Nox’s anger presses to the surface again, but there is a shift in the magic around us as a new person joins the group, his face a mask of remorse.
“Son, I’m sorry for the last minute notice.” Sadryn sounds pained, as if he had tried to fight this but lost. Perhaps the councildidhave the power to remove him. “But I do agree that visiting the people is never a bad thing.” The placating statement settles the councilman for the moment but seems to only agitate Nox more. With a stern glance at Kallin, Sadryn adds, “AndI’llbe going with you.”
“Polatos is a day’s journey away,” Elora whispers, answering my earlier question.
Nox’s focus finds me again, his jaw working while his hands—still resting on my hips—flex.
“I can say no,” he states, but it sounds more like a question.
It would be at least three days away from him. We had technically spent longer apart while I was in the Middle, but that was different.Thisis different. Still, Nox has proven time and time again he will choose me, regardless of the consequence. I couldn’t be so selfish as to ask him to do it again simply because I didn’t want to be away from him. My magic bucks at the thought, clinging to the spaces within me where I let it rise.
“Go,” I whisper, nodding my head with a confidence that isn’t truly there. “I’ll be alright.”
Nox looks completely torn, frustration surrendering to defeat as his forehead drops to mine. “Come with me.”
My hands squeeze where they are still gripping his shoulders, his breath featherlight over my lips. “I shouldn’t. I have to be here to get my dress fitted for the ball, and though I hate their methods, I don’t necessarily disagree with what the council is suggesting. About visiting the town, that is.”
Nox leans back, his lips quirking as he fights off a smile. “Smart. Fair. Patient. All qualities of a lovely queen in the making.” That makes me blush more deeply than kissing him so openly did. Nox heaves a sigh, his jaw hardening again as he flicks his gaze to Councilman Kallin. “I’ll pack and meet those going down here in thirty minutes.” Without waiting for anyone else to respond, Nox takes my hand and guides me upstairs to his room, our goodbye rushed but no less passionate.
Evening comes quickly, and at Nox’s request, I have dinner with Alexandria, Daje joining as well. Councilman Kallin didn’t go on the trip to Polatos, but I don’t question why Daje is having his meal here with us. I wouldn’t want to spend time alone with his father either. The talk is small, my comfortableness around the duo one that I’m grateful to have been eased into. Daje sits to my right, his eyes casting glances to the chair on the other side of him as if he expects someone to be sitting there. His next question reveals who.
“Have you heard from Bahira?”
“Only once since the last time,” Alexandria answers, a soft smile on her face. Daje nods, his mouth opening as if to ask another question, but he chooses to bury it instead. Alexandria is observant, however, and adds, “She is doing well, but she is very focused on her experiments there and navigating her new world. I’m sure she will have much to talk with you about when she returns.” That seems to answer whatever Daje wanted to know, though his shoulders round slightly.
When dinner is over, Daje and I bid Nox’s mother goodnight. “Thank you for the company,” I tell him as we exit the queen’s dining hall and enter the long corridor that leads to the foyer.
“Anytime,” he murmurs, his mind occupied elsewhere. On Bahira, perhaps.
Though she seemed less terrifying when I spoke with her through the Mirror, she is still a bit of an enigma to me. Everyone speaks highly of her, none more so than Nox. There is reverence and respect there but also carefully chosen words. Maybe it has to do with the fact that she doesn’t have magic, or maybe it’s something else. I’m excited to try to get to know her. To pick her brain about Nox and what he was like growing up. To maybe gain a sister of sorts; something I never dreamed I would have.
Elora stands tall in the foyer, her smile growing when she spots us—a quick glance given to Daje that I swear makes her cheeks lift a fraction higher. The flame gems reflect in her glasses, and she pushes them higher up her nose before pulling me in for a hug.
“I’ll see you both later,” Daje says politely, ducking his chin before spinning on his heel and heading to the palace doors.
“Are you ready?” Elora asks in a rush, looping her arm around mine.
“As I’ll ever be.” Together, we climb the steps to the second floor of the palace and to the seamstress quarters.
My eyes are wide as I take in the rows of folded-up fabric lying neatly on wooden and stone shelves. Strung pearlescent beads of every color and chains of gold, silver, black, and even lavender hang from rods in a corner. There is a table on the far wall to my left lined with sewing machines, the spaces between them filledwith spools of thread. In the middle are round platforms lifted up by two short steps. Right above them hangs a large black and gray chandelier, each of the three tiers lined with small spelled flames dancing in glass cups.
“Go ahead and stand here, you two, while I get some fabric choices that I think would be lovely.” Sarai gestures to the platforms, and Elora and I do as she asks, each stepping up onto one.
Elora fidgets, her fingers lacing together before she undoes them and squeezes the fabric of her light blue trousers. A line forms between my brows as I study her. She had gone quiet when I told her of my surprise, her eyes wide as they stared at me.
“Are you alright?”
“Of course!” she shouts, scaring some of the women in the room. Scarlet travels up her neck as she forces herself to take a breath. “I have never had a dress made by the palace before, and I don’t know… It makes me nervous. I shouldn’t wear anything so fancy.”
“What? Why?”
She shoots me an arch look but then immediately softens it. “I’m just a librarian. A regular woman. Not royalty. Not someone important enough for all of this.” She gestures to the room.
“You are important tome,” I whisper, reaching my hand out to her. She interlaces her fingers with mine and squeezes them tightly. “And I am no one of importance either. I’m only here because of who I am to Nox.”
Elora silently mouths, “You’re an actual princess,” before rolling her eyes playfully. Sarai and two other women make their way back to us, their arms full of different colored fabrics.
“I am not onehere.”
