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“That is a bad idea,” she argued, but she still stood as I pulled her along behind me.
“Everything seems like a bad idea, Eletta. We should at least enjoy a few bad ideas while we’re able to.”
She laughed softly and the sound caught me off guard.
“One dance.”She held up a finger.
“To start.” I winked at her before reaching out for her other hand and spinning us in a small circle.
The music blared from the musician’s instruments and coursed through my body with each beat. Eletta was stiff in my arms for a long moment before she finally gave in and spun around the old wooden floor with me in a fit of laughter.
I pulled her toward me, wrapping my arms around her shoulders, and we laughed as I leaned my head back and closed my eyes. For a second, I imagined there was no one else in this place but the two of us. I imagined what it would be like for her to not be my lady-in-waiting, but my friend.
I felt euphoric from the fantasy.
But then as the beat of the music slowed and our dancing slowed with it, all I could think of was Evren and what it would be like to be here with him and him alone. Would he have danced with me if I wasn’t the Starblessed? If I didn’t belong to another?
If I ran, Evren would more than likely be the one to find me. He may have hungered for me now, but I would force him to feel otherwise. My head spun as I considered running or the alternative. If I took the life of his brother, everything he felt for me now would turn to hate.
And I should have been happy about that.
I hated the people that surrounded me, and it was all the better if they hated me too. Even if my chest ached at the thought.
“May I cut in here?” I blinked my eyes open, half expecting Evren to be standing in front of me, but it was Jorah who held his hand out in my direction.
I slid my hand from Eletta’s neck and let him pull me away from her and against his body. He danced slowly and efficiently to the beat, and when I glanced over his shoulder to where I knew Evren stood, his eyes were on his guard and me.
“You shouldn’t be looking to him,” Jorah muttered above me, and I pulled my gaze away from Evren to look back at him.
“I wasn’t.” I shook my head softly.
“You were, and it’s a dangerous game you’re playing, Starblessed.”
I tried to pull away from him, but he held on to me tightly, so I had no choice but to follow him in the dance. “I’m not playing any game.”
“Then you’re a fool,” he growled and his hands stiffened against me. “The queen is watching your every move whether you realize it or not, and she will not be happy to know that the savior of our kingdom prefers the company of a half-breed to that of her son.”
I stopped completely and jerked out of his hold. His shocked gaze flew to meet mine, but I had too much ale to care.
“Do not call him that.”
“Why not? That’s what he is.”
My hand shook with the urge to slap him, but I knew that assaulting one of the king’s guards would do me no favors.
Jorah stepped closer to me as if he could sense my thoughts. “Evren is my dearest friend, Adara. I know who he is just as he knows me, and I also know that what you two are doing will mess up…”
He shook his head to stop what he was saying, but I was desperate for him to finish his sentence.
“Mess up what?” Please answer.
“The plans the kingdom has for you. You can’t save the people when you are too focused on only one of its patrons.”
“And what if I have no interest in saving these people?”
Jorah gripped my arm, pulling me closer to him, and when he spoke again, he did so directly next to my ear. “Then you should learn to pretend. Show your love for these people and your future king before the queen drains every bit of your precious blood from your body and Evren’s.”
A chill ran down my spine as his words hit me. As I looked up at Jorah, every part of me believed he was speaking the truth. Whatever it was that he knew, he was telling me this to protect me. Or possibly to protect his friend.
