Llywelyn’s eyebrows rise. He looks utterly incredulous. As if my suggestion is a preposterous notion.
I let out a heavy sigh and close my eyes.
This is going to be the hardest mission of my life.
Chapter three
I’m staring at the bathroom door. The one Llywelyn just swanned out of. I can’t believe the jerk simply turned around and walked away.
He whined that I wasn’t pretty. I told him he’d have to pretend… and then he walked away. This arrogant douchebag insulted my looks, and then left. He had me stripped naked. He burned every hair follicle off of my body. He placed a golden collar around my neck and forced me to kneel naked at his feet. And then he waltzed away without a care in the world.
Now I’m grinding my teeth and clenching my fists so tightly I’m going to get a cramp. I really need to calm down. It is a good thing that the asshole left. I may very well have punched him in the face otherwise.
Suddenly, the sound of a side door softly opening has me whirling to face it. The fairy boy freezes, arms full of silken clothes.
I inhale through my nose. “Are those for me?”
He nods with his head still bowed, while his one good wing flutters.
“Thanks,” I say, and I mean it. I hate how on edge being naked is making me feel.
He darts forward, grabbing a fluffy towel from a shelf as he passes. I stand still while he flutters around me, patting me dry with gentle dabs of the towel.
Then he proceeds to dress me in fey clothes. An over abundance of complicated layers of silk. Someone has chosen burgundytrimmed with gold for me, and by the time Tinker-boy is finished, I feel like an emperor.
An emperor who can’t dress himself, because I’m going to need to see how all these layers go on and are tied, a couple more times before I can emulate it.
The fairy nervously points to my man bun and gives me a plain hairgrip. I get the hint and quickly redo my hair.
It is frigging vain of me, but I am so glad nobody has tried to take this hair away from me. God knows what I would have done.
As soon as my hair is neat and tidy, Tinker-boy flees the room before I can thank him, or ask his name. I sigh heavily. It’s fine. There is going to be plenty of time to make connections. I’m sure I’ll win the servants’ trust soon enough. There is no rush.
Right now, I need to go find Llywelyn. As much as I don’t want to.
I take one last deep breath, then I stride out of the door the prince left through a few minutes ago.
I find the asshole in a bright and sunny drawing room. Sitting by a tall window, quietly laying cards down onto a table covered with a perfectly white tablecloth. The sunlight catches the gold of his hair as it streams through the glass. The effect gives him a halo. Especially with the way it glows between his striking antlers.
I scowl. No one in the whole entire world deserves a halo less. This prince is a demon disguised as an angel.
“Let’s go!” I snap.
He looks up from his cards. His yellow eyes narrow. “Go where?”
My jaw ticks. “To show your new pet off around court.”
His eyes widen and his complexion pales. Along with a slight hitch in his breath. If he was human, I’d swear he was scared. But he is a complete tosser, and he has no reason to be scared, so I must be reading him wrong. Clearly, fey body language is not the same as human, which means I have an entirely new language of physical tells to learn. Just fucking great.
“Right now?” he says in a tone of disgust.
“I’m here to gather intelligence. I can’t do that while watching you play cards with yourself!”
The corner of the prince’s right eye twitches. Not enough to be noticeable to most people. But I’m not most people. If the prince was a human, I’d read his carefully blank expression as a mask for hurt and fear.
I bite back my sigh. All I can do is make a mental note of it. I’ll figure out the prince soon enough. For now, I’ll just have to cope with not knowing what is going on inside that pretty head of his. As unnerving as that is.
Abruptly, Llywelyn flows to his feet with an unnatural grace, and glides over to an ornate side table. He picks up a long, thin golden chain. It has a loop of dark leather on one end and a clip on the other.
