“Yes,” Rhazien agreed in a pained whisper.
“You like it?” I don’t know why I asked but a nagging desire cared that he liked it. Rhazien pressed his lips into a thin line, unmoving.
The seamstress stepped away, the attendants began packing their things, and I stood staring back at the sad green eyes reflecting in the mirror behind me.
“Majesty?” Gorvin had his quill at the ready. “Was there something you needed?”
Rhazien cleared his throat. “I was growing concerned that my invitations, notes, and gifts weren’t making their way to you, Lady Reyva.” He surveyed the stacked black gift boxes around the room and gestured widely. “But I see they’ve been delivered.”
“You have my thanks,” I said, lowering my head but not much else so I didn’t disturb the pins protruding from the inky fabric.
Rhazien’s disappointment hung in the creases of his frown. I couldn’t blame him. It was short, cold, distant. Too formal for what we’d been before the Northern Hive.
“Are you nearly done then?” he asked the seamstress.
“Yes, Majesty,” she replied. Rhazien poured himself a drink from one of the sample decanters and sat facing the fire.
Minutes later, I emerged from behind a changing screen wearing a black silk robe and watched as the entourage of dressmaker attendants exited my chambers.
The latch to the grand wooden door clicked softly and we were alone.
Rhazien stood and began to reach for me, but the regent flinched, rethinking the movement. He seemed flustered and I wondered if he’d felt unsure of how to act around a woman.
“Preparations seem to be going well.” Rhazien picked up a cracker topped with salmon and an orange-hued sauce. He turned the morsel, inspecting it, before setting it back down. “Honestly, I’m relieved there are still preparations in progress.”
He was nervous, worried even. Everything he hoped for the future of his kingdom hinged on my ability to locate Lorana’s stone and the agreement to become bound. And I needed to agree. Needed to willingly accept the offer to be bound to him.
The stone was a whole other issue I didn’t know how to tackle. I hadn’t breathed a word of my splintered vision to anyone. If I could just try again, maybe my magic could get some clarification. Was it pulling Cova because it was a book about our familial line? Or was the stone set into her necklace truly Lorana’s stone?
Either way, the Solstice Offering was still on the table. Too many people knew about it, expected it, for it to be called off. The scandal would echo through vampiric history for centuries if it were cancelled…or if I refused him.
“Gorvin would never allow a pause in progress,” I quipped as Rhazien gestured to the decanter of wine. I nodded. Wine would be a necessary buoy for the choppy waters we were entering.
“Gorvin won’t admit that his pride hangs in the balance of a well-executed event.” We shared a laugh. The steward offered familiar common ground, but we were tiptoeing a fine line between neutral and contentious territory.
“Solstice will be beautiful,” I said into my goblet before raising it again. “To Gorvin.”
Our goblets chimed as they met. Then, Rhazien amended, “To you."
His flattery was appreciated but didn’t inspire the giddy warmth it once had. Not when I knew he’d been touched and pleasured by the harem of human slaves in the Northern Hive.
Rhazien motioned for us to sit in the twin emerald chairs in front of my fireplace that matched the deep greens of his eyes. Everything felt calculated, awkward. The opposite of how we’d naturally coexisted before.
I leaned back into the tufted chair and let my silk robe fall away, exposing my bare legs underneath. A muscle worked in his jaw. Like he was straining to hold eye contact and not shift his attention to my skin.
We were firmly back at square one. A place where I, again, held every ounce of power.
“Something wrong, Your Majesty?” I held a coy smile at bay.
“Yes,” he admitted, his voice reaching a guttural depth. “Deeply wrong.”
“Oh?” I said into my goblet. The addictive sense of control wrapped itself around the smoky notes of the wine.
I felt unsure about so much, but I was confident in two things. That he not only needed me, but that he wanted me. And those things were different, but together it meant I held all the cards.
“Reyva, do you realize how old I am?” He leveled me with a heated glare.
Ready for battle, I said, “You’ve told me. Although the time is hard to comprehend.”
