I grunted and rubbed at my stomach, the ache there not lessening. Ever since I’d eaten the ovary of the flower last night, my stomach had been restless. I was hoping that wasn’t a bad omen.
“Come now. I want to get my purchase done, so I might lie down for a bit.” My stomach plagued me again…for perhaps the hundredth time today. “Mayhap, I need to use the facilities, too?”
Caspian snorted. “Don’t go into the bakery. That bathroom is horrendous.”
“Because of the baker.” I nodded in agreement.
That man was a filthy rat. Actually…rats were cleaner.
“That really doesn’t bode well for his goods, does it?”
“No, it does not.” I chuckled under my breath. “Do you want to tell him, or shall we leave it up to our king?”
My cousin’s snicker went well with mine. “It seems like a kingly issue to me.”
“Quite so.” I waggled my finger to the right, where the merchants from other kingdoms had set up their booths for the day. “That’s where we need to go.”
“Whatarewe shopping for this time? And there, of all places. You know you should be spending your coin with our own people.”
I messed with my disguise again and mumbled softly, “A ring.”
Caspian was quiet for a long moment before he tripped over his own feet as we trekked down the grassy knoll, his groan long and heavy with understanding.
“Hush you.” My sigh wasprofound. “I understand how this looks. You don’t need to say anything.”
“He already has a bloody ring for that.”
“I know.” I cleared my throat. Then I spoke quickly to alleviate my embarrassment, “But-it’s-not-my-ring.”
My cousin cast a long look in my direction, his intelligent eyes not missing much. “Oh.”
A damnable blush stole across my cheeks, completing my utter humiliation on the matter.
He took his dark blue eyes off me and started rubbing his fingers deep into his forehead. “This is even worse than I thought.”Morerubbing. “And believe me, what I was already thinking was bad before.”
There was no need to lie at this point. “Unfortunately, you are correct.”
Caspian dropped his hand from his forehead and hissed his accusation, “Youlikethat beast.”
“Well…I wouldn’t go that far.” But my chest heaved with the acknowledgement of my detestable condition. This was a sad, sad day for the history of the Elf Kingdom. “Do I like what happens in the bedroom? Yes. But do I like the man? No. And still, am I possessive of him? Yes. And, most importantly, can he be trusted? Fuck no. It’s not an ideal circumstance any way you look at it.”
Understatement.Death this way comes…
“And yet, here we are. Buying a new caster-spelled ring for the bastard, so you may put your stamp all over his furry ass.”
I scratched at my chin. Then…I shrugged.
That was about the truth of it.
He moaned, “I don’t know if I can watch this.”
“Then go elsewhere. No one’s going to attack me here.” I shooed at him as we stopped at the edge of the booths. “I can handle myself.”
Caspian rolled his eyes. “I’m not going anywhere. Let us be done with this.”
Another weighty sigh escaped me, but I merely rubbed at my aching stomach before marching along to find the correct booth, enjoying the haggling and boisterous shouts of patrons and merchants alike. It was always a lively affair when the people of five kingdoms were in one place, just one step shy of catastrophe. The only reason they didn’t jump over that edge of complete civility was because of the narrow-eyed elf sentinels wearing red and keeping watch over the market, ready to detain the outsiders should this sectioned-off area become perilous to our people.
Weaving through the raucous crowd kept me and Caspian close, my cousin miraculously managing to keep anyone from touching me, and then, a caster jewelry booth came into view. I stopped and breathed for a long moment. I’d always wondered what this day would be like for me. To anyone else, it would have been full of elf joy and lovely dreams and sparkling rainbows.
