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I crossed to the trunk and, tossing the mirror and brush on the bed, began rifling through it for something dry to wear. What I really wanted was a bath, but that was still likely out of reach until we returned to the obsidian palace. The best I could do was to be dry and perhaps get a few hours of sleep before we set off again.
“Did you watch?” I asked Enid absently as I shoved a mountain of fine garments aside, searching for something simple.
When Enid didn’t answer, I pulled my head out of the trunk and looked up at her. She wasn’t watching me but rather had fearful, narrowed eyes fixed on Bael. For his part, the grinning golden-haired prince seemed to be pretending he couldn’t see her, feigning interest in the embroidery on my bedspread.
“Enid?” I asked lightly.
She jumped. “Oh, right. What did you say?”
I frowned. I could sympathize with her dilemma. If I stood where Enid was, I’d be thinking about all the many ways my tongue might be cut out later for misstepping.
“Could you leave us for a few minutes?”
To my surprise, Bael shook his head. “Apologies, little monster.”
I wrinkled my nose when he gave no explanation and did not continue.
Making wide eyes, I gestured down at myself. “But I need to dress.”
He scoffed. “And what? Are you trying to preserve your modesty? Don’t be absurd—that is long since forsaken.”
I choked and threw Enid a nervous look. He was right, of course, but embarrassment still washed over me. “I wouldn’t say that, exactly.”
“What would you say?” He gave me a mischievous grin, and I could swear his eyes flicked to the servant behind me. “Be explicit, and I will fill in anything you forget. Or, we could simply talk of the fact that I saw all you have to offer on your first night in—”
“Alright!” I screeched, throwing my hands up in defeat. “Just stay out of the way, then.”
He laughed, seeming to take humor in my discomfort, and went to lie on the bed, throwing one arm over his eyes as if he were sleeping. My stomach turned over at the realization that if he never intended to leave, there would be nowhere else for me to sleep but in the foot of space beside him.One problem at a time.
With a shake of my head, I turned back to Enid. Heat crept up my neck when I found her as I’d expected: her mouth hanging open slightly, her expression just shy of accusatory. To be fair, she’d been in the room last night when Bael had quite literally dragged me to his bedchamber by my hair, so this could not have been a total shock.
I gestured down at my ruined clothes. “Could you help me?”
She nodded curtly and nudged me out of the way of the trunk, taking over searching with far more efficiency than I’d shown. “I suppose I should congratulate you on your win.”
“You would be the first. It’s not as though I have legions of admirers.”
The edges of Enid’s cheekbones turned slightly pink, and she sniffed disapprovingly. “You certainly seem to have enough.”
I pressed my lips together and tossed my head toward Bael. “One, maybe.”
Enid and I had a tempestuous relationship. We had not been friends when we were both servants, mostly because she was afraid of what my proximity to the Fae might do. Enid cared little for anyone else but herself and detested thrill-seekers and those who might put her in danger. It was easy to see why I might be a problem. Still, now she viewed me as her safest option, and I was fine with that.
“I brought the books as you wished,” Enid said as she finally straightened, a plum-silk nightgown in hand. “They are in the bottom of the trunk.”
I cast Bael a nervous glance before forcing a benign smile onto my face. “Thank you.”
Enid nodded. “Of course.”
“Did you watch?” I asked again, hoping to change the subject. “The hunt, I mean.”
She shook her head. “They are not all that well suited for spectators. I wonder if that’s to encourage participation.”
I knew this, of course, when it came to the hunt in the capital. Still, villagers lined the edge of the woods anyway, as something of a holiday, regardless of the practicality. “No, I don’t think so,” I said, more to myself than her. “It’s simply not designed to be a festival.”
Not that I could tell Enid, but Bael had explained the true purpose of the hunts to me during the same conversation when he revealed his family curse.
The Everlasts had been cursed by their ancestors to never be able to experience happiness until their crown was returned to a worthy wearer. They’d designed the hunts not with governing in mind but as a way to find someone to lift their curse. Whoever could take the crown, then defend it would, in theory, be worthy of it. This, I could only assume, was why none of them wanted me to have it. Whether through death or bargain, they’d all been adamant that I return the crown since the moment I touched it. It seemed that none of them, even Bael, thought I could ever be worthy.
