His features softened slightly as if grateful I was willing to receivehim. The leather chair creaked slightly under his weight as he got comfortable.
“How are you doing, my dear?” he asked with softness in his voice but concern in his eyes.
“I’m okay.”
His left eyebrow cocked up in accusation, but he let silence reign.
We sat there for several moments before my swirling thoughts had me releasing a sigh and looking over my shoulder toward a prone Tarrin. “I’m just worried, is all,” I finally admitted.
“I understand, but Myron says he should wake any day now.”
My hands fisted in the fabric of my flowing skirt as I fixed my gaze on them. “I know,” I said, choking on the next words—the ones I’d only thought, and even then, had tried quelling in their infancy only for them to continue to grow as the hours and days passed. “I want him to wake up, I do.” I threw a pleading look Caius’ way. “It’s just…”
“It’s just what will you learn once he does,” the High Lord said, finishing my thought.
I nodded, my chest constricting from the shame of my fear and the fear of the truth. “Yes,” I rasped, Caius’ form now blurred through watery eyes.
He stood and offered me a hand. “Why don’t we get some fresh air? I know just the place.”
Wiping my eyes dry, I looked up at him, then his hand, then back to him.
As if understanding the silent question I hadn’t realized I’d asked, he said, “The wards have been changed so we can valen directly in and out of this suite out of convenience for everyone.”
Nodding, I stood and slipped my hand into his. A heartbeat later, he valenned us away.
Soft, fluffy clouds lazily meandered across the otherwise blue sky, and I somehow knew instantly that we were no longer in the Summer Court. Retrieving my hand back, I slowly spun around in stunned silence at the beauty I beheld.
No matter which way I turned, I was greeted by untidy stacked rows of tiny pink blossom trees that swallowed the horizon. Stepping further into their depths, the pink canopy blotted out the sky, and I couldn’t help but marvel at how the tree branches seemed to reach for one another, like hands desperate to entwine as if they weren’t whole unless they were connected.
For the first time in days, my power hummed as if contented. Taking in a deep breath, the soft sweetness of the blossoms tickled my senses in all the right ways. I closed my eyes and reveled in it for a few breaths.
Caius stepped beside me, and I looked at him, his sharp features oddly softened by the pink canopy, and in that instant, I knew exactly where we were.
“This is the Spring Court,” I breathed in reverence.
The High Lord closed his eyes and took in a long, deep breath of his own before nodding. “Of all the places I’ve seen in Lumnara, this one is my favorite,” he said, opening his eyes and dragging his gaze toward mine. His power, raw and unbridled, didn’t belong in this place of delicate beauty, like somehow his mere existence could accidentally harm it. Perhaps that’s why he loved it so much. It was a place he could be softer in a world that had forced him to be hard.
“I can understand why,” I said in earnest.
Caius clasped his hands behind his back, looking at ease as he took slow strides forward that were so nonchalant they bordered on a saunter. I meandered next to him, feeling more contented than I had in a long while.
“It really is beautiful, Caius. Thank you for sharing it with me.”
“It’s my pleasure. I know how important nature is to you, how it helps soothe what you’ve been through—are going through—if even only for a moment.”
I nodded. “Yeah, it’s been a lot. Almost too much,” I admitted.
“I know, and I’m sorry that Artton added to it.”
I stopped mid stride, and he did the same, shifting his focustoward me. Brow raised, I said, “As in you’re sorryhowArtton asked for me to show my memory, orthathe asked?”
“How,” he said, tone even.
I crossed my arms. “So, what?” I demanded, gesturing around us. “This is your way of softening me so that I’ll finally say yes?”
“No. This is my way of helping you gain perspective?”
“And exactly whose perspective would that be, Caius? Yours?”
