“We are entering Bloodstone, Madame,” the coachman called. I looked out the window to see the shining river that separated the cliffs of Hyton from the foothillsof Bloodstone.
The carriage jolted as we finished crossing the bridge and traveled on the dirt road again. After a few seconds, Riyan grumbled “Stop the carriage, I needa break.”
The carriage pulled off to the side and the footman eventually came to help me down the steps. Might as well stretch my legs, too. As soon as I put my shoe in the grass, I heard a rustling noise, bounding footsteps, and a loud splash. I walked around to the other side of the carriageto investigate.
First, I spotted Riyan’s crimson cape lying in the grass, then his shirt, then his boots, then his trousers until my eyes met the rippling shoreline of the vast Odeneye lake. The water was deep and dark, even in the afternoon sun, but I carefully walked over tothe shoreline.
Riyan came up from under the surface and rubbed the water out ofhis eyes.
“Much better,” Riyan sighed as he sank back intothe water.
I stepped onto a small grassy ledge over the water, careful not to stand too closely to the lake. “What do you think you are doing? We are supposed to begoing home!”
Riyan raised an eyebrow and cracked a wry smile. “Eager to go home? Well, things will be much better for you if I wash all the wineoff first.”
He disappeared into the water as my cheeks burned. When did hebecome so…forward?
“That is not what I meant!” I shouted at the rippling water. I waited for Riyan to resurface before I spoke again. “What I meant was that we have a limited time to get to Bloodstone Fortress before nightfall. We need to stick tothe plan!”
“We won’t make it before nightfall,” Riyan said lazily as he stretched back in the water. More of his chiseled body appeared from under the dark water, so I looked north and focused on some trees as he spoke. “You don’t know this about me yet, but I don’t stickto plans.”
“You are a soldier,” I argued, staring at the foggy peak of Nordingaard in the distance. “You have to followbattle plans!”
“All the more reason to hate restrictive planning. Plans can’t fail if you never follow them in thefirst place.”
Another splash and then silence. I dared glance back over to the rippling surface of the water that glimmered in the sunlight as Riyan swam in its depths.
I had no idea how to handle the situation. Riyan was a stone-faced monster in the city, a weepy drunk at the palace, and now a lackadaisical twit? How was I supposed to outmaneuver him if I had no idea which Riyan to expect from one moment tothe next?
I bit my tongue as his last words stung the back of my mind. If he thought I did not know his disregard for planning, he must not remember that he had confessed abandoning the Duke’s plan to marry Brietta. Of course, after three barrels of wine, he probably could not remember muchof anything.
Maybe he even forgot he was sorry forhurting me.
“Riyan?” I called, hoping he could hear me underthe water.
Riyan resurfaced, raising his body over the ledge and anchoring himself on the grass near my feet. He rested his head on top of his folded arms and looked up at me.
My eyes followed a drop of water running down the muscles on his arm. Then my gaze hopped over to watch more droplets racing through the reddish-blonde hair on his chest and trailing all the waydown to…
I gulped. Thankfully, the dark lake concealed the lower half ofhis body.
His big blue eyes gleamed in the sunlight as he looked up atme. “Yes?”
“What do you remember from last night?” I asked, trying my best to not let my eyes wander along his massive arms. “After you drank that third barrel of wine,I mean.”
He hummed thoughtfully. “I remember seeing you were upset, so I came out to the garden to make sure you were all right. Thornebow’s wife yelled at me. We talked. You brushed hair out of my face.We kissed—”
“We didnotkiss.”
Riyan looked off to the side and frowned. “I must have just dreamedthat, then.”
I picked at the tiny tulips embroidered on my bodice. “So you have no idea what wetalked about?”
“No,” Riyan answered suspiciously. He groaned and buried his face in his folded arms. “Did I saysomething embarrassing?”
“You did not,”I lied.
Riyan looked up at me with a raised eyebrow and a smirk. “Yousaid something embarrassing,didn’t you?”
