“Is it working?”
Yes.
“No. Now, go to sleep.”
CHAPTERSIX
Iwas again awakened rudely, this time to bright sunlight and too much warmth, by the opening and closing of the front door. An intruder.
“Lorcan?”
A woman’s voice. Dismay spiked through me, even as I registered Lorcan’s arm around my waist. Someone is familiar enough to walk into his home without notice—
Lorcan rolled onto his back and rubbed his eyes.
“Mother? Have you heard of knocking?”
“Oh! What are you doing asleep at this hour?”
My foolish jealousy ebbed instantly, with embarrassment filling its vacated space.
“I can’t meet your mother like this. Do something!” I hissed. Lorcan’s bright eyes danced with mischief. He’s not wearing a shirt. I’m in nothing but a nightgown. We’re sharing a bed. There will be no pretending this wedding isn’t happening. Devious, scheming man.
“Sprained my ankle on the stairs last night,” he fibbed easily. “We were up late.”
There was a beat of silence. “Princess Zosia? She’s here?”
“I don’t know where else she’d be. Then again, she’s been known to run off.”
I propped my head on one hand and poked him in the ribs. Lorcan flinched, grinning. Unrepentant.
“I brought you bread. Baked extra this morning. I’ll leave it here on the sideboard and check back later. Come and see me today; I want to discuss your birthday party.”
The door clicked closed. Lorcan covered his face with his hands and groaned.
“Birthday, huh?” I prodded him in the ribs again, right beneath the long white scar from his visit to Manchester. He came so close to dying that day, and many other times, too. A celebration of his life—of surviving one more year—seems in order. “When is it?”
He once said that living to twenty-five seemed ambitious. He came very close to not making it.
I know he’s turning twenty-three, but not the specific day in July. It’s a travesty that I don’t know these basic details about him.
“End of July. She’s going to invite the entire village.” He groaned again.
I’ll miss the Midsummer festival at the castle if I remain here. On the plus side, I won’t have to give any speeches until October. I should probably make an announcement about my coronation ceremony. Give the people something to look forward to. I can write something short on the satellite phone and send it to Saskaya to hand off to the priests—what few survived. They were easy targets. Killing them was a quick way to demoralize the population, and raid the smaller temples of gold and jewels. Priceless antiquities, looted and lost.
“Old man,” I teased, poking him again while he lazily attempted to brush away my hand. “Ancient.”
“Definitely. It’s past time I settled down. As my mother often reminds me.”
Before I could make a smart remark, Lorcan rolled up and pinned me to the bed, tickling viciously. I screamed and struggled, but he held me down until I was breathless and surely red-faced. When he finally relented, I swiped the tangle of hair out of my face and peered up at him.
The kiss hangs in the air between us, there to claim if either of us moved.
“How’s your leg?” I asked him, deliberately turning away from that dangerous shoal. I saw his disappointment.
But I can’t let myself get hurt like that again. No matter how sweet this has been, or how wrong I was about Tahra, all I can do is clutch the scraps of what’s left of my dignity. I’m not the one who strayed.
I’m the one who waited, even if I had little choice in the matter.
