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Picking them up, Lara eyed the hand, knowing they were high and that she should think up a question that gained her something. But when she won, the question that came out was something different. “How did your parents die?”
Aren stiffened, then scrubbed a hand through his hair. Reaching over, he jerked the bottle out of her hand, draining it dry.
Lara waited. In her failed searches for maps, she’d found other things. Personal things. Drawings of the prior king and queen, the resemblance between Aren and Ahnna and their beautiful mother striking. She’d also found a box full of treasures that only a mother would keep. Baby teeth in a jar. Portraits. Notes written in a childish script. There had been rough little carvings, too, with Aren’s name scratched on the bottom. A much different family than her own.
“They drowned in a storm,” he answered flatly. “Or at least, he did. She was probably already dead.”
There was more to that story, but it was clear he had no intention of sharing it. And that he was running out of patience for this horrible game of chance. More cards on the table. Lara won again.
You rattled him,she told herself.He’s been drinking. Now is the time to push.
“What’s it like inside the bridge?” Her eyes skipped from the cards, to the empty bottle, to his hands, resting on the arms of his chair. Strong. Capable. The sensation of them running across her body danced across her skin, the taste of his mouth on hers, and she shoved the thoughts away as her cheeks—and other parts of her body—heated.
His eyes sharpened, the haze of brandy wiped away. “You need not concern yourself with what the bridge is or is not like, as you’ll never have cause to be in it.”
Aren rose to his feet. “My grandmother wishes to meet you, and she is not one to be denied. We’ll go tomorrow at dawn. Byboat.” He leaned down, resting his hands on the sides of her chair, the muscles of his arms standing out in stark relief. Invading her space. Attempting to intimidate her the way his damned kingdom intimidated every other.
“Let me make myself abundantly clear, Lara. Ithicana has not held the bridge by spilling its secrets over a bottle of brandy, so if that’s your intent, you’ll have to get more creative. Better yet, save us all the trouble and forget it even exists.”
Lara leaned back in her chair, never breaking eye contact. With both hands, she pulled up the skirt of her dress, higher and higher until her thighs were revealed, seeing the intensity of his gaze shift to a different target. Lifting one leg, she pressed a naked foot against his chest, watching his eyes race from her knee to her thigh to the silken underthings she wore beneath.
“How about you take your bridge,” she said sweetly, “and shove it up your ass.” His eyes widened right as she straightened her leg, shoving him out of her space. Picking up her book, she tugged her skirt back into place. “I’ll see you at dawn. Goodnight, Your Grace.”
A faint chuckle filled her ears, but she refused to look up even as he said, “Goodnight, Princess,” and disappeared from the room.
13
Aren
Vitex wovehis way in a serpentine pattern between Aren’s ankles, purring as he went, seemingly not inclined to desist in his pursuit of attention, despite the fact that Aren had been ignoring him for at least ten minutes.
The nearly blank sheet of paper on the desk taunted him, golden edges glinting in the lamplight. He’d gotten as far as writing out the formal greeting to King Silas Veliant of Maridrina, but not a word further. His intention had been to accede to Lara’s request and correspond with her father, to assure the man of his daughter’s wellbeing. But now, the pen in his hand on the verge of dripping onto the expensive stationery, Aren found himself at a loss of what to say.
Mostly because Lara remained an enigma. He’d attempted to learn more about her nature during that awful card game, and after hearing how she’d been taken from her mother, it was very clear that if she was a spy, it wasn’t out of love for her father. But that didn’t mean she was innocent. Loyalty, to a certain extent, could be purchased, and Silas had means.
Irritated with the circular nature of his thoughts, Aren tossed his pen aside. Picking up the box of stationery, he pulled up the false side to reveal the narrow drawer designed to hide documents from prying eyes, and shoved the letter to Lara’s father inside. He would complete it once he was more certain that Lara’s welfare was something he could assure.
Patting his cat once on the head, he shooed the animal out the door and strode down the hallway. Eli was polishing silverware, but he looked up at Aren’s approach. “Going to the barracks, Your Grace?”
It was painfully tempting to escape down to the barracks where he could sit around the fire with his soldiers, drink and properly gamble, but that would raise questions as to why hewasn’tspending his nights with his new wife. “Just a walk down to the cliffs.”
“I’ll leave a lamp burning for you, Your Grace.” The boy turned back to his work.
Forgoing a lantern, Aren walked down the narrow path to a spot where naked rock overhung the sea. Waves crashed against the black rock of the cliffs below, water rushing as it retreated only to surge forth again, slamming against Midwatch like an implacable, relentless hammer. Ferocious, yet somehow peaceful, the sound lulling Aren’s senses as he stared at the blackness over the sea.
Groaning, he laid back, the water pooled on the rocks soaking into his clothes as he stared up into the night, the sky a patchwork of cloud and stars, not a light in any direction to distract from their glimmer. His civilians knew better than that, especially in the shoulder season. The moment in the year when the storms ceased to protect Ithicana, and his kingdom was forced to rely on steel, wits, and secrecy.
Would that ever change? Could it?
Paper crinkled against his chest, the pages tucked inside his tunic what had driven him to seek Lara tonight. They were kill orders.
Two fifteen-year-old girls had stolen a boat in an apparent attempt to escape Ithicana. They’d planned to go north to Harendell, according to the information that had been gleaned from their friends.
The kill order was for them. The charge: treason.
It was forbidden for civilians to leave Ithicana. Only highly trained spies were granted the right to do so, and always on the order that if they were ever caught, they’d die on their own sword before revealing Ithicana’s secrets. Only the career soldiers in his army knew all the ways in and out of the bridge, but it was impossible to keep the island defenses from the civilians who lived on them, andeveryoneknew about Eranahl. Which was why any civilian caught attempting to leave was flogged. And any who succeeded in the attempt were hunted.
And Ithicana’s hunters always caught their quarry.
