Finfolk. Fae. Sirens. Did everyone in Orntali actually believe this, or was Niklas the last enthusiast descended from a long line of lunatics? Either way, Kaid wasn’t convinced, though he would be intrigued to see the supposed evidence stored in the castle’s archives.
Kaid stared at one of the statues on the side of the castle. The woman’s torso was elongated, flanked by irregularly long arms tipped with slender fingers. Her ears came to a very small, almost invisible point at the top of the helix.
Kaid understood what Niklas was talking about. They really were quite captivating.
He compared it to how he felt when observing Asta. How he knew something was so dangerous and off-limits, yet he couldn’t help but to stare. To get sucked into her lure.
“Magnificent, isn’t it?” Niklas said. Kaid turned to see the young man staring out to sea.
Kaid huffed a small laugh through his nose, wearing a smirk. “‘Magnificent’ is one word for it, I suppose. How can a sea so cruel also be so captivating?”
Niklas’s voice was hardly more than a whisper. “That’s what makes it cruel. It is a beauty we cannot ever fully appreciate, because we will never truly and completely understand its depths.”
Chapter 6
It had been about a week since Lord Kaid’s arrival, and to Asta’s surprise, she hadn’t heard of him being involved in a single scandal.Yet.
She had hardly seen the philanderer or his chief courtier. They had either been too busy attending dates with Maren or hiding away in their suites. It was a relief, honestly.
Asta and Linnea were walking through the gardens on a brisk afternoon when they heard music coming from the northern tower. The location itself wasn’t odd, because that was where the music room was. Whatwasodd was that someonewas actually playing an instrument. No one had dared set foot in the room since Queen Else’s death.
Asta stalked toward the tower, Linnea struggling to keep pace behind her. She often forgot that her cousin was permanently weak from her malnourishment during her childhood—at that memory, Asta slowed down a bit so the lady-in-waiting could keep up.
“Who do you think it is?” Linnea’s voice squeaked.
“Dunno. Can anyone on staff play piano?”
Linnea shook her head.
If it wasn’t anyone on staff, that left only two options. But that couldn’t be possible. How would either of those beefcakes from Haalberg know how to play so well?
Though Asta was walking briskly, she knew how to keep her footsteps quiet. She couldn’t stop herself from speeding up now, figuring Linnea would meet her there anyway. She was almost to the north tower—the part of the castle that jutted out over the ocean, surrounded by water aside from the stone bridge.
As she approached the outside entrance, she opened the door, tapped the frame, and began climbing the stairs. When she swung the music room doorway open, her stomach flipped.
Kaid was alone, sitting on the piano bench with his eyes closed as he built the most powerful crescendo she’d ever heard. Asta didn’t even know a solo musician could draw such a lovely melody from a piano.
The lord tilted his head back, his eyes remaining closed as the bridge formed. The notes were building higher and higher. This was the first time Asta had seen him in the direct sunlight, which was coming off the ocean from the windows, and she realized that his hair was not in fact black, but the deepest cherry red she had ever laid eyes on. His chiseled jaw and the strong muscles of his body tightened as the music escalated.
If she hadn’t hated him, she would look at this man, in this moment, and mark him as one of the most beautiful men in the world. Hell, she would admit it even though shedidhate him.
As the bridge reached its peak, Kaid hit the deepest note, causing Asta’s stomach to spiral to her toes. His eyes snapped open and his turquoise gaze met hers. He smirked and continued playing. Something pulled at her, urging her to stay. Urging her to get closer.
Kaid watched Asta while she walked around to the other side of the piano and sat next to him. Asta saw motion in her peripherals, a person standing in the archway, and knew it was Linnea.
The doorway. Asta hadn’t tapped the threshold twice before entering. She had been so caught up in Kaid’s song that she had forgotten all about it. And once she realized it, she still didn’t get that usual feeling of the world crashing down when she didn’t complete one of her rituals. The ball in her chest wasn’t coiling in on itself, strangling her from the inside.
All she could think about was his song—needing to hear more. Needing to step into the keys and live within the depths of the melody. She would follow this song to the pits of the sea.
Kaid kept his eyes locked on Asta while he played, and she worked through her emotions of victory and confusion. His song was like a current pulling her under, and she did not want to come up for air.
When the melody ended, neither of them said anything. They sat in strained silence, Asta taking quick glances around the room she hadn’t been in for years.
Her father had always told her that he felt her mother’s spirit the strongest here. Queen Else was an exceptional instrumentalist, spending all her free time in this music room creating art from thin air. Asta liked to think that her mother used to play her songs while she was in her womb.
Asta jolted when Kaid grabbed one of her hands and positioned it on the keys, then did the same with the other. He covered her hands with his and began pressing the keys using her fingers. At first, there were some unpleasant notes reverberating through the room. Asta’s face reddened, but Kaid kept his focus on the keys before them.
After a few more adjustments, Kaid figured out how to play using her hands. The tune was light and simple, nothing nearly as complex as the one he had just been performing. But the song was still mesmerizing.
