Total pages in book: 63
Estimated words: 59565 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 298(@200wpm)___ 238(@250wpm)___ 199(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59565 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 298(@200wpm)___ 238(@250wpm)___ 199(@300wpm)
As I leave the outpost, air suddenly coils around me with telltale force. Before I can resist, it reels me backwards, depositing me at Quin’s side. His hand presses against my back, steadying me, though the heat of it feels more like something unspoken—and reprimanding.
I wince-smile. “Ah, there you are!”
He doesn’t believe for a second that I’ve been looking for him and he’s half right. I’d been walking blindly, my stomach sunk low and my mind lost in thoughts. Those thoughts, though, were predominately Quin-related. Still are.
I follow him down the hill to a hired buggy and make the way back to his inn. He doesn’t push me to talk; nor do I offer to. I don’t know how. What’s the best way to run away from a king I’d once told off for doing the very same thing? I can’t use his ‘can’t be responsible for you’ line; neither would I get a chance to hit his paralysing acupoints.
His tactic of riling me up and angering me hadn’t made me leave willingly, but perhaps that was a personality thing. It didn’t work on me, but Quin trying it must mean he believes it to be a tactic that’d work on him.
I nod to myself as I climb the stairs and follow him to his chambers. I’ll have to restrain him somehow. So he doesn’t chase after me and make the whole process difficult.
A streak of dirt running down his cloak has my plan uniting. I clear my throat and speak to his nape. “Your clothes have drakopagon pitch on them.” I sniff, almost inhaling a lungful of his hair when he steps backwards. “Still smell of smoke, too.”
His cane makes a light snick when he turns. It lands very close to my leg. His dark eyes hold mine cautiously.
I fidget. “It’s been a long day. Bathing is in order.” I force a smile. “You first, your majesty.”
He starts to frown and stops upon glancing at his dirty attire. He gives me a warning look and orders me to come along.
I wait outside the bathing chamber while Quin strips and plunges into flowered depths. When he calls me in, I come, but not before I spot an aklo trundling across the yard with the king’s requested clean clothing. I halt him quietly, duck inside to a steam-filled room, and gather the sullied laundry.
Quin eyes me, and I tell him an aklo is here to collect them. That I’d rather we weren’t interrupted. He waves water droplets, allowing me to carry on, and I rush back to the aklo and dump the clothes atop the pristine ones.
“W-what—”
I pat his shoulder. “Your guest has requested no one enter for the next hour.”
“But his—”
“An hour.”
The aklo leaves and I nod, momentarily satisfied, before the achy sludgy sinking stomach returns and I slouch back into expression-veiling steam.
“That sigh. Explain,” Quin says.
I crouch at the edge of the bath, keeping my distance, but it’s no use. Quin wades towards me, his bare chest and the familiar lines of his flutette emerging through the steam. It’s quite the sight, and for a moment, I’m lost in a stare. Until he grabs one of my feet and topples me onto my arse. With deft hands, he strips my boots and socks and casts them behind me.
“Explain,” he says as my feet drop into the water.
The heat surrounding my soles adds to a shiver that’s already rolling though me. I glance nervously towards my boots and then back at Quin leaning in the corner beside me. His face is angled pensively towards the water’s surface and droplets slide down the side of his face, his nose.
I open my mouth and shut it again. What to say, to break things with finality? So he knows there’s no hope? So no lingering feelings remain?
“Last night”—my head jerks up and I clamp the sides of the bath, breathless. What had happened last night that he’d been so upset this morning? He clears his throat and starts again. “Last night you told me you were leaving.”
I’d told him?
“This morning you took all your belongings. Your grandfather’s books. You left.”
I swallow. This was the cause of that dark assessing look outside the constabulary. This was why he strapped me to his side all day. “I—”
Quin raises his head and his expression flashes with exasperation. “You promised me you’d say goodbye.”
“I—I—” I scramble to my feet. “Then, goodbye!”
I get one step away from the bath before I’m met by a sudden, ferocious wind. It buffets me relentlessly, and despite how fruitless it is, I push with all my strength and stagger against it. I whirl around, glaring at him where he leans against the side of the bath with a frown and flattened lips. “You can’t keep me here. It’s dangerous. Let me leave. I’m tired of following you around.”