Page 114 of Winds of Ruin
A chuckle, too similar to the one I’d elicited from her moments ago, escaped her. “Not tonight. This is business,” she said aloud, dismissing him. I gritted my teeth anyway.
The man fell in line with the others, but my jaw remained clenched. Elsedora had once seduced my guards to get into the castle. It had bothered me then, but for a different reason than it did now.
“You know him?” I whispered to her as we passed the guards, who bowed.
That gut reaction was precisely why I couldn’t let our physical intimacy continue down the wild path we’d started.
I didn’twantto be jealous, or to throw my emotions into the uncertainty of what attaching myself to her might mean. I’d nearly flipped the table every time Haag’s gaze inappropriately roved over her.
Elsedora glanced at me and shrugged. “I might,” she answered, which only irked me more. “Your molars will crack if you keep doing that.”
“The bowing and formal greetings just make me uncomfortable,” I lied.
At the doors to the palace, the young King Sheffield stood beside Amara.
When my birth mother’s eyes landed on me, they glistened. It reminded me of a different time and place—one that I should not have witnessed yet had. The moment my father had abandoned her and she’d sent me away to Mama and Papa.
I’d thought charming away our memories had been cruel. For three decades, I’d never known what I’d lost. She had to face that hurt every day.
Who had she truly been cruelest to?She’d let me go to keep me safe.
I broke stride from Elsedora and approached her, outstretching my arms. Amara fell into them with an ease and familiarity that I was only beginning to feel; I might still resent her, but she never would resent me.
“It is so good to see you awake,” she said, her voice muffled by my tunic, as she left tearstains on the fabric. When we parted, I rested my hands on her shoulders and took in the woman who’d given me life.
Coils of her black curls, pushed back with a thick golden band, shone in the moonlight. Her rich golden-brown irises were glassy with unshed tears.
Despite my greatest efforts to hold anger toward her, it all melted away.
“It’s good to see you again, too,” I answered.
The South Corridor King shuffled closer to us, seeming to not want to interrupt the moment.
“This is King Lyl Sheffield. He succeeded his uncle. Lyl, meet King Emmerick Mattock,” Amara said.
My actions had forced a child onto a throne. I’d killed his uncle.
Caym’sactions.Caymkilled…
It was hard to remind myself not to bear the blame.
Amara spoke my new surname with such undeserved pride—I’d never known Corric Mattock. He’d fought Caym until he could not survive the tortures of being an envoy any longer.
King Sheffield outstretched a hand, and I shook it. “I’ve heard great things,” he said. “I look forward to a lasting partnership with the North Corridor.”
Lark sprang in behind us from the direction of the entry gates shouting, “Lyl! You chopped your hair off!” She hugged the South King before pulling away and spinning him around. The boy, with light hair cut tight to his head and a smattering of freckles over his pale cheeks, was little older than Lark.
“Princess Darvanda—thank you for noticing.” He laughed. “It’s been ages. How long has it been?”
“I was here last week,” she answered dryly and glanced over at Elsedora and me. “He just doesn’t find me memorable. Where is Dara?”
The King scoffed and shook his head. “Absolutely not true. Dara’s in the East Corridor for a dress fitting. I’ve had dinner set up on the veranda. Come this way. I have no desire to negotiate matters so late, and a friend of the Central Corridor is a friend of mine.”
My mood lightened. I liked King Sheffield immediately. There wouldn’t be any heated discussion on this stop, thankfully.
Lark chattered quietly with Lyl, who led us across the grounds, through a sandy patch of grass, and down to a covered patio by the ocean; the view of the sea cliffs surrounding us and the towering castle spires took my breath away.
Elsedora trailed behind them, like an at ease watchdog. Her throwing knives were lined up on a belt around her waist, but she didn’t hover a hand over them as she had in the West.
