“With my personal guard? Who else am I supposed to go out with?” she cut in.
“Me,”he growled, somehow stepping closer.
Until her hands landed on his chest, shoving hard. He was far stronger than her, but he was clearly so taken aback by her willingly touching him that he shuffled back a few steps.
“You had responsibilities to tend to,” she said. “Youwere unavailable.”
“You should have been at the meeting with me, Kailia,” he retorted, beginning to pace in his fury. “You said you were feeling ill.”
“I was feeling better,” she bit back, lifting her chin.
He huffed a humorless laugh. “You were lying, tiny fiend. I’m no fool.”
“That’s debatable.”
He paused mid-step, turning to face her fully. “Even if it had been true, you should have waited for me. Where did you even go?”
She rolled her eyes, moving past him. He followed as she made her way down the hall, these godsdamn boots clicking with each footfall. “He took me into the city to see the traveling merchants. Then we got some food.”
“There’s plenty of food here.”
Perching on the edge of the bed, she unbuckled her boots as she said, “Is your plan to keep me locked in this castle unless you are at my side?”
“What if it is?” he countered.
“It will appear to your kingdom that you do not trust your wife,” she said, standing and tossing the boots aside before unclasping the cloak. “That won’t seem veryconvincingnow, will it?”
Cethin cursed under his breath, running a hand down his face. With obvious restraint, his words were clipped and measured as he said, “Our betrothal has not even been publicly announced yet.”
“You are the king. Can you not announce it whenever you wish?”
His eyes fell closed for a few seconds in obvious frustration. “Yes, Kailia. I can.”
“Then I believe you are the problem here.”
“Fucking Arius,” he muttered.
“Besides, without that announcement, no one even knows who I am,” she went on. “Your reaction to all of this is very irrational.”
Cethin said nothing. He only turned and left the bedchamber. She followed, mainly because she was incredibly curious as to where he was going.
He found a liquor decanter, pouring a finger’s length of the alcohol and knocking it back before doing the same again. Then he turned to face her once more.
“The Beltane Hunt is with the next full moon.”
She blinked at the sudden change in subject. “I don’t know what that is.”
“An annual hunt in Shira Forest,” he said. “I’d like you to join us.”
“Who’s us?”
“There are several Hunts around the kingdom, but I go on one with the Cadre every year.”
“And what do we hunt?” she asked, drawing closer to him. Because she liked to hunt. She liked that a lot. The tracking and stalking. The studying of your surroundings and listening for your prey. The instincts and the intuition. Yes, she would like to attend this hunt very much.
He offered her a small smile, the anger simmering around him fading some. “Whatever we like, usually deer and small game, but you don’t have to hunt if you don’t want to. You can?—”
“I do want to hunt,” she interrupted. “But I’ll need my arrow back in order to do so.”
