AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I don’t recall you paying me to run your errands. Earlier, you chased me across the castle to get your measuring stick.” With a heavy exhale, Sebian grabbed the leather pouch where it sat on an upholstered bench beneath the window and tossed it over his shoulder. “Next time, bring your mate to do it.”
Darien let out a frantic yelp before he caught the clinking pouch with both arms, pulling it tightly against his chest, narrowed gaze snapping to Sebian. “She has no sense for beauty and never fails to inhibit my creativity.”
“She?” I took another look at his gown, the neckline so low, it exposed his shoulders and a sparse thatch of hair that sprouted between his pectorals. “I thought you were… were…”
“A lover of men?” hetsked, hooked the pouch on the thick belt that clasped his slender waist, and pulled a whitish stone from it, holding it out in his open palm. “Darling, above all, I am a lover of dresses. How can I not be, hmm? Frills, grommets, ruffles, laces, layers. And this…” His fist came down on the stone, letting it crumble. Wafts of shadows emerged from within, weaving into the shape of a rose in full bloom, petals and all. He carefully brought the delicate ornament to my train, stitching it onto the fabric with shadowy thread. “Trousers, shirts, vests. Why would I bore myself with the mundane if I can create this?Wearthis?”
I watched in awe as he cracked one stone after another, turning my dress into a garden of flowers and ravens that roosted on the vines between them. “What is this?”
“Salted spells,” Sebian said. “If you look closely, you’ll see the shadows writhing on the inside.”
All it took was a hopeful look at Darien for him to hand me one such salt stone, which I turned between my fingers, watching the black threads shift ever so slightly. It was fascinatingly beautiful.
Darien took the stone from my fingers, cracked it, and worked the shadowy rose that emerged into my dress. “It takes me many days to create ornaments such as these.”
That was easy to believe. “What else can you store in these?”
“Any sort of shadowmagic,” Darien said. “But what’s more important than storing threads? Without us weavers, everyone would walk around naked.”
When I looked at Sebian, he said, “We have to work plumes of shadows into our clothes, our weapons, our most important belongings for them to shift with us.”
I looked down at what had to be the most beautiful gown in all the kingdoms, utterly taken by this new knowledge. “I’ll be the finest bride in all of Dranada.” Just like Risa had said…
“Bride? Oh darling, don’t insult me.” Darien chuckled as he fussed with the lacing along the shoulders. “It will take me a fortnight to fashion your wedding gown. This one, you’ll wear to yourkjaer.”
“My what?” I asked, just as an unkindness or ravens flew in through the flight hole above the window.
“Yourkjaer.”Malyr was still shaping out of shadows and plumes beside me, running his feathery touch over my scar before his fingertip replaced the sensation, and the scent of winter and lemongrass filled my nose. “Where I shall court you.”
“Court me?” That would have sounded rather romantic coming from any man who wasn’t Malyr. “How terrifying.”
A twitch of his lips. “Agreed.”
“I didn’t think you’d bother with akjaer.” Sebian leaned with his back against the bookshelf that lined one wall, both hands shoved into the pockets of his breeches. “How romantic.”
Malyr rolled his eyes. “Was it not you who suggested we could all do with some fun? There’s much fun to be had during akjaer.”
I looked back and forth between them. “Anybody bother to tell me just what exactly that is?”
“A sort of betrothal ceremony,” Sebian said. “The male will feed you, groom you, present you with a gift. And um… fly with you?” He frowned at Malyr. “How exactly are you going to solve that?”
Malyr shrugged, my future husband once more dressed in one of the smartest corset vests I’d ever seen, the gray shirt underneath embroidered with silver moons and stars. “Mostkjaerbetween our kinds made do with the Dance of Ten Feathers, and so it shall be with this one.”
Slowly but surely, nervousness prickled beneath my skin. “But… I don’t know that dance.”
“You have two days to master it,” Malyr said with a wolfish grin. “I publicly announced thekjaerand the feast that’ll go along with it less than an hour ago.”
Feast.
That word brought back memories I’d rather forget, making me set my pleading look onto Sebian, but he only let his head slump back against book spines before he said, “It’s a dance for fancy Ravens, not sons of farmers like me.”
Anger warmed my veins over how Malyr was seemingly setting me up for embarrassment again, but acting on it would hardly bring me closer to my goal. I had to make an effort here. Whatever brought our bodies closer together would be a step in the right direction.
I set my hand on his arm and searched his steely eyes. “Maybe you could teach me?” A swallow. “Please?”
Malyr’s eyes wandered to where I touched him, as if he was contemplating to slap my hand away, but he merely let it slip off as he walked around me, taking in my dress. Cici was right; I had no talent for seduction.
“Is it to your liking, my prince?” Darien bowed and sidestepped after Malyr, letting one hand fan the train out while the other settled on Malyr’s shoulder. “I decided to bring out her—”
