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“So nothing,” Kai snaps at Finn. “I’m sorry… She’s not ready.” His voice trails off and it takes every ounce of will I have to my person to meet his stony gaze.
“For what?”
“I know how much you want out…”
Finn waves the apple in his hand at Kai. “She’s been working for months and if you saw what I have–”
“All I can go off is what I saw today, and my answer stands.”
* * *
Kai
Alice traps her bottom lip between her teeth. I’m not an idiot. I lived her horror story and I know it upset her to find out she’ll be confined to the castle. But keeping her happy isn’t my top priority. Keeping her safe is. Last year, I fucked up and let my guard down. There’s no way in hell I’ll do it again. I learned my lesson.
Still, it twists my heart to see her upset. Fuck, it nearly splits it in two. For all I know, the wound could be painting my ribs red as I speak.
Finn turns to Alice, plastering one of his fake as shit smiles on. It’s the one he wears right before he has to deliver bad news. “Can you give us just a second, Princess? We’ll be in soon.”
Alice clears her throat, but doesn’t lift her head to look at either of us. Instead, she jogs up the steps without a word. The front door groans as she swings it open and we both watch, waiting for it to close.
“My God, have you no mercy. She’s been tryingsohard. You couldn’t just give her this one?”
“Yes. I’d rather hurt her ego than bury her. We don’t know if she’s immortal yet.”
“We didn’t know with you, either. Even then, your father realized that keeping you prisoner wasn’t working and he let you leave. We had no clue if you were immortal and you’ll never know until she gets hurt–or if she doesn’t age, but that could take years.”
I get where he’s coming from. I do. But I also can’t risk it. If I do and she’s mortal, then I lose the best thing that’s ever happened to me. “What could be so secretive that you didn’t want to say it in front of her? I know it wasn’t just to convince me to let her leave. So out with it.”
“It’s about Alice’s cat. Your dad just informed me that this morning it desiccated an entire village on the edge of Hell Hold. One of the survivors said they thought it was a stray creature and got scared. They attacked it and instead of running away, it fought back.”
No… I let out a growl-like sigh and drag my hand down my face. “I take it that’s the reason for the curfew?” And why he’s convening a meeting with the village masters?” Finn bites his lip and nods. “When?”
“Tonight. Most of them are on their way, but a few showed up while you were…” he looks me up and down with a snarl of his lip. “Training. Last time I checked though, finding her fucking g-spot wasn’t part of seeing if she was capable of handling herself.”
My eyebrows perk up.
“Oh, don’t give me that look,” Finn chides. “You both fucking reek of it.”
“Then hold your breath,” I sneer, twisting so I can start up the steps.
“So, what are we going to do about Alice’s cat?”
“I don’t know, but I do know they’re going to want to go after it. Regardless of whether it’s Alice’s or not, if it’s a threat to the kingdom, I don’t know how my father will react. It’s possible he’ll agree that it’s a threat.”
Finn jogs up the steps, matching my pace. “That cat has been her lifeline. They’re bonded, and though it won’t physically pain her if something happens, it will certainly crush her emotionally to lose that connection.”
“I know…” I say under my breath as we reach the landing by the front door. “I need to talk to my father.”
“Are you going to tell her, or are we going to keep this between us?” Finn crosses his arms, but it’s not a challenging gesture. I don’t think he knows which way his mind is leaning, either.
“No. Not right now. I don’t want to worry her until we have something to worry about. If they vote to go after Luri and my dad agrees… Well, that’s a different story, but for now, we don’t know how it will go.”
I start toward the door, but Finn grabs my arm. “Before we go in… I just want to say I think you should give her another chance. I don’t know if keeping her in the castle is helping or making matters worse, but what I do know is her temper is on a hair pin trigger. Her magic is pushing hard and for a while she was struggling to keep it at bay. She has to nearly exhaust her magic just to breathe or else she gets antsy. We’ve been working on it, but I thought you should know. I truly think some freedom–normalcy–will help her work through this.”
“Why are you just telling me? If something is wrong, I should know immediately.” I’ve had my suspicions that something was bothering her, but I’ve tried to give her space. I figured Alice would come to me when she’s ready.
“She didn’t want to and giving her an outlet has helped, but you’re not going to like what that outlet is.”
