he doubted they’d be home in time for the celebrations this year. It was a shame Caelan couldn’t be present to preside over his first one as king. The people could have used that as they said good-bye to their queen a final time.
Would they ever see home again?
“So, do you regret it?”
Adrian leaped from his seat and slammed into the metal railing that ran around the edge of the balcony. His heart was still somewhere flying above the city when he twisted to see Caelan standing in the open doorway, a smirk lifting one corner of his mouth and his arms folded loosely over his stomach.
“Geez fuck!” Adrian swore, pressing his hand to his chest to force his heart back down where it belonged. “What the fuck!”
“Sorry about that. Didn’t realize you were so deep in thought,” Caelan apologized. From the smile still trying to peek out, though, he didn’t appear all that sorry about scaring the crap out of his bodyguard. Served Adrian right. Caelan shouldn’t have been able to surprise him.
“No, I’m sorry. I should have been paying better attention. I—”
“Let it go, Adrian,” Caelan replied easily. He motioned for Adrian to follow him inside the apartment.
He moved with him and carefully closed the door again while Caelan went into the kitchen. The king snagged a bottle of water from the fridge and cracked the sealed cap. He was moving around incredibly easy for someone who was supposedly drugged to sleep. Shouldn’t he be a little foggier and more lethargic?
“Your Majesty—”
“Stop with the title crap. We don’t need that right now. And yes, I knew about the sleeping pill in my beer,” Caelan said when he crossed to the living room.
Adrian could feel all the blood drain from his face and his knees wobbled as he moved over to the couch. He dropped to his knees in front of Caelan, his head hung low. “Your Majesty, please forgive me for putting your life in danger and—”
His apology was stopped by a rap on the top of his head. He rubbed the light wound and looked up at Caelan to find him smiling. “Your anxiety about your friend was clear to see. I might have given him a light read and seen he’s safe. It’s like he told you, he truly meant me no harm. He wanted the chance to check on his friend without me hearing it.”
“But you heard it all, didn’t you?” Adrian asked softly, his shoulders slumping.
The king’s grin turned wicked as he sat on the sofa. “Poisons and most drugs don’t work on me. Especially now that I’m officially bonded with the Goddess of Life. It was nothing to pretend to sleep so you could get some unfiltered answers from your friend.” Caelan paused and his smile fell away. Concern rose to replace it in his eyes. “Were you telling him the truth? Are you sure about what you’re doing with us?”
Adrian jerked, his eyes widening at the king’s words. “What?”
“I’m sure none of this was what you were expecting when you agreed to join the Royal Guard. And if Tomas is holding some threat over your head…”
“You know what? Eno’s right. You are an asshole.” Adrian shoved to his feet while Caelan stared at him in shock. He plopped down on the sofa next to the king and glared at him. “Yeah, maybe Tomas fed me a line about this being my last chance, but if I wasn’t cut out for this life, I always knew he’d let me out. He’d help me find another way to go legit. But I like doing this. I like protecting my home. And maybe I wasn’t born royalty, but I’ve got as much right to protect my home as you do.”
A softly huffed laugh lifted from Caelan and he sat back on the sofa, their shoulders lightly bumping. “Yep. You’re right. I apologize.”
