AllFreeNovel
Share Us
It was not an unpleasant conversation.
“I do declare, this is the best company we’ve had since Maytree’s post-coronation visit,” Yasha announced loudly, a bold claim indeed given that Maytree’s reign spanned over six centuries. “What say you, wife?”
Lahoime paused, stirring the wine in her goblet with a lazy twist of a finger. “I don’t know, there was that summer that mortal playwright visited and we spent weeks watching those bizarre comedies with all the mistaken identities and innuendos and girls pretending to be boys. What was his name again? Wigglesword? Wobblyblade?”
Yasha laughed. “He was very amusing, I’ll give you that. But I’ve never been as fond of poetry as you, my darling.”
They started to kiss at the table, and Hawthorn turned his gaze away, searching for Juliana. Although she wasn’t on duty, she wasn’t present at the table, even though the company would have welcomed her. Summer prided itself on its hospitality and Maytree had always treated Juliana as if she were the adored daughter of a fine noble.
“Are you looking for someone?” Serena asked.
“My guard,” he said. “It is very unlike her to miss a meal.”
“Is she the beautiful mortal girl with a gaze like stone and a face like fire?”
“Ah! You do know her! But if you could find a way of making that more insulting, I’d be obliged.”
Serena blinked. “More insulting?”
“We have a tendency to insult one another,” he said. “It’s difficult to explain. Largely done in jest. I think. Hard to tell with mortals. Damned liars.”
Serena giggled. “It sounds like you’re friends.”
He turned to face her, but he was distracted by the arrival of a woman in a long sea-foam dress, cut at the centre for movement and created from layers of soft, floating fabric. The bodice was embellished with gold, the sheer sleeves parting at the elbow. It was a faerie dress so perfect, so ethereal, it seemed impossible that it shouldn’t belong to some creature of air or water, a nymph of sea or sky.
Instead, it belonged to Jules.
Jules, who was all earth and fire, Jules who he rarely saw out of her uniform or covered in mud.
Jules who had absolutely no right to walk into a room looking like she belonged at the head of the table.
No one else seemed to mind. No one else was staring.
“What?” Juliana barked, taking a seat.
Hawthorn picked up his jaw. “I didn’t recognise you there for a moment,” he admitted. “It’s hard to recognise you when you’re not covered in mud. I’m not entirely sure it’s an improvement, however. Seeing your face so clearly is… disturbing.”
What was definitely disturbing was his reaction to it. For years, Jules had just looked likeJulesto him. First the moment on the beach, and nowthis.She had no right to suddenly look so… otherworldly.
“Well, I have to put up with your face daily, and I never complain about it,” she said, reaching across to select a bread roll. Her hair slipped over her bare shoulder, darker and more red than usual. It looked threaded with gold.
“You must be his guard,” said Serena, beaming. “A pleasure to meet you.”
Juliana bowed her head. “Juliana. I am honoured, Princess.”
“You’re never so formal with me,” said Hawthorn, doing his best not to pout.
She raised a disbelieving eyebrow. “Do you want me to be?”
No. Yes. I wouldn’t be adverse to the occasional nice word… maybe a bit of reverence…
He wanted to make her look at him the way he was certain he was looking at her.
It was a relief when the meal finally ended and revelry began. Yasha did indeed challenge Miriam to a fight. As was standard when fighting mortals, she was forbidden from using magic, and the amount of wine she’d imbibed by this point made it an easy win for Miriam. Yasha didn’t seem the least embarrassed; she invited Miriam to spar with her the next day and even half-jokingly suggested inviting her to join her in bed with her wife.
Neither Lahoime nor her daughter seemed to mind this brazen request.
“You have quite the reputation in the bedroom yourself, or so I hear,” Princess Serena remarked to Hawthorn.
