I half rolled my eyes. “If you consider wine to be a source of happiness, then I don’t know what to tell you.”
“Oh but I have many sources,” Avrin emphasized with a flash of his teeth, “of happiness.”
I carved up more fish. “Am I supposed to blush?”
“Rumor has it you were eternally red for a certain frosty king.”
My attempt at remaining unbothered was officially ruined. I choked, coughing as I snatched my water.
Pleased, Avrin went on, his tone riddled with knowing. “Of course, rumors are often disappointingly inaccurate, but in this case…”
I’d had quite enough of arrogant males.
The goblet of water hit the table with a thud. I made to stand to take my meal to my room until his chuckle and waving arm halted me.
“I’ll stop,” he said, and though I didn’t believe him, I sat back down. Mirth and unmistakable judgment sparked in his gaze, in the smile that didn’t quite reach those bright eyes. “It seems I’ve touched a very tender spot.”
I cursed, but before I could stand, his hand stole mine.
Shocked, I looked down at it—at the way it covered mine on the table. “Stay,” he ordered, then added gently, “I apologize. I loathe him, and that you’ve spent any amount of time with him just…” He released a harsh breath. “Well, it blows my fucking mind in the worst of ways.”
I stared at his hand, then looked at his seemingly earnest features.
I made my tense shoulders slump, and I slipped my hand free to resume eating. Making new enemies was incredibly unwise, especially within a court I would need to start thinking of as my home. “I loathe him, too,” I finally said.
Sensing that I’d meant every word, Avrin blinked. “Is it too soon to ask what he did to you?”
I nodded once.
Quiet settled as we ate, the dark growing and the candles surrounding us glowing and swaying.
“So, Molkan.” Avrin amended, “Your father, told me he had the talk with you.”
Having eaten enough, I set my cutlery down. “He has indeed.”
Avrin watched me as he chewed, but I kept my gaze fixed on the finger I trailed around my goblet of water.
“And?” he pressed. “How do you feel about it all?”
“I don’t know,” I confessed, frowning slightly. “He told me so much, yet I still have so many questions.”
Avrin waited, then spread his hands. “Such as?”
The glinting silver of his cutlery made my fingers curl with the desire to touch the almost healed slash at my throat.
I studied Avrin and wondered why he would humor me. He was adviser to the king, or so it seemed. I had the growing suspicion he was far more than that. Spy, confidant, perhaps even something like a son.
My question wasn’t at all what I thought I’d ask first if given the chance. “Where is Rolina’s daughter?”
His features did not change, save for a small crease between his brows. “Who?”
“Rolina. My guardian. The woman you killed and turned to nothing during the hunt’s trade visit to Crustle.”
“Right, the woman who kept you sequestered within a cage of loathing for twenty years,” he said, then reached for his wine when I didn’t respond. He took a hearty sip. His lips smacked together as he finally confirmed, “Her daughter is dead, of course.”
That shouldn’t have bothered me. Perhaps guilt over being the reason she was killed was the reason it did—though I’d had no say in any of it. I’d likely been only days old. “Why?”
Avrin ate another mouthful before cutting me an amused and confused glance. “What do you mean why? It’s just how it is. If a faerie babe is dumped outside of Folkyn’s borders, then the babe they swap it with is of no use to us.”
Maybe I’d spent too much time amid humans and creatures who wanted and no longer had anything to do with Folkyn, as I failed to stomach such horrific cruelty. I took another sip of water, that tiny part of me who empathized with Rolina’s actions thankful she’d died before knowing of the fate that had befallen her babe.
“Many thought you dead too, you know, and Molkan didn’t care to correct anyone.” Avrin shrugged. “But I wasn’t here then, Princess.”
Surprised he’d decided to stay on the topic, I set the water down and gave him my attention.
“I was plucked from the streets maybe four or five years after you were born, so I don’t know for certain what happened to this guardian’s babe, but I do know she is probably dead as that is the way of our ilk.”
No humans were permitted in Faerie. There were rumors of exceptions, such as witches and half-breeds, and humans kept by nobility and the wealthy to feed their fetishes and give them something different to feast upon.
But I knew, and I think Rolina had also known, that the Fae were not inclined to care for much outside of themselves. Certainly not a human babe.
To be polite, I waited until Avrin finished his meal to leave, but he excused himself first with a mocking grin. “Sweetest dreams, Princess.”
Annoyance pricked at my nape.
I reached over and snatched the wine to pour a small amount into my goblet.
There was no stroll through the grounds the following morning. After waiting in my room until midday, I finally took to the halls to do a little exploring.
At the bottom of the sandstone steps I’d taken with my father for the past two days, I paused and looked across the terrace to the grass-lined drive.
Imposing and taller than the wall they arched between, the iron palace gates stood dark as night in the shine of the sun.
Upon the drive before them, three guards stood in conversation, dressed in uniform with swords and daggers at their backs and sides. Above them, two watch towers climbed toward the sky. Another guard descended the ladder rungs while laughing at something his comrade said from high above in the enclosed wooden lookout.
These people were victims, but they were ready and anticipating an attack.
Florian’s manor was heavily fortified, yet there was no wall. No warriors in towers watched every move the civilians made beyond Hellebore’s royal home.
The winter king might have had his reasons, but after hearing Molkan explain everything, I failed to understand how such hatred from Florian could withstand so much time. Twenty years, and it hadn’t lessened. From what Molkan had said, Florian was patiently increasing the tension—tightening and tightening until it snapped.
Until Molkan snapped.
I intend to go to war, Florian had said what felt like a different lifetime ago. He’d deceived me in many ways, but as my mind fell within the dangerous disorder of memories, I couldn’t resist wondering if he had also been speaking the truth.
After all, there was no one more skilled in the art of veiling lies within truth than the Fae.
The thought of Florian and his warriors flooding this city, breaking down those gates, the once laughing guards dead upon the ground…
I turned back and walked up the stairs, my hand trembling as I curled my loose braid over my shoulder.
Avrin was already eating when I entered the dining room for dinner.
I hid my surprise and curiosity over his presence by muttering, “Thank you for waiting,” just as he’d said to me the previous night.