“It is more than prudent.” I agreed. All embarrassment forgotten as I thought about the wedding party tonight. “And parties are fun! There’ll be dancing, laughing, and most important of all…eating new food. We are going, aren’t we? I promised Tabitha.”
“It might be best if we rested. We are on an important mission that we cannot fail. You saw the blight for yourself. We cannot afford to get sidetracked.”
I felt my own face fall at the words, my shoulders slump. “Of course.”
“Unless we make sure to be back by eleven.”
I perked up. “Truly? We can go?”
Elden’s eyes sparkled. “I wouldn’t dream of keeping my Little Baker from trying the delights of the party. It might help spark your magic.”
And with that, I surprised myself by kneeling by his side and flinging my arms about the Elf King’s neck. “Tonight is going to be amazing!”
I jumped up and gathered my clothes, thanking Rafia silently for packing me a fine gown, then I strode up the winding staircase to the upper floors where a warm soapy bath awaited. I was going to a marriage celebration tonight in an elven village with the Elf King. My stomach squirmed at the incandescentthoughts, but I focused on washing my hair, on combing through the tangles with my fingers.
I focused on the dark green satin dress that matched my eyes. My eyes. Not the golden eyes of the Elf King that all the village girls wanted to capture. I wasn’t silly like them. I would not fall for him. He needed me, that’s all. He needed my magic, and once I learned how to wield it, he would be satisfied and look at another woman with those golden eyes, with the intensity of his stare until their stomach turned to jelly and they were silly with their thoughts. Despite the gentleman Elden seemed, he’d still taken a maiden into Elkhaven. What did he truly have planned for Lila?
And once we found this cure, what did he have planned for me?
18
UNEXPECTED THINGS
Imade my way down the winding wooden stairs in my satin green gown from the bathing room into the bedchamber. Elden added some wood to the fire that now blazed in the hearth. The light of the fire caressed his skin like a lover, warming and softening his features. He looked so young despite his bone white hair—now still that raven black disguise. So close to my age, but I knew that elves stayed young and beautiful for eternity. He could be a hundred and I’d never know it.
“Nice to see you’ve finally learned to make a decent fire,” I teased as I toweled down my wet hair.
Elden chuckled deeply. “Yes, I had a rather angry teacher.”
I scowled, but blurted out the question on my mind without thinking, “How old are you?”
The Elf King turned and faced me. “I am an elf. My age matters not.”
“Well, I am a human. Age very much matters to us.” I hadn’t realized just how badly I needed to know.
Damp hair fell around my shoulders. Dark blue curling ringlets soaking a bit through my fabric. I’d never been able to get my hair to do what I wanted, but my mother and Rafia had known how to braid beautifully. I felt bare before Elden as I stood, still damp from my bath.
“I am not yet twenty,” Elden admitted as he stood and gathered his things for his own bath.
I blinked in surprise. We were only two years apart in age. “When is your birthday?”
“June the twenty-first.” Elden’s back was to me as he stoked the fire.
“Summer solstice,” I mused. “Hmm, you struck me as more of a grumbly winter guy.”
Elden spun around, “I am not…grumbly!”
I smiled widely at the silly way Elden’s beautiful voice tripped over my made-up word. I quirked an eyebrow.
“Well, I wasn’t before,” Elden murmured as low as a rumbling storm. “I mourn the free spirit that I used to be, whiling away the hours content in my garden. The elf before my father died, before my kingdom teetered on a knife’s edge.”
My heart softened like warm butter as I took in the solemn profile of the young king. So young, so beautiful.
“I lost a bit of myself when my father died, too.” I offered. “It was as if my whole heart was changed. Shifted, diminished. I’ll never have that part of my heart whole again, but every day I try to make him proud. Live the way he would’ve wanted me to. It makes the burden a little easier to bear.”
Though, I don’t know how my father would approve of the anger I’d been feeling toward the elves for so long—the blame I’d placed on their shoulders for his death. He would scold me from morn to evening about not judging others before you knew them.
Elden nodded, as he began to unbraid his hair. Raven hair fell around his shoulders. “My father, despite his many flaws, was a good king. A good father. He would read his stories to me every night as a youngling. Weave stories of mystery and magic. I feel as if I am living one of his wild tales right now.”
