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Briar accepted the rose with a grateful smile. Still flushed from the pleasure I’d wrought, she inhaled the flower’s perfume. “What magic?”
“Its petals are able to withstand the passage of time without wilting.” My lips quirked. “And its thorns are impervious to fire.”
23
Poet
Briar and Nicu chuckled as they dashed down the corridor ahead of me. Midnight dripped cobalt blue through the halls. The patrol averted their gazes whilst the princess and my son traipsed from one room to the next, one passage to the other. With the ribbon installations completed, Briar did what she’d been eager to do.
She took my son on an exploration of the castle. I trusted my thorn and wanted these times to be for them alone. But with unknown threats in our midst, we couldn’t risk it.
Tumble draped himself across Nicu’s shoulders but then lost patience. The moment my son placed the restless ferret on the ground, Tumble scampered ahead, galloping beside Nicu’s feet.
Briar and my son’s whispers trickled from the mezzanines to the towers. Their fingers clasped, and their voices blended, symphonic to my ears. I brought up the rear, grinning at the trio—heiress, child, and familiar—their outlines forming shadow puppets against the walls.
Nicu’s gaze flitted across a corner and paused on a nondescript crack in the wainscoting. Trotting over to it, he traced the line and said, “It’s like a ribbon.”
Something for him to follow. For a moment, Briar assessed the crevice, doubtless thinking to have it fixed later. Not wanting my son to get ideas of trailing random apertures in the corridors, I distracted him by pointing out my own shadow reflected against the passage. And then we kept going.
***
At dawn, I left Briar to tuck Nicu into bed, intent on giving them more time together after so long apart. As I shut the nursery door behind me, Aire approached to relieve the guards patrolling Nicu’s chambers. The soldier marched forward in a sleeveless number that exposed a trail of raptor tattoos taking flight up his right arm, which he usually kept hidden beneath long sleeves. The man’s ashy hair was unkempt, and his dark blue eyes squinted against the harsh light pooling through the corridor windows.
At his nod, the guards departed. It wasn’t unusual for the First Knight to show up an hour early in his rotation. He and my son had established a bond. Except today, Aire’s excessive punctuality had less to do with Nicu and more to do with those bloodshot eyes.
To witness the honorable, upstanding, morose knight suffering from a hangover warranted a page in the history books. I slouched one shoulder against the mahogany frame and burdened the man with an animated look.
Seeing me waiting to harass him, that surly exterior deepened into a grimace. He said nothing, which was typical. Not to mention, the man had become well-acquainted with my lack of filter.
“Hmm,” I mused at his present state. “This is new.”
Aire grumbled and flapped his palm in dismissal. “Do not start.”
“You’re appealing to the wrong egotist, sweeting. I notice and criticize everything about a person’s appearance.”
“I wish you wouldn’t.”
“How seldom those words have been spoken to me,” I replied. “Yet how often.”
“Riddles,” the man grunted as he switched places with me, his stance firm despite the dregs of alcohol lacing his veins. The man might have acted out of character last night, but one wouldn’t notice based solely on the warrior’s posture. His broadswords could take down an army with his eyes closed and ears plugged. It was the only reason I didn’t ram my knuckles into Aire’s face for thinking to guard Nicu in this condition.
“By the way, how dare you engage in devilry without me,” I scolded.
“It was not devilry,” Aire defended, aghast. “It was a lapse in judgment.”
“I should say, considering I didn’t get an invitation. ’Tis no revel without a jester to steal everyone’s attention from you.”
Another grunt. “Reaper’s Fest is upon us,” he said, by way of an explanation.
Ah. The revels were approaching, in which the most humble and prudent of Seasons abandoned inhibitions for the night. That explained the military getting a head start on the festivities, as more than one party was already planned regarding the main event.
I scanned the navy blue raptors soaring up his arm, which matched the shade of his irises. Because I’d never asked about them before, I remarked, “Drunk or otherwise, I never took you for a fan of accessorizing.”
“I am not,” was all the knight said.
I sighed. “One day, some brash and unexpected troublemaker is going to make you crack a smile that lasts longer than three seconds, and I’ll be there to watch it happen. You’ll be so fucking obsessed, you’ll beg them to keep ruining your life.” My lips tilted. “Trust me, I have experience.”
At the reference to Briar, the knight’s sour puss turned bleak. In the beginning, her return had demonstrated the only proof that this man possessed a cheerful bone in his body. The princess, my son, and I were the rare beings who didn’t require a crowbar to pry the soldier’s lips into a grin, if only temporarily.
