Thinking this is cause for celebration, I rise from the table without explanation and head to the bar to retrieve four more tankards to celebrate with.
I order from the barkeep, who is an elf, and then glance around while I wait. It’s almost all elves in here, with a few travelers mixed in, looking like they don’t have a care in the world. I don’t know how to feel about it all anymore.
“No one seems to know who you are down here.”
I turn and find Daegan beside me. He leans back against the wooden bar with his arms crossed, glancing around the room. He’s in a short-sleeved black tunic today with minimal armor over it, his biceps and veined forearms on full display as usual.
“My father will make an appearance down here on rare occasions with his crown, flanked by a few guards, but I haven’t traveled with him in ages. Whenever I visit, it’s usually just Meela and me, and I try to blend in.”
“You can try…” he mutters.
“What?”
“Nothing,” he says, glancing at me but not meeting my eyes.
He reaches out and takes all four of the tankards, two in each hand, then takes off back to the table.
“I could’ve carried a couple,” I grumble behind his back. He doesn’t hear me.
We spend the rest of the morning planning when we’ll make our journey toward Dothron. Gaethri doesn’t know the exact location, but the legendsspeak of a cave system in Northern Dothron. “Where no one dares enter,” he adds ominously.
Memories of Wraithmere Forest trickle in as he details the five-day-long journey it will take to get there, and I begin to feel the nerves creeping in. I knew this would happen eventually, though. I couldn’t continue to chase this quest from the comfort of the castle forever.
We decide to make the journey in three days’ time. The hard part now is figuring out a cover story to tell anyone who notices the absence of two of the dragon shifter visitors, an elf princess, and the daughter of the King’s Hand. No one will notice Gaethri and Rhydra’s absence. Not many people have encountered them, but if they have, they’d just assume they were travelers passing through.
The two of us plus two dragon shifters disappearing for nearly two weeks at the same time though… that’s going to be a huge problem.
I’m on my second drink. Everyone else except for Daegan is on their third. He’s only had one. He doesn’t talk much during the planning session, only offering a grunt or a few words here and there. He seems lost in thought half the time, off in his own world. But every now and then, we lock eyes across the table, and my stomach flips.
No one has come up with any real solution to our problem. We’re all stuck.
Then, finally, Daegan speaks up, his face all business. “Okay, I think there’s a very obvious solution here.”
“Go ahead,” Meela says.
“Elysande, you’ve read half the books in that library. Did you ever read some of the romances in there?”
“Yes…” I admit slowly, regrettably.
“And what was a common theme many of them had?”
I make a face at him across the table as I sigh, propping my elbows on the table and placing my chin in my hands. I don’t know why he knows anything about romantic tales, but I finally realize where he’s going with this. “Forbidden love…”
My cheeks heat as I avoid everyone’s gaze at the table. But I feel many on me.
“Okay…” Meela says slowly, confusion dripping from her tongue.
Daegan clears his throat, and I can’t help my traitorous eyes from looking his way. Luckily, his eyes are focused on everyone else. “What I’m saying is, there are two very handsome dragon shifters and two elves disappearing together. It would be incredibly easy to let people assume it’s merely a case of two couples running away together for a little lovers’ tryst, caught up in their lust, love, whatever you want to call it.”
“Ahhh,” Rhydra says. She nods her head in approval.
“I’m sorry,” Meela snaps down the table at Daegan. “Are you insinuating that we would be so blinded by your good looks that we’d run away blindly with you?”
He answers in the form of a smirk.
“You have it backwards,” Meela says. “You fools are the ones who would blindly follow because ofourbeauty.”
Daegan nods like he doesn’t really care to argue, but he makes eye contact with me for a flash before mumbling something into his tankard that I cannot possibly decipher.
