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“You’re here about that, I take it,” Calix said, waving his cleaver at the box of colorful food from the human realm.
Of course. She wasn’t a Shade. She’d have different nutritional needs.
If only I’d thought of that before I’d accepted this assignment. The palace kitchen was the last place I wanted to spend any amount of time.
“I am. I don’t suppose there’s somewhere cold I could store them if I cooked them in advance?”
Calix tipped his chin toward the door at the back of the room. “We have ice pits to keep food cold. You’re not going to demand I prepare them for you?”
The tension I’d lost came back with a vengeance. “By the night, if the king heard you speak to her like that…”
I may not have made Calix any promises, but that didn’t mean I wanted to see him thrown in the Pit for idiotically insulting the king’s wife. Then again, maybe the king wouldn’t care. We hadn’t seen him all morning.
“Not at all. I’m sure you’re busy enough without needing to make special meals for me. I’ll prepare some vegetables in advance and store them in the ice pit.” Ophelia smoothed down the front of her dress, seemingly decided on this course of action.
Calix reluctantly slid a cutting board and knife across the counter toward her, and I guessed that meant I was stuck here for the foreseeable future. I planted myself against the wall, silently watching as she messed around with her strangely colored food under Calix’s narrow-eyed glare.
As defensive as I was being, I didn’t really believe Calix wouldhurther. I didn’t have that same absolute confidence in the other Shades at court. Physically, she was probably safer here than anywhere else in the castle.
“Should I help you?” I asked, somewhat reluctantly. Food preparation was not an activity I derived any joy from and certainly what I hadn’t signed up for, but I supposed it would be therightthing to do. I was here to serve the monarch, after all.
“Is this not very new-queen behavior?” Ophelia teased.
Oh dear, had I inadvertently criticized her? “Oh, it’s fine—”
Calix’s sharp laugh cut me off. “Not particularly queenly, no. We all assumed you’d be a stuck-up Hunter bitch who’d expect us to wait on you hand and foot, and remind us of all the Shades you’d killed.”
“Calix!” I was going to kill him. Why had I been worried about him rotting in the Pit? It might humble him a little.
Ophelia fumbled the knife she was holding. “No, no, I would never… Ihavenever…”
“Yeah, I think we’re seeing that,” Calix mused. “Unless you’re a very good actress, there’s nothing lethal about you. You’re squeamish over meat.”
“It’s very, uh,squelchysounding,” Ophelia replied weakly.
“I’m thoroughly trained in combat and field medicine, and even I struggle with the gore in here,” I volunteered, hoping to put the queen’s mind at ease. “Calix revels in making everyone around him uncomfortable.”
“Look at this pussy, shining with slick. It’s doing the begging for you.”
Yes, he certainly knew just what to say to get a reaction out of someone.
“I don’t care to make otherscomfortable—it’s not the same thing.”
He shot me the same self-satisfied grin he’d given methat night, and there was an answering spark ofsomethingbetween my thighs.
No. No repeats. Don’t even consider it.
He already had an alarming level of influence over both my mind and my body as it was.
They made small talk about Calix’s role at the palace while Ophelia filled the pot over the flame with small chunks of color. I never stopped watching her, not entirely. I was a professional after all, and I’d been entrusted with this job because I was good at what I did.
But my gaze landed on Calix’s smug expression a few more times than strictly necessary.
Ophelia perked up immediately at Calix’s mention of the royal family, and while I did my best to remind myself that itcouldall be an act to gather more information about King Allerick, her enthusiasm seemed so genuine in its awkwardness.
Why her?Why had the Hunters senther?
Calix reassured Ophelia that he’d send her human food up with the meals he made, and I nearly smiled at the gratitude on Ophelia’s face—as though he was doing it as an act of generosity rather than to keep the royal family out of his kitchen fiefdom.
