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The honorable, kind Levi of the past would never speak to me this way.
“What happened to you?” The words are out of my mouth before I can pull them back in.
“I could ask you the same thing,” he retorts with sudden sadness in his voice.
I stand still for an agonizing moment, letting his eyes scrutinize my every feature. He then lowers his gaze away from me and takes a healthy step back.
“Rest, Your Highness. It’s a long ride east. We leave at dawn.”
And with that, he turns his back to me and leaves.
I’m still reeling when my favorite handmaidens, Anya and Inessa, who I had chosen to accompany me on this trip, appear inside my tent.
“Your Highness?” Inessa questions carefully, seeing that I’m not quite myself. “Are you well?”
“I’m not sure. Ask me again in the morning,” I reply half-heartedly, still shaken with the whirlwind meeting I just had.
Inessa doesn’t press me for more, rushing over to my bed to take down the covers for me.
Anya, though, isn’t as subtle.
Once she’s managed to walk me to the vanity and sit me down to help me with my hair, she mischievously smiles into the mirror’s reflection.
“These men from the east are not what we are used to, are they, Your Highness?”
“No. I’m afraid not.”
She nods, pulling the diamonds carefully out of my hair.
“But I guess that’s a good thing. Makes things more interesting.”
“Hmm,” I mumble.
“I mean… they’re all so savagely rugged. Handsome, too. And King Levi… well… I can see why he’s their king. I doubt the east has a finer specimen of a man.”
“Anya,” Inessa immediately chides her friend for speaking her mind so freely with me.
“It’s true,” she quips back unashamedly. “King Levi may look hard and savagely crude, but he’s also easy on the eyes. Don’t you agree, Your Highness?”
I bite into my cheek as my handmaiden leans into my ear and whispers.
“He’s the kind of man that makes a woman wonder if everything about him is that hard.”
“I’m not interested in any of that. It’s not what I need. What I need is obedience,” I retort with a sharp bite.
Anya’s expression turns pale as she pulls away, sealing her lips shut, too afraid I might cut out her tongue if she says another word.
I should feel guilty for snapping at her like that, but I don’t. I don’t want any of my handmaidens talking about Levi in such a way.
You’re coming home with me, Kat.
I’m not sure if I should take his words as a threat or not.
They didn’t feel like a threat.
They felt like something else. Almost as if there was an underlying promise tied to them. One I can’t quite decipher yet.
I guess I’ll learn it soon enough since, as of tomorrow, my future lies eastbound.
