The warrior eyed the giantess like he was looking for a fight but eventually deflated. Word got around. Diaz banished anyone who brawled in the tavern.
For life.
The warrior wasn’t about to risk his only escape from war and the camp.
If he was smart.
The warrior nodded and stood slowly, making sure not to jostle the table. Lia watched as he collected his cloak and left, not even slamming the door on his way out.
“Did the counter do something to you?” Jaiix asked, leaning her elbow on the bar, her cheek in her hand.
“No,” Dahlia huffed and set down her rag.
“You’ve been cleaning everything you could find this week.” Jaiix’s slim nose wrinkled.
“It’s my job.”
Kind of.
She was supposed to serve the patrons, too, but she’d been giving Jaiix most of those tasks and taking the undesirable ones. It wasn’t just the fact that she wanted to stay unnoticed, but also because tensions between Loriians, halflings, and humans were at an all-time high. Jaiix’s pretty smile was enough for most to forget her heritage, but Lia looked too human. Even with her dyed hair and skin.
“Your admirer is here again,” Jaiix said, bumping her hip into Lia’s.
Dahlia glanced at Felix and felt a blush rise to her cheeks when he caught her gaze and smiled.
Good lord. Not what she needed.
“He needs a refill, and I’m not doing it,” Jaiix chirped in a singsong voice as she backed away with a wink.
Lia filled a cup with a ladle of steaming mulled wine before she picked her way through the crowd. Sweat dripped down the back of her neck from the hostile looks thrown her way as well from the heat. There were too many warm bodies packed inside.
Finally reaching Felix’s table near the small stage at the front of the building, she set his wine down. He gave her a warm smile that lifted her own lips in return. The man was just too nice. “Anything else?” she asked, ignoring the stares from his companions.
“No.”
“Okay.” She took a step away, but he caught her hand. Lia froze. That was the first time he’d ever touched her in the tavern. She braced for the tug that would put her in his lap, but it never came. Instead, he turned her palm over and touched the recently healed skin.
“How have you been recovering?” he asked, releasing her hand.
“I’m alright. Just a few scrapes and a knock to the head.” She pulled a face that made his smile widen. “What about you? How is your back?” Lia genuinely meant it. He’d taken so many injuries to protect her.
He shrugged out of his sleeveless robe and turned so she could see his bare back. Dahlia’s eyes heated at all the stitches and healing wounds. Ones he’d taken to protect her. Without a doubt, she could have died from such injuries.
Her bottom lip wobbled, and Lia bit it.
“It’s healing up nicely, I’d say,” Felix replied, shrugging his robe back on before glancing at her again. His eyes rounded. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“I’m so sorry for your pain.” Lia leaned down and kissed his warm cheek before she could think twice about it. “Jiaell vei.” Thank you.
Her face heated when he blushed, flashing a crooked fangy smile. “It is just a few stitches,valles.Nothing more.” He reached out and squeezed her hand. “Think nothing more of it.”
Humble words from a sincere man. Lia could see what her life could have been if she had stayed in the border towns insteadof traveling with the theater troupe. She would have met a nice giant like Felix and maybe started a family herself.
But she was not a nice girl.
She was a bard masquerading as a queen, now turned traitor to two nations.
There would be no happily ever after for her.
