Graciously done. Like a future queen.
I removed the scabbards, taking the liberty to reorient myself. As we settled around the table, I intended to apologize for causing a scene, but Briar waved off the attempt. ”It’s fine,” she murmured.
Though, her husband sauntered close and arched a diabolical eyebrow. “Does your wrist need a timeout?”
Curse him. Like gospel, this man held to a belief that feuding was an aphrodisiac. I glowered while turning crimson, which only deepened the bastard’s grin.
Briar planted a loving kiss on Nicu’s head, then pointed to his seat, the ferret familiar having returned to his shoulders, the animal presently dozing.
Poet sprawled next to his wife, his fingers twining through locks of red hair, the princess’s throat pumping in response. Likewise, I beheld the same blaze crackling between Jeryn and Flare as they lowered themselves beside one another, the king’s hand fastening to his lady’s thigh. Feverish devotion exuded from these couples, the unbreakable bonds easy to decipher, regardless of my abilities.
My eyes flitted toward Aspen, who turned away. True enough, I deserved the slight.
The roundtable commenced. Briar made the necessary excuses. Her mother, Queen Avalea, would have attended were she not embarking on a routine inspection of the outlying villages where born souls were being medically treated. As for Eliot, Cadence, Posy, and Vale, they were due to return this eventide from their latest voyage to Spring, where they’d been serving as ambassadors of Autumn.
Merlot and cider flowed. Steaming platters of game, golden beets, and prunes accompanied conversation and camaraderie. Briar, Jeryn, and Aspen conversed with one another. Nicu and Poet behaved like partners in crime, the father-son duo’s conspiratorial banter bouncing off one another.
The sight produced another wistful clench in my ribs, so that I traced one of the raptor tattoos flapping its wings across my forearm. In my sideline, Aspen peeked before veering her attention back to the princess and king.
Flare and Nicu plied me with questions about the Autumn lands outside this castle. The young man’s irises sparkled with interest. More than that, his soul brimmed with the type of yearning that often characterized a person his age. Except Nicu’s longing transmitted stronger, more impulsive vibes, which rose the hairs along my arms.
Past the windows, celestials spangled the sky. At which point, Briar folded her hands atop the table. “Tell us.”
The clan regarded me with varying degrees of unrest. I straightened, the long-awaited report weighing down my mood.
So be it. I would not delay. “Change of plans.”
“What?” Aspen blurted, her fingers tightening on a half-empty chalice.
“Fucking hell,” Poet gritted, having guessed where this was headed.
“You’re not staying?” Nicu interpreted, piercing me with a distraught look.
I rested my hand over his, remorse digging a trench into my chest. “I’d love nothing more, but I must expand this quest.” I scanned the company. “Our traitors are shrewder than we anticipated.”
We stood, pulling back our chairs and crowding the table. Retrieving a map from the compartment in one scabbard, I rolled out a map of The Dark Seasons. Via messenger hawks, I had parceled updates to the fellowship, but this draft exhibited the latest comprehensive details.
“The insurgent soldiers are still in transit,” I began. “They routinely shift outposts yet leave no trace behind, other than faint stirs in the wind.”
Jeryn refrained from flinging his eyes heavenward. I wouldn’t fault the cerebral king, given his preference for scientific logic over elemental faith. However, the man’s systematic mind accepted the rest, those calculating eyes carvinga path across the map. He anatomized every territory and annotation so sharply I mused that he didn’t leave a trail of blood in his wake.
The same applied to Poet, those cunning irises picking apart the draft. Briar as well, with her gift for detecting loopholes. And Flare, her upbringing as a seafarer empowering the female to scout beyond the surface of any map, a gift that had enabled her to discover The Phantom Wild, a rainforest once known only in lore until she pinpointed its whereabouts with Jeryn.
As for Nicu, his eyes drifted across the chart. Although he could not comprehend the standard geography, my liege had the keenest eye in this room, his alternative relationship to direction supplying him with unmatched abilities. Even more than Flare, he looked where others did not, searched where others did not, and contemplated as others did not.
And Aspen…
My eyes clicked over to the female, whose distracted profile struck me off guard. A self-conspiratorial light cast across her pupils, equally discerning, cautious, and culpable. One would assume she grasped some elusive secret unbeknownst to this fellowship. A burden for which she felt responsible.
Aspen readjusted her axe whenever something remotely truthful dangled on the edge of her tongue. Evidently, this telltale sign had not changed.
But what had changed was my fixation on that indecent mouth, the pink flesh shadowed beneath her drooping hood, that feisty little beauty mark poking into view.
Aspen stiffened. She swerved her head my way.
Our gazes clashed, hot streams of energy powering through my veins. Despite being watched, she set her obstinate chin, refusing to look away. The magnitude of her attention fizzled across my skin, then surged to the head of my cock.
Condemnation. Shame and self-loathing chewed a hole in my forsaken conscience.
