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Naia gave him a once over, flicking the unbuckled strap on his leather tunic playfully. “Go away. I am enjoying the peace.”
Solaris surprised her by slipping a porcelain jar out from around his back. “Are you hungry?”
Naia couldn’t resist peeking inside. The flaky, fruity scent of blueberry pastries brought her pure euphoria. Lacking self-control, she plucked one out and took a bite, sinking her teeth into melted blueberry and warm, fluffy dough. The sweet, tangy flavor exploded across her tongue, and it took all her willpower to keep from moaning in pleasure.
“I’ve never seen such a beautiful sight,” Solaris teased.
Naia shot him a glare.
A laugh sprung out of him. “I snuck those from the kitchen. Though it stunned me you had not already devoured them.”
Naia’s eyes bulged with her cheeks full of the pastry. “You stoe fem?” Crumbs spewed from her lips.
Solaris hopped off the rail, sending her a sly wink. “Anything for my future bride.”
“We are in our second century, Solaris,” she muttered after swallowing her large bite. “You have a way to go.”
“Which is precisely why I said future bride.” He winked and then spun around and started across the bridge. “I’ll see you tonight, love.”
Stealing a canister from the kitchen wasn’t a sin, but she couldn’t ignore how much it unsettled her. She recognized the elaborate porcelain the servants brought out to gift the guests with during feasts. The kitchen only prepared the extravagant container filled to the brim with treats on special occasions.
Naia stared down at the jar. Surely not…
Solaris’s presence in Kaimana was hardly a special occasion.
She let it go, unconvinced. It’s a coincidence. Perhaps the kitchen had extra lying around, or it was the only container sitting nearby when Solaris snuck the pastries from the kitchen. He would’ve needed something to store them in.
Naia glanced around for prying eyes before tucking the jar under her arm. She climbed over the railing and planted her feet down on the solid planks.
When she made it across the bridge, she found her three youngest siblings on the other side.
Since Marina’s birth two centuries ago, their parents had welcomed three more children into the kingdom. Triplets in their fifteenth year. Naia made it a point to befriend them as they grew older, before their mother could intervene. Her efforts swiftly proved to be ineffective, as they grew up to be despicable individuals.
Malik, the oldest of the three, was crouched by the river, his silver bushy strands glistening from the sunlight, too fixated on something to look up at her.
Vex, the most dimwitted and arrogant, skipped rocks along the stream, his pant legs rolled up to his ankles with his muscled chest exposed and gleaming like an oiled cashew.
And then there was Astrid, with features as delicate as a button, silky-textured locks down to her waist, and a figure that could bring any man down onto his knees.
Her eyes twinkled with a bloodlust as she pointed to the jar tucked underneath Naia’s arm. “What do you have there?”
Naia’s pulse sped up, but she squared her devilish sister with a look. “None of your concern.”
Astrid twirled the ends of her silver strands, feigning innocence by jutting out her bottom lip. “I’m only curious.”
“You are too nosey,” Malik said without looking up, voice deadpan.
Naia craned her neck to inspect what he was doing. Spread before him on the ground was a carcass of a fish. Its flesh mangled and stripped apart. Loose bones piled up to the side. Sticky eyeballs in the dirt. The tips of Malik’s fingers pried apart meat and scales.
Naia shuddered.
“Leave her be,” Vex said to Astrid, whipping his arm back to send a pebble flying across the river. “For she only has gluttony to cling to in her miserable life.”
Naia bit down on her tongue, not interested in playing their foul games.
As she strode past them, Vex chuckled like the bastard he was.
During the dinner feast, Naia kept to herself.
