“Answer the question. It isn’t complicated.”
When he glanced over his shoulder, every hard line was taut. While I wasn’t afraid, the Shadows snaking off him and onto the tile toward me made me step back. His expression was that of an enemy, not an ally.
“That is where you’re wrong,” he said before storming off.
Elsedora blew out a breath. “I think you might have the largest testicles that I have ever seen. And I’ve seen a great number of them.”
Even her jokes weren’t enough to set my mind at ease. Not when the Death Origin might have my dearest friend in his grasp.
“You’ll visit Helos again? You will check in on him?”
Elsedora nodded. “Of course. After all, now I have orders tosearchhim…” She wiggled her eyebrows, and I slapped her arm.
“Please, be careful.”
Krait did not come back to the bedchamber that night, to my relief. Or disappointment?
The moment his late wife’s name, his Source Match’s name, had left my tongue, I should have begun apologizing. I hadn’t realized that until he’d walked away.
Emmerick’s words the day I’d left Luz came back to me. Maybe I did always have an angle. Maybe I would never consider anyone else’s desires but my own.
Once again, I’d only been thinking about my problems when I’d spat that venom. The weight of remorse crushed me.
It was growing late, and I’d climbed into the massive, unbelievably comfortable, delicious-smelling bed. As I leaned over to blow out the bedside candle, a piece of parchment slipped under the door and skated across the tile.
I got out of bed and crossed the room to pick it up. The penmanship was neat and tight, yet the still-wet smudges told me the note had been hurriedly written.
Queen Sybilla Wymark,
The alliance between Sahlmsara and the Central Corridor remains strong. I have decided it best to see you back to Luz. I regret to inform you that I also rescind my agreement in regard to our pending union. After presenting you to the people of Sahlmsara as ourallytomorrow, and providing my people assurance, I will arrange for your departure.
King Krait Darvanda
I crumbled the too-formal letter in my hands.
That dick hadn’t even had the respect to tell me to leave his city to my face? That our agreement to marry was null and void?
I quickly altered my plans.
If Krait’s court was up against the Death Origin, and I could somehow help them, help keep Emmerick safe, I wasn’t going to piss away that chance over an argument with their King.
No matter how much I missed home, I needed to find a way to extend my stay. At least for a little while.
I knocked on Elsedora’s door. She came to it with a robe draped around her.
Her brow furrowed. “What is it?”
I handed her a folded piece of parchment and a sack of bronze coins. “I have a few requests for a seamstress and jeweler for my presentation tomorrow to the Sahlmsaran people.”
Elsedora opened the parchment, and her brow rose. “It will be difficult to get these on such short notice…but, lucky for you, I spend quite a good deal on garments and know someone who can help. Is thatall you have planned for tomorrow,an outfit?”
I huffed a laugh. “Of course not. How much do you want to know? If you stay in the dark, you can still plead innocence.”
That roused a wicked smile from her. “Oh, now I’m intrigued.”
“Krait’s trying to send me back and has broken our engagement,” I blurted. “But I’d like to make him reconsider.”
El’s eyes widened. “He wouldn’t.”
