She ripped it back. “I don’t need your pity. My brother signed off on our marriage, and you should be grateful he did. If my brother’s actions did not speak loud enough for him then his silence now has. He believes I’m not good enough to be his alchemist. Congratulations, that means I’m yours. I’m not going to waste my time on someone who doesn’t have faith in my skills. I’m going to focus on the ones who do believe in me. You.”
Taiyo’s hand hovered in the space between them. His eyes were locked onto hers. The same question burned in his eyes and so much more. The sort of things Hellebore had no experience with and had no intention of dealing with.
So, she brushed off her skirt and started for the door. “And on that note, that means I should go to bed so I can resume my work in the morning and have that letter for you to approve of.”
As she went back to her room, Taiyo’s eyes burned a hole in her back. She paused in the doorway and looked back, nodding at the bottle. “By the way, if that’s not working for you, and you actually want to sleep, let me know.”
Taiyo whispered, his voice coming out rougher and more raw than before, “And why would you care about me sleeping?”
“Maybe I’m just trying to keep you guessing.”
“Hellebore.”
She sighed like he was physically dragging it out of her. “I’m your alchemist. That’s what we do. Serve and take care of our kings. It’s got nothing to do with you or me. I’m just doing what I’ve been raised to do.”
“I’m your husband.”
“Not in any way that matters. Goodnight.”
The reason she’d taken no offense to his continued distrust in her and any message she might send to her aunt? Well…
Hellebore only had one night to figure out how she was going to encrypt her real message to Aunt Palladia right under Taiyo’s nose.
Whatever had happened between them twenty-five years ago, Hellebore was going to find out.
Chapter 13
Three weeks after Taiyo had signed off on Hellebore’s letter, not even a hint of suspicion there might be more to it than met the eye, she received a response.
Although, said response so far appeared to simply be the fulfillment of the surface level request Hellebore had made for a few pieces of equipment and her research at the academy. If Taiyo hadn’t thrown her over his shoulder and run off with her, she could have had this material months ago to work with.
Hellebore reached her room, Elaine on her heels, to see the door open and Phoebe directing the male servants where to place the crates. Hellebore quickly took over, practically chasing the elves out of the room as soon as all the crates were delivered. All but the one who appeared in the doorframe as Phoebe and Elaine were shooed out.
“I didn’t realize you’d collected this much research in your time at the academy,” Taiyo said, leaning against the frame and eyeing the crates that were all packed full of her notebooks and textbooks.
Hellebore knelt beside the first crate and started pulling out the textbooks in it. She looked over her shoulder at him. “I stayed busy. Only some of this is my research into types of plantrot. I spent a few years focusing on creating a new formula to change the makeup of steel into something more malleable. I only succeeded in shortening the formula by a few letters, so better but not the true efficiency I wanted in order to make it easier to manipulate an opponent’s weapon in combat.”
What a waste of two years that project had been.
But Taiyo was staring at her with that strange look again, like she was a foreign beast he’d never seen before.
It sent a rush up her spine and a flare of heat to her cheeks, and she didn’t like that. She turned back to the crates, but she saw no letter tucked amongst them. Had her aunt not realized Hellebore had also written in code?
She must have taken the letter at face value. Or Hellebore’s father had forbidden Aunt Palladia from including any kind of response. Aunt Palladia usually didn’t let her brother have much say over her actions, but this was uncharted territory for all of them. She might have withheld a response in order to protect Hellebore from incurring Taiyo’s ire in case he was reading her mail before giving it to her.
“I… I need to get back to work. The Moon Elves have been spotted at our borders again, and while it’s not new, it’s still a massive headache to deal with them and their king. I’ll see you tonight for dinner,” Taiyo said, moving to shut the door. “Let me know if you come across anything significant.”
She waved him off, already trying to sort through the mess whoever had packed the crates had made of her organizational system. Eventually, she finally found her most recent notebook containing a substantial amount of her work in rot.
Hellebore was still on the ground, leaning against the crates as she flipped through her drawings of her dying plants back at the academy. She was halfway through it when an envelope fell out of the pages.
She should have known better than to doubt her aunt.
Hellebore glanced around, but Taiyo was long gone.
Really, Hellebore hadn’t asked for much. Hellebore wanted her aunt’s version of the story of what had happened between them since Taiyo was in no hurry to tell her. Or Haruko was still convincing him not to tell her, if she was correct in assuming the conversation she’d overheard had to do with whatever had happened between him and her aunt.
Hellebore eagerly opened it up, but the handwriting wasn’t her aunt’s. It was more masculine, and Hellebore couldn’t place it.
