“Well, daenae let that perception change. I am,” he said without thinking. He stepped closer, felt the line between caution and heat, and walked to it anyway. “Just in another way.”
Her face flushed. Her lips parted as if to answer, then pressed together. For a second, the market faded, and there was only that look.
Alex heard himself say, too low, too sure, “Do ye want to see what kind of beast I am, Erica?”
For a beat, there was nothing but silence and lowered inhibitions. The flush on Erica’s face, the way she swallowed as he moved even closer. Everything felt too close. Too tight.
Sense returned, and he stepped back at once. The line held.
He cleared his throat. “Shall we keep moving?”
“Aye,” she said, too quickly.
They passed a cheese stall, and for a minute, Alex let himself bask in the scent of cream. In another world, perhaps a perfect one, this would have been a great trip to take with theladyof the castle.
Would that not be something?
The square felt narrower. He could not give a reason for it. He recalled the stallkeeper’s words and laid them over the press of bodies. He couldn’t get the cloaked intruder out of his mind ever since he had heard about him.
He lifted his eye to the high places, like the balcony or the nearest stall to the woods, which was usually empty. Nothing there.
“I am guessing yer braither wasnae exactly the type of man who liked to do what he was told.”
“Oh, ye daenae ken half of it. He doesnae ken how to sit still.”
Alex shifted his stance so he was slightly between Erica and the thickest part of the crowd. He kept his tone mild, so she would not stiffen. “What did he do when someone tried to tell him to sit still?”
“Climbed higher,” she replied. “Made a show of it. Then came down when he was done.”
He nodded. “Sounds like a man ye will need a rope for.”
“Aye,” she said, and tried to smile. “I would settle for a letter.”
“Ye will have one,” he said.
She folded the small paper cone and tapped a sugared nut into his palm. “Taste.”
He did. Too sweet. He did not say so. “Nae bad.”
“Liar,” she scoffed.
He let himself grin a little. “Aye. Nae good either.”
She laughed, honest and quick. It hit him harder than he meant to let it.
He wanted to keep it going. He wanted to give her more small things she could set between her teeth and call a day well-lived. He kept his mouth shut instead and watched the flow.
Bodies pressed from all sides. Heat rose from the stone floors, and voices tangled till words lost their edges. Erica kept her hand on the apple she had bought from the stall a few steps back, Alex’s arm wrapped around her waist so he would not lose her in the swell.
Then it happened.
Someone hit her hard.
Her shoulder jolted, and the apple flew out of her hand. Shock crossed her face, but before she could even gasp or scream for help, a hand caught her wrist. Fingers pressed something into her palm and closed tight for a heartbeat. A breath brushed her ear.
“‘Tis for ye, me Lady.”
The low whisper sent chills down her spine, but the voice disappeared the minute it came.
