AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“No,” she said. “He did not tell me.”
I suspected that Orla knew the reason for Kieran’s sudden change of heart even though he did not tell her. But I did not want to push her to tell me.
I could always ask Kieran, once this was all over and we were together again.
Chapter 13: Feremir
Most of the court was already in the main hall to attend supper when Aislinn and I entered the courtyard. The exterior gates were closed, and the torches had been lit to prepare for the night.
Aislinn squeezed my arm and urged me to walk quickly.
“The mind magicker already knows about us,” she said, her cheeks flushing a bit as she averted my gaze and kept her voice low. “If anyone asks her to look into it, she’ll tell them we started courting.”
“What if they have us followed?” I asked.
“We will have to deal with that if it comes to it,” Aislinn replied. “But I have a few tricks to get anyone off our track. This is our only chance. You cannot disappear for hours without letting them know where you are.”
She was right. We needed a legitimate reason for me to be outside the palace. It wasn’t likely for Master Frin to try to find me around dinner time, but after the queen’s warning the last time, he had developed a tendency to seek me out at odd hours.
A courtship between me and Aislinn was the perfect excuse. It would explain any oddity in our behavior and it would give us an excuse to be avoidant toward any questions asked about the night we had.
I nodded.
We started walking toward the gate. Aislinn stood close to me, but we did not hold hands or do anything to suggest we were courting each other. Aislinn thought it would be more realistic this way. Young fae like us going on a first date would be anxious, she had said, not confident. Our nervousness about this outing would be construed as shyness toward each other.
I did not have to pretend to be shy around Aislinn. I did not have to pretend to like her so much that I was distracted from anything else.
Those came naturally.
“Where are you going?” the man whose name I remembered to be Alamte said as we approached the outer gates of the palace walls.
He met my gaze with a knowing smile as though he knew exactly why Aislinn and I were trying to get out.
“We will have a walk around the city,” I replied.
“Why don’t you walk in the gardens?” the guy beside Alamte asked amusedly. He had a neatly trimmed mustache that covered half of his thin face. It moved as he feigned suspicion.
“We are,” I hesitated, “going on a date...”
For a second, I thought they would catch onto the awkwardness of my announcement, but the men laughed instead.
