“There’s honestly not much to tell, Your Majesty,” She said, pushing a strand of candy-pink hair behind her ear.
“That can’t be true. And please, call me Az.” I sighed tiredly, leaning back on my elbows on the blanket. “Titles get old quickly, and I’m looking to find someone I can be myself with, as well as the king.” It was probably more honest than I should have been—especially to this particular lady.
She looked down for a moment, and I wished I knew what she was thinking, but when she looked back up, her pink orbs locked me in place. She rearranged herself so she was lying on her stomach beside me, her chin on her fist as her eyes twinkled up at me.
“Tell me about yourself first, then.” She all but demanded in return, her eyebrow rising in challenge. I huffed a small laugh, reaching over for my glass and quickly downing a gulp of champagne.
“I’ve always known this day would come,” I told her, my eyes scanning the horizon as I considered what I’d gotten myself into with this competition. “But I had wanted to put it off for as long as possible. I had no interest in being fought over like dogs over a bone.”
“What changed your mind then?” she asked quietly, her posture shifting until she was on her side, and I found myself rolling to face her head-on. We were closer now than propriety allowed, but neither of us seemed to mind. I knew I shouldn’t, but something about her made me want to get closer, like a whisper at the back of my mind urging me on even when the rest of it told me to stop.
“I’m sure you’re aware that my brother, Gardevoir, recently died?” I asked mournfully, and she nodded silently. Her eyes spoke of an understanding of grief that was deeper than anything I’d gotten out of her yet. I couldn’t help but wonder who she’d lost to affect her so strongly.
I let myself feel that grief, stew in the loss and the pain, before I forced it down once more. My responsibilities didn’t allow me the time I wished to mourn, not when Ruri might be at risk too. Losing one brother was unacceptable, but losing both would be catastrophic.
“It left us too vulnerable. Ruri is my only heir now, and everyone wants to ensure the royal family is secure.” I scoffed, shaking my head. I was surprised to feel her hand close around mine, where I gripped the glass’s stem to the point of cracking. She loosened my fingers around it and then replaced it with her own hand, twining our fingers together.
“I’m sorry,” she said quietly,earnestly. “No one should be made to endure this circus while in mourning. Everyone deserves the space to grieve properly.”
I took a heavy breath, appreciating the words more than any of the other banal platitudes or fake understanding I’d received thus far. “But as the high king, I can’t afford to.”
“Well, maybe here you can.” She suggested, her free arm swinging wide to indicate the empty space around us. “I’ve lost much in my life.” Her voice wavered, and her hand tightened almost to the point of pain around my own. “And I feel their loss every day. It’s what gets me up in the morning and what puts me to sleep at night. I live and breathe that grief.”
“Ah,” I said, a slight smirk growing as I teased her lightly, that shared understanding giving me the confidence that it would be accepted. “So, I bury my grief, and you revel in yours? What a healthy pair we are, huh?” She scoffed, rolling her eyes at me, and I couldn’t help laughing softly.
“How can you stand to feel that grief so often?” I asked her after a moment, honestly baffled. I had to ignore it, or it would consume me, and I didn’t have the luxury of losing myself in my position. She looked out at the geyser going off beside us, avoiding my eyes for a moment. When they met mine again, there was a fire in them that made me much too intrigued.
“I refuse to forget. To let their memory fade into the winds of time like they meant nothing.” Her voice was tense, weighed with something I couldn’t quite understand. “But one day…” she sighed, trailing off for a moment, and her eyes skittered away from mine. “One day, I will be able to lay those ghosts to rest.”
“And when will that be?” I encouraged her to speak more, wanting to know what drove this woman, but she smirked slowly, shaking her head at me.
“I’ll know it when I see it.” Was all she said. Her enigmatic answer made me want to push for more answers, but I could tell she was finished speaking on it.
We both drank and ate for a few moments, enjoying a comfortable silence, before she looked up at me with a curious expression.
“So, what do you do when you’re not attending to your kingly duties?” Her voice was slightly teasing. “Surely it’s not all proclamations and parties with women fighting over you.”
I laughed in response, my head falling forward before I got myself together. “I spend time with my friends: Balthazar, Emrys, Alfrikr, Arianell, Brokk, and Alwyn. My brother Ruri, when he’s home from the academy. I take care of my mother as best I can since my father passed. I spend a good deal of time with my friends in the training yard, and when I can, I try to attend the gamesput on in the arena. But most of my time is unfortunately taken up with my kingly duties.”
She hummed, bringing my attention to her lips as she sipped her champagne delicately. Her tongue swooped over her bottom lip to catch a rouge drop, making me lick my own unconsciously.
“And plenty of women, I imagine.” She stated, raising a brow at me playfully.
“Well, I have been quite single.” I lifted my own eyebrow back at her. “Have you been waiting for marriage?” I asked her, knowing some of the ladies had been forced to, but thankfully, and especially for me, not all of them kept to the practice anymore. Another antiquated tradition of court that was thankfully fading away.
Jacinth snorted, looking amused, “That would be a travesty.” I couldn’t help my firm nod of agreement as my eyes ran over her. She had a body that was meant to be enjoyed and appreciated. To prevent her from reaping those rewards would be a crime. If I didn’t have the intrigues of court to consider, I would have already been doing my best to divest her from that horribly tantalizing corset.
“I’m surprised Lord Carnelian let you get away with it, to be honest. He’s quite the traditionalist,” I confessed to her, hoping to get some insight into her thoughts regarding her cousin. I’d been too distracted by her pouty lips and large doe eyes. I couldn’t prove Ruri right; I had to keep on task and work on getting some real information.
“That’s one way to put it.” She laughed musically. “But there are plenty of ways to get what one wants beneath his notice. He doesn’t really bother himself with me.”
“No?” I asked, hoping a leading question would get her to spill more. So far, the relationship between her and Carnelian was confounding, and I needed to unravel the truth of it. That urge to scrape and claw until the truth revealed itself was pumping inside me like it was on overdrive. “I would think, as the only female of his blood, you would have been cloistered away.”
She sighed, looking down at her drink as she swirled it. “In a way, yes, but Lord Carnelian only cares about himself. His heir is much the same in that regard. It’s easy enough to get away with murder without them noticing a thing.”
“And how many murders have you hidden that I should be aware of, Mini-Dite?” I laughed as her cheeks turned as pink as her eyes.
“Probably less than you, Veri,” She countered, sticking her tongue out at me, shocking me. I couldn’t remember the last time someone had done that to me.Manyyears ago, certainly.
