We reach the courtyard and our steps slow, as if reluctant to go inside. "Can I ask you one last thing before you have to go to your meeting?" I ask, trying to stall.
"Anything at all."
I give him a serious look as I say, "How do you say 'poopyhead' in Myranthian?"
THIRTY-NINE
Rylan
I barely register the guards’greetings as I pass them in the hall. For once there’s a spring in my step when I leave the council meeting, my mind on Eira and telling her about my plan to have her join me on the trip I’ve just been re-assigned to to Larethia. I’m buzzing with the thought of all the time we’ll have to ourselves, away from the prying eyes of the castle. Already, I have a list of places I can’t wait to show her on the way, some of the places I’ve grown to love in my beloved kingdom, places I never thought I’d take another single soul.
The doors to my father’s private library loom ahead, and I step through them quietly, anticipation dancing in my chest at seeing her. And there she is, practically dwarfed by the piles of leather-bound tomes on the table in front of her, as she pores over some thick book, completely lost in her own world. Creeping up behind her, I lean in and plant a quick kiss on the side of her bare neck. She jumps, letting out a startled yelp.
"Rylan!" She glares at me, her expression a mix of irritation and amusement. "You scared the life out of me!"
I chuckle, settling into the chair beside her, and lift my feet to rest on top of one of the stacks of books, crossing them at the ankles. "Well, if you weren’t so absorbed in these dusty old books, you’d have noticed me."
She swats at my feet but gives me a smile that warms every last corner of my only recently cold, armoured heart. "These ‘dusty old books’ are full of fascinating histories and secrets. You should try reading one sometime."
Nibbling on her ear, I whisper, "Or you could read them to me, while I find something entirely more enjoyable for us both to do with my mouth…"
A flush rushes up her neck, followed by her eyes turning dark with want, but before she can respond, the door swings open, and Caelum strides in, looking even more excited than usual.
He triumphantly holds up a folded piece of parchment. "Here it is!"
I growl at the intrusion, but Eira ignores me and claps her hands together, excited. "Yay! You have it?"
Caelum pulls out the chair on the other side of her and sinks into it, blatantly ignoring me when I throw him a warning glare not to sit too closely to her. He hasn’t said much to me since I left him with no doubt that Eirabella and I are involved. Not that it’s stopped him from taking up too much of her time with their shared love of puzzles.
"Well, I thought we should read the actual clue, so that we can get the exact wording. You know how that could make all the difference with these puzzles." He places the letter between them on the table. “It was so clever of Aunt to write it in this special ink! I wonder where she found it? It’s just lucky that I was in bed last night thinking about your idea that she could’vehidden it on the actual letter and had to use my Strength for light to read it.” He glances up at me, with a look of mischief I know all too well in his eyes. “Oh, and Stumpy, want to know what else I was thinking about you while in bed last night?” He flirtatiously winks and reaches out as if to touch her.
I snarl, my insides burning with jealousy that he has a nickname for her that has some secret meaning to which I’m not privy. Lowering my foot to the bottom of one of the stacks of books, I let out a single cough, poorly disguising the sound of me giving the stack a solid kick and watching the heavy tomes tumble all over my cousin’s stupid head. It’s hard to snicker silently when he yells out in pain.
“Hey! What the fuck was that for, arsehole?” Caelum jumps to his feet, picking up one of the books as if to fling it at me.
I plaster an innocent look on my face. “What? My foot slipped when I was coughing. Had something in my throat.”
“Like what?”
“It tasted like a speck of‘stop fucking calling her Stumpy!’”
He smirks, knowing he’s gotten to me. “Fine. I’ll just call her ‘honeypie’. Do you prefer that, Eira?”
“Try it anddie, dungpile,” I hiss, low and threatening.
“Dungpile? That’s the best you can do as crown prince? More like the mayor of I’m Such A Huge Fucking Dick-ingtonville,” he taunts.
“Sounds like you’re just jealous I have a huge fucking dick,” I reply with about as much maturity as the first time I taunted him with that line almost twenty-five years ago.
Eira clicks her tongue. “For Morath’s sake, stop it, you two! Caelum, stop antagonising your easily riled-up cousin. And Rylan, stop being so easy to rile up.”
“But he started it!” Caelum and I protest both at once.
She reaches around and slaps us both upside the head. “Shut up, the both of you, I’m trying to read!” Her eyes start intently reading off the letter, her fingers tracing the lines on the page. Throwing one last glare at my cousin as he sits back down on his chair, I drape my arm over the back of Eira’s chair and glance over at the parchment on the table between them. The sight of my mother’s elegant handwriting sends a streak of almost unbearable grief through me.
I shift in my chair, trying to distract myself from the surging ache in my chest.
Eira immediately senses something’s wrong, and a quick glance at my face still staring at the letter tells her all she needs to know. Without a word, she reaches under the table to lay a warm hand on my thigh. The touch instantly grounds me, and I place my hand on top of hers, lacing my fingers with hers, taking a deep breath, feeling the pain ease to a bearable level.
