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My cock distinctly remembered what had happened the last time she’d shown up here and sat in my kitchen while I cooked for her, but I’d meant what I said. I was going to keep my hands to myself tonight. The chemistry between us was what kept scaring Levana away, and I enjoyed her company too much to allow that.
“No.” She huffed out a frustrated breath, following me inside as I headed for the kitchen, already pulling out ingredients. “I went down to the dining hall, but…”
“But?”
“Someone congratulated on my sister’s pregnancy. I guess my father has decided to disseminate the news.”
“Ah. An heir.” I knew the significance of it in an abstract sense, but mostly I found the way the nobility treated their children to be completely baffling.
“Yes,” Levana agreed. “I guess their comment reminded me that I’m needed at home.” She shook her head slightly. “I don’t know why I came here.”
“So I can feed you?”
Her expression softened slightly. “Well, you are a very good cook. For all your other faults.”
“You like my faults.”
“Like what?” she laughed. “Your absurdly unchecked ego? Or your commitment to being as grumpy as possible about all things at all times?”
“I’m not grumpy around you.”
Levana opened her mouth to argue before seemingly changing her mind, taking a seat on the stool across the counter from where I was working. “No, I suppose you’re not. Maybe because you make me grumpy enough for both of us,” she added under her breath.
I laughed, not objecting to that theory as I sliced the meat into thin strips to cook quickly. “So fast to blame me. I think your grumpiness might be who you really are. You just don’t let anyone else see it because you worry about keeping them happy.”
“You don’t know anything about me,” Levana replied sharply—her response a little too hasty to be anything other than defensive.
“No? Tell me about yourself then.”
I uncorked a bottle of her favorite wine—a dark, aged wine from the Ballaeter region—making sure the engraved bottle was on full display as I poured it into a goblet and slid it across the counter before pouring one of my own. She eyed it with resignation, perhaps realizing I knew a little more than she thought I did, if not nearly as much as I’d like.
The Shades at court all liked to bellow their intentions from the rooftops, reveling in their own perceived excellence. Levana was one of the few Shades I’d encountered here who possessed any kind of air of mystery to her.
“What do you want to know?”
“Let’s start with your family.”
She choked slightly on her wine, perhaps not expecting me to be so blunt.
“Most Shades at court don’t ask about them. Not to my face, at least.”
“I’ve noticed. Why is that?”
She shot me a slightly exasperated look, but didn’t reject the question. “Our mother abandoned my sister and me right after I was born. Usually among the nobility, relationships are fairly stable, for the status if nothing else.”
“Right. They stay tethered to each other in misery, no matter what, for the land holdings and fancy houses.”
“That’s a pessimistic way of looking at it.” Levana blinked at me. “But… well, yes. That’s the gist of it.”
I hummed in agreement. I’d been at court long enough to see that for myself.
“As a second child of the nobility, surely it was always expected that you’d join the Guard.”
“It’s the traditional path, but wasn’t something my father wanted for me. He prefers that my sister and I remain close him in Erith. Thankfully he changed his mind after my eighteenth birthday and allowed me to temporarily join the Guard.”
“And what do you prefer?”
“I want him to be happy. My father gave up everything for us when my mother left,” she added hastily, sensing my objection.
