Page 77 of His Realm
She waved her hand dismissively. “Ode is dear to me, as are you, and my blood will alleviate any further need to take more.”
Instant flashing grin from my friend. “If I drink this now, I won’t have to drink any more blood while I’m here?”
“That’s correct,” Isabella told her.
“Oh, fabulous,” Ode said before downing it. “It was cherry juice,” she told Isabella, “which I really like.”
“Excellent.” Isabella offered Ode her arm. “Now, shall I show you the throne room?”
“Oh yes, please,” she said as Emil, the queen’s champion, joined them.
“Jason, come greet me,” Isabella demanded.
I rushed over, kissed her cheek, and she patted mine, her smile luminous before she turned to Ode’s mate. “Duro, leave the luggage there for the servants and join us.”
There were many people in the atrium at the moment, as guests were arriving for the wedding the following day. The king’s guards were there, but Varic’s dreki, led by Merikh, were checking everyone into the palace.
Merikh, Hadrian’s right hand, used to be one of the king’s guards, until Varic moved her into his dreki when Duro left. When I asked Varic why he’d taken Merikh, and why the king had allowed it, he said his father had overlooked her too many times for promotion, and the last time, when Kaan was made kenningar, she understood that because she was a woman, the king did not have the same faith in her. To Varic, who had never differentiated based on gender, it was madness. Merikh, not Kaan, should have been made protector. Almost immediately, Hadrian had named her his second, and she had been overwhelmed with his ability to see her so clearly when the king himself had not. She was infinitely better suited to be in the service of the prince, and I loved hearing that she enjoyed being one of Varic’s dreki.
Duro looked relieved to be invited. He put everything down, gave me a sheepish grin, and bolted after the queen and my best friend.
I went to move one of the suitcases and grunted when I tried to pick it up. “What the hell is in here, rocks?” I yelled after my friend.
“Yes,” she called back. “Of course I brought rocks with me.”
“Oh, I like her,” Zev said with a smirk.
“Everybody likes her,” I muttered.
“Don’t be jealous,” Zev scolded. He grabbed the suitcase I’d tried to awkwardly lift, and pulled up the handle. “And why were you trying to carry this? Did you miss that it has wheels?”
Duro had been carrying it, so I automatically copied him, which I could not admit to Zev. “No,” I grumbled at him.
He nodded like I was an idiot.
Each member of my guard grabbed something else, and I got her laptop bag and her makeup one.
It was nice that they didn’t wait for the servants, knowing I wasn’t about calling servants for every little thing anyway. My guards were getting used to doing things because I did them. I never asked anyone to do something I wouldn’t do myself.
Just then, before we started up the stairs, Merikh called out to me.
“Merikh,” I greeted her with a smile.
“My consort,” she said, looking uncomfortable. “Iliria would speak to you about the flowers for the wedding if she may.”
Iliria was in charge of the servants in the palace, of all the cleaning and straightening, what table went where and when the pictures in the grand salon were rotated, which of the king’s treasures were placed in the grand hall, and the myriad of housekeeping tasks that kept the palace gleaming at all times. Just the constant mopping of the marble and the dusting of the statues were both Sisyphean and Herculean undertakings in my opinion.
“Of course,” I said, as everyone put down the suitcases.
“You guys can go ahead,” I prodded Eris.
The look she shot me, like I was crazy, made me groan.
“Oh yes,” Zev said sarcastically. “Of course we will leave you here, in the atrium, with people constantly arriving. That makes every bit of sense.”
Ignoring him so I remained in a good mood, I turned to Iliria, who had a lovely face and looked about thirty-five, like me, but was probably a thousand years old.
“How may I be of service?” I said, smiling at her.
