Page 39 of City of Snakes
“No.”
Her answer was abrupt enough that it brought me relief and, more confusingly, some disappointment.
She scanned my face. “One more thing.”
I raised my brows. “What’s that?”
“I get the bed.”
I’d already planned to let her have that.
“Fine.” I sighed.
She cast me a skeptical look but rose and stepped around the bed to rearrange my pillows. She was ruthlessly flattening them.
I rinsed my hands in the bucket and then dried them. Not saying goodnight, I got into my new bed on the other side of the room.
I had the Last Daughter of Isleen beneath my roof.
Willing to marry me.
I’d sleep wherever it took to keep her here.
And although my feet hung off the edge of the cot, I’d rest better knowing that no one could get to her unless they got through me first.
Chapter 14
Sybilla
When I awoke, the sun seeping through the curtains stung my eyes. Darvanda wasn’t in the room, and the cot was neatly made, as though he’d never slept in it.
I’d proposed to a man who did more grunting and growling at me than speaking. Yet, when he’d let down his mental walls the night prior, his intentions were clear. He wouldn’t let harm come to me—I didn’t understand why, but I didn’t need to so long as I dictated the conditions of our marriage contract. There wasn’t any rush.
Deep-crimson curtains hung from wooden rods, and the room was paneled and wainscoted in dark stained oak. My trunk of belongings had been hauled up and now sat on the far side of the room. I felt groggy as I rose, and it was tempting to curl back up under the covers and sleep the rest of the day away.
Instead, I padded with bare feet across the room and opened the trunk, searching for a vial before remembering they’d all shattered.
“Shit...” I said, blowing out a deflated sigh. I didn’t wish to bring attention to my health to any healer here. It was always tiresome to explain, and my weaknesses were my safely guarded secrets.
I would be fine for now.
“What was in the vials?”
I jumped. “Sources!”
The whole Shadow-roaming thing he could do gave me the fucking creeps.
He could be anywhere...
Darvanda stepped from the balcony. “Was it poison?”
“No,” I bit back. “And it’s none of your damned business what was in them.”
I’m betrothed to this man. My stomach turned at the thought—what was I thinking? Why had he agreed? He must have deemed water for his realm and reentry into Henosis worth shackling himself to me for the length of my mortal life.
He shrugged. “How are you feeling this morning?”
Shuffling through my trunk, I found my stationery box and pulled that out. “Like I was nearly strangled and killed last night. So, by all standards,wonderful.”
