Falling back onto the mattress, she groaned.
“Yea, you look about as shitty as you undoubtedly feel.” Piper’s usually sing-song voice was as frosty as the morning air, making Auraelia wince.
“Good morning to you too, Piper,” she said sarcastically, throwing her hand into the air in a mock wave.
Piper stalked across the room and tossed a towel onto her face. “Get up, you smell like tits and ass, and you have training with Ser Aeron in thirty minutes.”
Removing the towel from her face, Auraelia pushed into a sitting position again. “What’s got your panties in a twist today?”
Piper’s glare was as frigid as her tone, and Auraelia had to suppress the shiver working through her.
“What’s got my—” her friend inhaled deeply, her nostrils flaring with annoyance. “I’m pissed off because I got a letter from that tiny demon of a woman asking me to ‘kindly remove Her Majesty from the premises’at nearly three in the morning. What the fuck were you thinking, Rae? You’re lucky that the guards don’t open my correspondence—”
Auraelia’s eyes widened slightly as she bobbed her head in understanding, but her mind wandered as her friend continued her tirade.
Sothat’show I got home.
Grabbing the towel, Auraelia crossed the suite to the bathing chamber.
The chill of winter had crept into the room, the cold tiles biting into her bare feet. At least she’d had the wherewithal to remove her boots the night before…or had Piper done that?
Piper was still raging in the bedchamber as Auraelia turned on the shower and stripped.
Just as she stepped into the warm streams of water, her friend barreled into the room. “Were you even listening to me?”
Auraelia tilted her face up into the warmth and sighed. “I’m sorry. I know that doesn’t fix it or make up for it. But I am.”
Her friend shook her head and crossed her arms. “Rae, I know you’re in pain. I know there is a lot on your plate right now. But you’re thequeen.You can’t be sneaking off to brothels by yourself. At least bring me with you.”
Piper’s usual humor bled into the end of her speech, and though she suspected that they were okay, she needed to ask anyway. Needed to hear it directly from Piper’s lips to be sure.
“Yeah, Rae. We’re fine. Besides—” a sly grin formed on her friend’s face as she continued, “I don’t need to stay mad at you. One look at you, and Ser Aeron is going to drill you until you puke.”
Auraelia groaned as laughter flowed out of her friend.
As Piper turned to leave, Auraelia called after her. “Did Vee say if…if um—”
Piper’s head tilted to the side, a look of understanding filling her eyes. “Nothing happened, Rae. Vee said that she saw alookin your eyes, and that’s when she brought you to the office, plied you with goddess-only-knows-what kind of liquor, then sent for me. You didn’t betray him.”
“Not in that way,”The words remained unspoken between them, but Auraelia read them in her friend’s gaze. Felt them in the heaviness of her heart.
Auraelia’s lips turned inward as she nodded to her friend, then returned to the shower.
She washed quickly, not wanting to freeze in her shower before freezing on the training pitch. After conjuring a warm breeze to dry her hair, she let her mind wander as her lady’s maids readied her for the day.
Piper hadn’t been too far off in her assessment from the morning.
Ser Aeron had run her through the paces until she was on her hands and knees, dry heaving over the cold hard ground.
The sun had long since moved from its high peak in the sky, now heading toward the looming horizon, and still, the sound of metal crashing together filled the air around the training pitch. Mud squelched beneath Auraelia’s boots as she spun to parry yet another attack from Xander while keeping an eye on Ser Aeron at her back.
Channeling her magic, she pushed a gust of wind toward Xander in an attempt to move him away from her, but he’d thrown up a shield. Their clash of magics had the air funneling around the shimmering dome.
“What’s wrong, brother?” Auraelia tried to keep the exhaustion out of her tone as she spoke. “Scared of a littlebreeze?”
Whirling around, she wove streaks of lightning tightly together in a makeshift shield. One that not even Ser Aeron wanted to go near.
Xander, just as winded as she was, smirked. “Wind? No. The sparkly ribbons of death that are currently twining around your forearms? Absolutely. I already had to cut my hair because of you.”
