Taking a bite of her roll, she tracked Razik as he filled the other plate before taking a seat, letting the silence linger. He seemed to enjoy the quiet as much as she did, but sometimes he forced her into conversation. Thankfully, today was not one of those days.
At least not until Cethin entered the room.
He came to a sudden halt, eyes narrowing on Razik, who had seemed surprised to see him here. But the shock was gone in the next blink, replaced with his usual apathy.
“What are you doing here?” Cethin asked, scanning the table. His lips thinned at finding Razik in his seat with his plate.
Razik took his time taking a drink of pomegranate juice before he answered with a lazy drawl and a pointed look at her. “My job.”
“There is no need to be in here,” Cethin said with all the command of the king he was.
But once again, Razik clearly didn’t appear to give two fucks. He remained seated, sprawled casually in his chair and eating one of the cinnamon rolls.
“Kailia and I have an agreement,” Razik said after a moment. “She doesn’t like being left alone on this entire floor, and I don’t like standing in the hall for hours on end. As the queen, she allows me to be in these rooms to do my job.”
Well, that wasn’t entirely true, Kailia thought to herself. She very much preferred solitude, but she had told him he could come into the rooms instead of standing in the hallway all day.
Cethin turned to her, the look on his face the portrait of frustrated annoyance, and for the life of her, she could not figure out the animosity between these two. If Cethin was questioning her experience with fucking, then she was questioning their aggressive denial of ever having been lovers.
“Kailia?” Cethin asked.
“What?” she replied, cutting off another piece of her roll with her fork.
“Is that true?”
“Why would he lie about that?” When Cethin only stared back at her, she added, “I find it odd you would assign a guard to me that you do not fully trust.”
“I don’t—” Cethin sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, and she could swear her own heartbeat was increasing at his stress. Which was strange and not at all logical. “We were planning a private breakfast this morning.”
“I was not part of that planning. Just informed of it,” she said. “That didn’t give me much time to give Razik notice.” She could swear Razik snickered under his breath, but she paid him no mind. “I also still don’t understand why.”
“Just…forget it,” Cethin sighed, reaching to slide some sausage to another platter before he filled the former plate with food. “You could have at least saved me a roll,” he muttered after a minute.
“As she already said, I wasn’t made aware you’d be joining us,” Razik said.
“Youjoinedus,” Cethin ground out between clenched teeth, taking the seat next to Kailia.
Razik shrugged. “Looks like you need to work on communication.”
Before Cethin could reply, Kailia said, “I would like to go to Shadowfen.”
Both males went silent, turning to stare at her.
“Why would you want to go there?” Razik asked after a long moment of silence.
“Because that is where I’m supposed to be from. I think it would be helpful if I’d actually been there,” she answered, pushing her plate back.
“She’s not wrong,” Razik said, glancing at Cethin.
“I know she’s not wrong,” he snapped. With an elbow planted on his armrest, he rubbed at his brow with his forefinger. “The problem is, few know of this…arrangement. We’d have to go alone. To Shadowfen.”
“I’m sure Razik can come with us,” Kailia said in confusion. “Or Tybalt. But he doesn’t like me, so I’d definitely prefer Razik.”
Cethin’s features pinched, as if those words pained him to hear. “My schedule is packed for the next few weeks.”
“I can take her,” Razik said simply. “It’s not like we have anything else to do.”
“I am amenable to that,” Kailia agreed. “Shall we go today?”
