He creeps into the shadows as the door opens all the way to admit his mother-in-law.
“Are you hungry, Mother?” Arisanna asks. If she’s wondering where he is, she hasn’t let on.
“My stomach is too anxious for food right now, but thank you. Are you well? You look as carefree as a bird with your wild hair and that...dress.”
Cerian frowns. What’s wrong with her dress? She looks gorgeous in it. His hands warm as he pictures the way it hugs her in all the right places, and his plant magic prods him to let it search for her. To run a vine the length of her perfect leg. Few plant wielders can feel things with their magic. Not even Mother can.
Cerian can, though. When he wants to.
A tiny shoot sprouts from the side of the wardrobe, and he shakes his head, shoving it back.
That’s not helpful right now.
It’s usually difficult to draw life from dead wood, but his magic is eager enough today to make it happen.
At least he doesn’t have to worry about his plant magic setting anyone on fire.
“The dress was a gift from the Lothlesi people,” Arisanna says. “And Cerian likes my hair this way.”
He stills in the shadows. Did he tell her that, or are his feelings that obvious?
More to the point, why is she telling her mother that?
“And he treats you well?” the queen asks, her voice quiet. “He is...gentle?”
Gentle?
“Stars above, Mother.”
“I am merely concerned about your well-being. Marriage is an adjustment in the best of circumstances. With a stranger of the prince’s disposition—”
“He has the gentlest soul, Mother.”
“And you are adjusting to...everything expected of you?”
All this talk of expectations. No wonder Arisanna is full of fears about not meeting them.
What sort of expectations does the queen imagine have been placed on Arisanna in Lostariel?
“Cerian expects nothing, Mother. He truly is wonderful.”
His heart warms at her words. She’s the wonderful one.
“No expectations?” the queen says. “Have you not—”
“Mother!”
“Marriage alliances are expected to be consummated, Arisanna.”
Cerian tenses in the shadow of the wardrobe. Whistling wind. Is that what they’re discussing?
He should have climbed out the window when he had the chance.
“I never said it hadn’t been,” Arisanna says. “Can we please discuss something else?”
She can’t talk about it. It happened in the heartlanding. Perhaps that’s a mercy in disguise.
Does she not realize he’s here, though?
