“I am happy to serve my queen as she requires,” he said, shifting his weight away from the woman.
Before he could withdraw, she clasped his hand in her talon-like grip.
“It’s just so horrible what these rebels are doing! I heard whispers of their plans to move east. It’s positively terrifying. Our queen is lucky to have a soldier as brave as you,” she swooned.
“You are too kind—” Araes began.
“I don’t believe you’ll find the lieutenant anywhere near your marital bed, Lady Elsbeth, so spare us the secondhand embarrassment by ceasing your futile flirtation,” Tethys warned before he could finish his polite rejection.
Lady Elsbeth’s cheeks purpled as she snapped her mouth shut. Araes drew in a silent breath and composed himself amidst the heavy abrupt silence.
“Of course, my queen,” Lady Elsbeth said, dipping her chin. The women hurriedly resumed their chatter and every so often giggled and smirked at one another.
What surprised Araes, however, was the curtain of invisibility that seemed to cloak Tethys in her seat at the table. It was like a wall, separating the goddess from the other women. He watched her grimace as her ladies continued time and time again to exclude her in theirpolite conversations or scandalous whispering of gossip. He knew, just as he would secure his brass helmet before battle, the unrelenting disgust curled on the goddess’s gorgeous little lip was her protection.
What resided under that shield?
That question was an itch desperate to be scratched. Her metamorphosis into this shell of noble vanity was impressive, but in this moment where she sat entirely ignored, entirely excluded, he realized that it was just that—a shell.A shield.
The lieutenant made the mistake of glancing across the long table and the goddess’s amber eyes met his, trapping him in their intensity. Their immortal glitter of dawn’s light held him captive. They drained him of all sensation. The wriggling tendrils of aether in her depthless golden irises tantalized him entirely.
He swallowed hard, feeling his stomach turn.
It wasn’t anger or hatred that he found in her beautiful stare. No, it was something far more striking. Far more familiar.
It was loneliness.
Chapter 17
The last candle had long since burnt out in the slumbering manor’s sconces. The only sounds escaping into the heavy onset of silence were the occasional scurry of a field mouse who’d infiltrated the smallest exterior crack, or the shift and groan of the foundation in which the home sat.
Tethys listened to the tick of the grandfather clock below as she stared at the same green mural above her bed. She’d counted every leaf on its vine at least three times over, impatiently awaiting the clock’s chime. Finally, its brassy tones alerted her of the midnight hour.
As quiet as air, she flicked off the silky duvet and tiptoed to the armoire opposite her bed. The heavy door let out a creak of defiance as she slowly pulled the handle. In reality, not a soul would expect her out of bed at this hour. However, the risk of being caught heightened her anxiety over the sound enough to make her forehead dewy.
She hastily threw on a lilac shift with matching velvet cloak, not bothering with its buttons, and stepped into apair of leather sandals. With her golden curls piled atop her head, she softly clicked her bedchamber doors and started down the unlit hall.
The grand staircase’s pearly bannister glistened in the moonlight that showed through the rounded crystal windows. With a quiet urgency, Tethys scanned the shadowy hall once more and slipped out the manor’s front door.
The crunch of gravel beneath her feet made her quicken her pace. She was exposed now that she’d made it outside. There was nowhere to hide if needed as she sped down the manor’s drive. If she could just make it to the road that’d lead her up to Antares, then she’d be safe.
Crickets chirped as her heart pounded so violently she felt its beat in the corner of her jaw. She raced further, further, further down the drive. Her sandals, although still dainty, were much more conducive to movement than those wretched slippers her handmaidens insisted she wore. Her shift fell loose around the curves of her abdomen. She could breathe without the restriction of a boned bodice. A tendril of blonde hair, now luminous in the moonlight, loosed and fell across her brow. This was who she wished she could be.
A woman free to embark on moonlit escapades as she pleased.
A woman with a fire in her heart that burned her throat as she slipped silently past the long since extinguished lamppost.
The horror of last night’s nightmare faded away and the weight of her world lifted just enough for that withering head of hers to color back to life.
“I was beginning to think you had been caught,” Jaide said, grinning widely as she turned to face Tethys. Her hair was braided and now hung loosely down her shoulders, stopping just above her hips. It seemed that Tethys wasn’t the only one of the pair that’d taken extra liberties withher appearance.
“I had to wait until that brute of a lieutenant retired for the night. I swear, Jaide, if I have to endure this for much longer…” Tethys trailed off, thinking of Araes sleeping peacefully in the spare bedchamber across from hers.
“Brute he may be, but gods that man has a great ass. I’m almost jealous.” Jaide chuckled, grasping Tethys’s hand and leading her down the sidewalk. Tethys snorted in response and the pair hurriedly followed the road up to Antares, through the working district, and past the merchant markets.
The city, in its slumber, was enchanted with an eeriness that crept down the curve of Tethys’s back. She loved how free it felt to roam these empty cobblestone streets, but she didn’t gaze too long into the dark alleys or whispering shadows.
“So, tell me about your travels before we get there. How was Canissa?” Jaide asked, peering at her friend as they matched each other’s stride.
