Page 66 of Of Bargains & Betrayal

My chuckle came from a deep-seated place of knowing Malva had never had patience for our emissary sprite. “Thank you for that. And yes, they will be. Goddess help you if they find you in her room too. They’ll think you’re out to replace them.”

“Oh, goddess help me, truly.”

Malva rolled her eye with a sarcastic click of her tongue, but I caught her measure of hesitation after. While there had been a rather substantial gap of decades in our strange friendship while I’d dealt with my exile, her tells were plain as day.

“What is it?”

She winced, taking a long look back at Enora’s door before taking a few steps and motioning me over. “I wouldn’t want to be presumptuous or speak out of turn…”

I scoffed. “As if that’s ever stopped you before. Tell me.”

Even though I had an inkling of where this was going, I’d still prefer to hear it from her, to know someone other than Eilir and I understood even a fraction of what was at hand.

Malva hesitated for a long moment before her face softened.

“I was young when Her Majesty died, you know? But she was so kind to me and my ma, and…” She sighed. “I remember the things she said. The things she saw.” Malva cast another look back at Enora’s door. “Do you think it’s her?”

Honestly, I couldn’t remember the last time someone mentioned my mother and I felt something other than the urge to end the conversation immediately. Especially not a flicker of warmth coming to life in my chest.

“I think it is.”

A smile bloomed on Malva’s face. “Thank Mina. I never thought I’d see the day.”

15

CORNERED AND WOUNDED ANIMALS

ENORA

More sleeping. More eating. More lounging. More inspecting every nook and cranny of my room. That dismal monotony was all my life had devolved into again after I survived initiation into the Agōn Ferr.

My sprite companion had returned, though, and their company was a welcome relief.

Apparently, they had important tasks to deal with back in the woods, being their principal emissary and all, and thought it best to dash back while the feast and initiation had me occupied. The sprite was positive they had left a note for me, or, at the very least, they imagined they had. But they returned to doting on me like the best of my nursemaids ever had when I was a child, ensuring I fully recovered from the initiation before Maksym even considered putting me in any training. Months ago, if someone had told me my keeper would be a two-and-a-half-foot-tall, animated sapling with wings, I would’ve died from the hysterics of it.

Late in the afternoon on my third day of rest–and festering boredom—Eilir came by with a message they were ecstatic to deliver.

Max wanted to have dinner with me. Alone.

And, according to Eilir, I was in no way suitable for such an occasion.

So, like any good prisoner-turned-betrothed, I washed my hair for Maksym. For good measure, I scrubbed every inch of my skin, too. Was it a bit exuberant? Probably.

But I had hazy memories of Maksym carrying me up to my room after the initiation and treating me with such care, it left me perturbed. He made sure I drank, gave me a bit of privacy as a maid helped me fight out of sopping clothes. Even shuttled me straight to bed after, too.

And now, a dinner invitation? Alone?

Maybe it wasn’t as hopeless as I thought it was going to be.

“You look lovely, princess,” Eilir crooned, hands clasped in front of their body as they watched over my shoulder in the tall mirror of my room. “I told you they would fit you!”

They were right on both fronts.

The spread of clothing Eilir had arrived with were the best fitting things I’d worn since awaking in Grimmoria.

Sure, my eyes were still painted with dark, sunken circles from the hellish exercise that was the initiation, but I had pants. Black, simple, and modestly fitted with ample pockets, they tucked well into a pair of tall boots the sprite had sourced as well. Paired with a gauzy white blouse and a deep burgundy vest, it was like Eilir had an inkling of how I’d dress myself back home. I questioned them about that thoroughly, but the sprite just shrugged and hmphed as they followed me around my room. Apparently, someone needed to see the warpath tidied.

“So the women here don’t dress like this at all?” I asked Eilir as I glanced back, finally satisfied with my work on the vest’s ribbon closure.