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In a smooth bend, he picked up my shoe and took the three paces to get to me. Gently touching my hip, he steered me toward the chaise at the end of my bed.
I fell onto it with a huff.
“Let me try this again, my love.”
I shivered at the soft way he called me his.
Running his hand down my leg, he lifted my foot and slid my boot on more gracefully than I had probably ever done anything in my life. Once secured, he set my foot back down and lifted his head toward mine.
Wickedly, he grinned, kissing the inside of my knee. “Was that more to your liking?”
“Yes, I believe that’s how you treat a woman.” The cockiness I’d so desperately wanted to convey caught in my mouth and Noah’s lips twitched when my voice cracked.
“Where are you off to?” he asked, still on his knees before me.
I sighed lightly. “Your mother has asked me to pick up something of your father’s in town at the herbalist since you have meetings with the council today.”
“Ah, yes.” He rose, reaching his hands toward mine. I took them as he helped me stand. “We must not let the council see the human who has made the prince lustful with emotions.”
“You knew she was going to do something?” I asked. “No one knows for sure we’re doing anything though.”
Noah chuckled. “Then you are blind. Everyone in this castle knows something is going on between us, Cora. The council has no doubt heard every rumor there is.”
I cracked my knuckles, now feeling nervous about that knowledge. “Won’t that anger them? Make them think you’re weak?”
“Because I spend my time with a woman who has saved this court more than once since her arrival? They’d be fools to. I’m learning who has stringent beliefs like my mother and who is more with the times.”
I didn’t bother hiding the surprise on my face that Noah had been assessing his council.
His smile grew. “I have to know what we’ll be up against in the future. Doesn’t hurt to have some background information beforehand.”
With that, he tugged me closer to him, pulling me into an embrace. “Enjoy yourself in town. We had a good time before. Have some fun now.”
I leaned back, looking up into his eyes. Since our unspoken agreement that we were together once Vanessa was gone, it was as though a weight had been lifted from Noah’s shoulders. He was freer. Fun. And while I knew his tension now was due to his father being gone, there usually was a more carefree light around him. The light I’d seen when he took me running through Rosefeather on my first birthday here.
“I am excited to explore a bit more,” I admitted.
He nudged me under my chin, kissing me on the cheek. ‘That’s the spirit. I can’t wait to hear all about it when you’re back.”
I curtseyed. “Of course, Your Majesty.”
“I’ll come here as soon as I’m done this evening. If that’s all right, of course?”
The tentative way he asked made my stomach flutter. My face heated as I nodded before he left.
Grabbing a shawl now that the weather in Faerie had lately been crisp and cool, I headed through the winding corridors of the staff section of the castle and wound up in the familiar hallway I’d first come down over a year ago.
Smiling to myself, I opened the large double doors and trotted down the steps to follow the cobblestone road that would lead me to Rosefeather.
Noah and I had snuck through the garden and across a field to get to the dirt path that led to town. I could see the stones ending and the road changing to dirt up ahead. Glancing over my shoulder, I looked to the large hedge that we’d come out of when we escaped the castle for a short while.
As much as I was technically a servant to the Unseelie, the royal family wasn’t much different from me. They may have had all the fine things in the world, but Noah didn’t go anywhere without people knowing. His every move, every decision was watched. And while we lived in luxury compared to others, it still was a form of being trapped.
I adjusted my shawl, shivering as a breeze picked up, blowing my loosely braided hair in the wind.
Movement caught my eye to the left and I noticed an older woman, hunched over walking the same way as me. I had barely noticed her join on the road. She avoided my gaze but seemed determined.
A thought struck me as I kept slightly in front of her. No one outside the castle would know me. As much as the queen wanted to punish me on this errand, maybe it was a blessing in disguise. I could explore the city outside the castle walls in peace. And see more of the world that I was now destined to live in.
