“See?” he murmured, wrapping his arms around me in the mirror. “Beautiful.”
And I felt like it. The dress was flattering on my growing body. It was like I was wearing a garden of tiny flowers. I felt like a heroine in one of my own stories.
As I stared into the mirror, a sudden whispering of inspiration came. Of Kavelyn, walking through a field of wildflowers under the light of two full moons. She was looking for someone, her heart yearning. I saw the scene so clearly, the want on her face. She’d be looking for Jeb, naturally. The only person she’d ever loved. The one she’d given her heart to, even knowing that they could never be together. He’d told her to meet him there, that maybe they could have the one night where their rivalries, their worlds could fall away.
It was my first flash of inspiration in long weeks, andsuddenly I was hanging on to it with every piece of me, worried it might float away.
“I need my notebook,” I breathed.
Kaldur’s smile was soft—knowing, perhaps.
“I’ll show you where you can find it,” he told me, his words cryptic. And as he led me from the room, only stopping to tug on a black tunic, I couldn’t help but feel relief so bright it nearly brought tears to my eyes.
I had dreamed ofsomethingagain.
And that was a beautiful thing.
CHAPTER 43
KALDUR
“Where are we going?”
“You’ll see,” I replied to Erina, guiding her through the keep.
The East Wing afforded the best views of the gardens and the mountains beyond Vyaan. I thought that she would enjoy it there the most, even though it was farther from my own study. Selfishly, I had wanted to keep her close. But she was so attached to the garden, to the beauty of it, that I wanted her to be able to look at the window and see it when she was not there.
When we reached the door, she looked at me curiously. I merely grinned at her, feeling better than I had in a long time. Part of that reason was because I was excited to show her what was inside.
“Will you tell me why we’re here now?” she asked, a quizzical look on her face.
“I have a gift for you.”
“Another one?” she asked, blinking. I could see that the prospect pleased her, however. Erina Denoren hadn’t been given enough gifts in her life, I realized, but I intended to spoil her with them.
She looked childlike in her sudden curiosity, waiting for me to reveal it.
“Go inside,” I murmured, brushing my fingers across her cheek.
Iwaseager to see her reaction but also worried I might’ve gotten something wrong. I’d consulted with an artist in the village a couple days ago, who owned a shop along the row of the square, the one where Maudoric had informed me Erina visited often. The shopkeeper had only been too eager to help me.
Erina pressed down on the door handle before she swung it inward. She stepped inside while I hovered on the threshold.
Her back was turned to me so I couldn’t quite see her expression, except through a gilded mirror I’d had hung alongside the opposite wall, next to the wide window. And even in the mirror, I could only see half of her face.
I watched as slow realization dawned, her eyes slowly taking in the room as she deliberated over its purpose.
“Oh,” she breathed, astonishment crossing her face next. Her gaze began to flit around faster, her head swinging as if she didn’t know what to settle on. “Oh.”
The studio had turned out just as I’d imagined it. A brightly lit room, filtering in golden light from the dawn on that gentle morning. A large enough room so that it didn’t feel cramped in the slightest, with plenty of space to move around since I knew that Erina liked to pace when she was thinking something over for her stories. There was an unlit hearth to the right of the long room, the mantle decorated in fresh blooms. Straight ahead were three sets of windows that shot up a couple dozen feet in the cavernous room. The view beyond them was a perfect one of the gardens, every little vein of the pathways apparent. I could even see the tall hedges of the starwood courtyard from here and couldjustmake out what I knew Erina had dubbed the Orchard, where she’d stolen many bluestone fruits to nibble upon during her long afternoons there.
In front of the window lay a drafting table, one that could be adjusted to different angles.
“I’ve never…” Erina started, going to it, reaching out to touch it though her hand only hovered. “I never thought I’d…”
My chest twisted, and I rubbed at my heart over my tunic. I knew what went unspoken. She never thought she’d have one of her own.
She turned to look at me, a startled look of confusion still on her face. “What is this?”
