“You look beautiful.” Iviry sat on her bed, her legs crossed as she picked at her own dress, a pale pink one that Frelina had initially thought would clash with her fiery hair but that somehow made her look elegant and wild at the same time, with her thick copper curls cascading down her back and her impossibly blue eyes shining bright in contrast with it.
Turning toward her, Frelina grinned. “So do you.”
Iviry had shown up at her room after training today, several dresses in her arms, and while Frelina was pretty certain she’d done it only as an excuse to avoid Loche and the duty they both had, she was grateful.
It had been decided that every night until they reached the Ellow-Vastala border, the middle line of ships would host dinners and festivities, while the front and back lines would keep them all sailing—and safe, Frelina assumed. And while most would rotate between standing guard, sailing, and nights off, Iviry had asked Frelina to join her, both as a council member and as a friend.
She’d been hesitant at first, but Iviry had actually resorted to begging, and since Frelina knew these festivities were mainly a ruse to ensure people saw Iviry and Loche together, and ideally believed them to be madly in love to unite their people, she had finally caved.
A small part of her also ached for the Fae beauty.
She knew very well why Iviry’s smiles never really reached her eyes.
Frelina shot the leader another smile as she went to the small table in the corner of her room and opened the bottle of wine someone had placed there, pouring two healthy glasses.
Being with someone whose heart would never really be yours?
No, Frelina was glad she’d realized early enough that whatever she and Raine had shared… it would never be what she wanted—what she had started to think she deserved. But Iviry? She didn’t have a choice but to marry the man who’d given his heart to another.
Iviry’s blue eyes flickered over her face as Frelina offered her one of the glasses. “What should we toast to?”
“Friendship? Dumb males?” Frelina twisted her mouth, unsure why laughter bubbled so close to the surface.
But when Iviry’s mouth twitched as well, Frelina couldn’t hold back a giggle, which raced through her so fast she almost spilled the wine. After taking a sip from the overfilled cup, Frelina shook her head. “You’re going to be a good leader, Iviry. You’re strong. Stronger than most, I think.”
Iviry’s delicate brows snapped together. “What do you mean?”
“Well…” Frelina hesitated.
She didn’t know if it was a good idea to be too truthful this early in their budding friendship, although thinking more about it… most of the Fae she’d met—at least the ones she liked—didn’t shy away from the truth.
Frelina took another drink, savoring the warmth flowing through her limbs, before she continued. “I don’t think I could do it—even if it would save our people. Be with someone who’s not entirely certain… I think it’s brave.”
Iviry dragged a finger across the rim of the glass, sending an eerie sound into the room, and her lips lifted in one of the saddest smiles Frelina had ever seen. “If you knew how I truly felt, you’d think me a coward.”
Iviry’s blue eyes drifted out through the rounded window beside the mirror, following the large moon playing in the still sea between the ships flanking theirs. While Frelina wanted to ask what she meant, she could sense Iviry wasn’t finished, so she only continued drinking from her glass, eyeing the older female.
“I think staying away is braver,” Iviry said after a few more loaded moments of silence, casting Frelina a meaningful look. “I… I am so drawn to him, I’m worried I’ll take whatever he can give me. I… didn’t think the mate bond worked like this. I mean, Merrick stayed away from yoursister for years! But I… I won’t be able to for much longer. Not when we have to pretend like this… I’ll be by his side, be whatever he needs, while he will never feel the same.”
The pain in Iviry’s eyes squeezed Frelina’s chest, and she didn’t hesitate as she put a hand on the female’s wrist. “I think there is maybe incredible courage in both. Giving your heart without asking for anything in return…” Frelina’s eyes dropped for a moment. “I thought… I thought I could do it, but…”
“I’m not certain you should give up on him.”
Frelina lifted her gaze again. “What do you mean?”
Iviry’s features shifted into an uncertain grimace. “He seems different. Something has changed over the past few days. I don’t know… Seeing him train with you today, it… it reminded me of a Raine I hadn’t seen in a long time.”
Frelina was about to argue that he appeared the same to her when a knock interrupted them, and Frecco’s smiling face peeked through the door. “Are you decent?”
“We are.” Frelina waved him in, and she started laughing again when Frecco pouted and mumbled, “I’d hoped you wouldn’t be.”
“Next time I’ll dress slower,” Frelina joked as she slid her arm into his outstretched one, Iviry taking his other as three of her guards who’d waited outside the room circled them. They kept them surrounded as they made their way across two ships to the rear, and then three to the side, until they reached one where the sound of chatter and plates and music drowned even the sound of the waves lapping the ships.
None of them missed Iviry taking a deep breath asthey crossed the final brow, and Frelina leaned forward, peeking at her. “If it gets too much, just call on all these handsome guards and have them cover you,” she teased, eliciting low chuckles from the males around them. “I mean, probably no one will even look at you, especially if they keep taking off their jackets like this.”
More chuckles reverberated in the crackling air, and even Iviry shook her head and snorted when Frelina theatrically lifted a hand to her forehead like the women did in the more romantically inclined books she’d read growing up.
Honestly, she didn’t have to pretend too much. The guards had taken off their emerald uniform jackets, and the white shirts beneath, clinging to their muscles? Yes, they definitely did something to her.
