No man who was indifferent about his bride would be so tortured at the notion of losing her.
Fears faded. We would always be an alliance to the outside, but in this moment, I dared hope that we were falling deeper into something more.
Chapter 31
The Nightmare Prince
I liftedone of the books from the trunk Raum and Lynx stole from Skadi the day of our arrival.
A night of nightmares, recovering from fevers, and a hunt through a storm put us days behind. There was a bit of guilt from watching Skadi re-read tomes or wander about the royal study looking for anything more entertaining than alver lines and mesmer histories.
I inspected one of the colorful elven books, red leather with gold lettering and pastel paintings inside. “She brought more of these tales than she did gowns.”
“I respect that,” Sander said, adding a bit of white stain to a chip in one of the shelves.
The corner of my mouth twitched, recalling how long I listened to the gentle whisper of her voice while she read of the elven king and the fair maiden bride. A tale of cruel hearts being soothed by the goodness of love.
In the end, the maiden gave her life for her king before her own people could destroy him. Lost in grief, he offered his heartsblood to the land and from the soil sprouted a tree with golden leaves, the shade of his lover’s hair.
An everlasting symbol of the woman he loved, the king was buried under its leaves when he went to find her in the Otherworld.
Skadi had hugged the book to her breast when she finished the story last night, a whimsical smile on her face. I was captivated in her passion, but had no retort other than she read me a damn tragedy and I wanted the ending changed.
“It is about true love,” she said. “The tree roots ran so deep in his kingdom, it would never fall, and they lived together in the gods’ hall.”
I kissed the tip of her nose. “I would’ve preferred she tell her people to go to the hells instead of being a martyr, that’s all I’m saying.”
Skadi had rolled her eyes and nestled against my chest. “Maybe she should’ve, but it was still a declaration of her love, you snob.”
Von cursed, tripping over a stack of books, and drew me back to the present moment. “Remind me again why you had me drag half of Nik’s library here?”
“First, Nik has a ridiculously expansive library and won’t miss them. Second, she didn’t bring enough to fill the shelves. Thought maybe she’d like to read a few more fae tales from the dregs.”
Von said nothing, simply pinched his mouth tight and shared a stupidly sly look with Sander.
“What?” I offered a narrow gaze. “You think she’ll despise it, don’t you? Gods, I ought to have thought of something more tangible. Bloodsinger gives Liv jewelry. Daj gives Maj notes.” I slumped in a chair, tossing the book back into the pile. “My gift is a mountain of fables.”
Sander and Von didn’t return to their secret glances. The bastards merely burst out in laughter, like I’d told some grand jest I didn’t even know.
Damn sods.
Another hand cuffed the back of my head.
“Godsdammit, does everyone in this kingdom strike the royals?” I spun around as two men brought in another trunk. “Isak. I expected it of Fiske, but not you.”
“You’ll survive. This is h-heavy, m-m-my sobbing p-prince.” Isak’s red hair was braided and smoothed tonight, not the typical mess from his cowl.
Fiske peered over the top of the trunk, his dark eyes pinned on me. “We’ll just drop it here.”
Sander protested, insisting it could damage the books, and joined in lowering it to the wide, blue rug.
“Good man.” I pressed a hand on Fiske’s muscular back. “This is the last one?”
“Yes.” He stretched one arm across his chest. “And a certain elven princess has been asking around for a certain prince.”
“You told her I’d be along shortly, right?” Sander said without a pause.
“She would never seek you out over me.” I palmed his face and shoved him to the side, stomach in knots. “Let’s get these put up, and I guess we’ll see if I know what the hells I’m doing.”
