Page 84 of Of Bargains & Betrayal

“Mina, help me,” Eilir mewled, and I couldn’t help but laugh.

And maybe it was the doing of the bath’s warmth, or just my fatigue, but after a moment of comfortable silence, I slipped out, “I enjoyed spending time with the mage. He’s much more agreeable than Maksym.”

“Oh?”

“Mhm. There’s something about him that’s…easygoing, I guess?” I sighed and stretched my neck back over the rolled towel. “I don’t know. Whatever it is, I feel very comfortable with him, which is weird to say, because I don’t even know what he looks like.”

Leave it up to me to feel wildly at ease with a man who was nothing but polite manners, broad shoulders, and half a face with a sometimes arrogant smile. It was more than most men back in Odessa had going for them, unfortunately.

“Oh, don’t be silly,” Eilir scolded. “Of course you still know what he looks like. Sure, it’s been a long time, but—” The sprite slapped a hand over their mouth, their beady eyes wide.

My entire body tensed, and I sat up, staring at them. “Say that again.”

There was no fucking way I’d heard that correctly. I was just exhausted, spent from a day full of training, and clearly mishearing Eilir’s words. Of course, I still didn’t know what he looked like. That had to be what they said.

But the sprite shook its head furiously.

Unease crept farther up my spine.

“Eilir,” my voice came as a low rumble. “What. Do. You. Mean?”

“Oh, Mother. I-I don’t mean anything!” they squeaked. “Nothing at all! You misunderstood me, a-and⁠—”

I shot across the bath and grabbed Eilir by their midsection, fighting against the pull of their wings. “Do I know the mage, Eilir? And goddess help us both, if you fucking lie to me, sprite, I will drown you in this bathtub.”

Their head bobbed once in sickening agreement, and I eased my grip on their body but didn’t let them go.

“And here I was, thinking you were on my side all this time.” I scoffed as a sickening knot twisted in my stomach. “Who is he?”

Eilir’s wooden lips trembled. “I am on your side, princess. I-I promise you that. It’s my duty to⁠—”

“Who is he, Eilir?”

The sprite shook their head and squirmed from my hold, zipping across the bathroom.

Water went sluicing in all directions as I hauled myself out of the tub behind them. “Well, I guess we’re going to go together and find out, aren’t we?”

No answer to that, of course, other than the sounds Eilir made that sounded an awful lot like slowly dying livestock as they flew back and forth across my room, gripping their head in their hands.

“Where are Maksym and that fucking mage right now?”

“Enora, please.” The sprite was fluttering all around me as I fought my way back into the first clean skirt and blouse I could find. “I-I didn’t mean it! Just a mistake! I promise! Just a…a…slip of the tongue? You don’t⁠—”

“Where. Are. They?”

Eilir made a flurry of protesting noises before they sighed. “The barracks still.”

“Well, we have a bit of a walk then, don’t we?” I fixed the sprite with a pointed stare. “And don’t you dare go ahead and warn them. I will be so unfathomably pissed if you give those two fuckers a chance to collude against me anymore than they already have.”

Eilir pleaded with me every step I burned through the Keep and back across the grounds, buzzing around my head with a mixture of backpedaling and desperate begging that only left me more furious with each step.

“…you still know what he looks like. Sure, it’s been a long time, but…”

It was all I could hear in my head, reaffirming I was a bigger fool than I thought. Of course, these people were holding more secrets than I took breaths in a day. Of course, I’d spent an entire day with this man, flabbergasted by how at ease I felt with him, when I was just fucking oblivious. I wasn’t sure if I was more pissed that the king and his mage thought they could pull the wool over my eyes forever, or at myself for letting my guard slip with such ease after everything that had transpired in such a short time.

A prisoner. In Grimmoria. Bargain-bound and indebted to their king. Forced to fight for my life and marry a man who was going to crush my soul. All the while, someone I knew watched on.

Those were the last thoughts to swirl viciously in my mind before I nearly took the training gate right off its hinges, drawing startled curses from the two sparring men within.