Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 71403 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 286(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71403 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 286(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
Before he could respond, I slipped beneath his arm into a smooth turn, my skirts blooming around us as I returned to him. His hand sought my waist again, strong, certain and possessive enough to send another murmur rippling through the ballroom.
Peering up at him, I said in English, “Because the real question isn’t if I want you.” I cupped his cheek, reveling in the scrape of stubble beneath my fingertips. “It’s this. Do you want me?”
I didn’t wait around for his reply. I glided off, leaving him a wee bit slack-jawed.
Chapter
Eighteen
Every secret a kraken gives you is a hook. You just can’t see the line yet.
–An Incomplete Guide to Kraken Survival
Iresumed my rounds until spotting Lady Harpa. She wore a gown that appeared assembled rather than sewn. Storm-gray velvet on one side, bone-white silk on the other, the sleeves mismatched, her jewelry a discordant collection of heirlooms from different lives. Her hair was half-pinned, half-wild.
I went straight to her, smiling. “Lady Harpa. I’m overjoyed to see you again.” I didn’t moderate my volume. Let everyone know I’d already met his family.
Determination crackled in her wild eyes. “Come, my dear lady of the house.” She drained her champagne, extended her arm and dropped the glass, expecting someone to catch it before it shattered on the floor.
A guard did just that as she hooked her arm through mine and urged me forward.
“You seem to have forgotten the mission. Let me remind you,” she said as she drew me away. “Imagine Jokull there—” she pointed to a balcony overlooking the entire chamber “—peering upon his subjects, crafting his breakfast, lunch and dinner menus featuring all those in this room.”
In an instant, tension wrapped around me like a coat.
“There is Lady Katla.” She waved to a woman heavy with child. “Her husband will attend the final ceremony. If the rune fails, she’ll lose her husband and the father of her baby.”
“Consider me reminded,” I croaked. “I know the stakes are real.”
“Do you?” She threaded us through a throng, lifting a bracelet here, unhooking a necklace there. “You do not even know the price Sebastian must pay.”
Inside me, dread and suspicion locked horns. “You are correct. I do not. He has promised to explain it to me.”
“Good.” She gave herself another five-finger discount, pocketing someone’s ruby and diamond brooch, and whispering to me, “They bragged only this morning they are more observant than me. Not so observant now, are you, Lady Helgason,” she called.
As multiple groups looked our way, she picked up our conversation as if it had never lagged. “Just know, it doesn’t matter how strong you are. You do not have a future with him.”
My spine snapped ramrod straight. “I assure you, Lady Harpa. Anyone who threatens Sebastian or this kingdom will receive the same treatment I gave the mers.”
She blinked at me as if confused. “I think you misunderstood me, dragon girl. I never considered you weak. I know you are strong. You are a weakness. There is a difference.”
Her meaning crystallized. I’d combined the two ideas, thinking Sebastian would not see me as firebrand material unless I proved my prowess on the battlefield because he could not tolerate the thought of losing me if I fell.
Instead, she pointed the blame to his heart. Recognizing me as his and stealing him from his destiny.
That made me wonder. Was the rune’s cost… me? Must he give his heart to the rune rather than his consort?
My chest clenched. If that were the case, he had to choose between his people and me, and I would lose every time. And rightly so.
I pulled my arm from hers even as my world tilted. “If you’ll excuse me.”
Maybe she responded. Maybe she didn’t. I strode from the ballroom, speaking to no one else. Through the palace hallways I went and of course, that was when I spotted Gunnar again. He was never less than five feet behind me.
I locked myself in the royal suite, but not Sebastian’s room. My own. The one with the door. A door I shut and sealed, pushing the dresser in front of it. Protocol said only he could open this door. No one ever told me I couldn’t barricade it.
I needed to think, and I couldn’t do that with his royal majesty nearby. But of course, as I paced through the room, trying so hard to cobble together a different, logical price tag, Sebastian, being Sebastian, opened the door enough to reach past it and push the furniture aside.
He entered the bedroom casually, his hands in his jacket pockets. “It isn’t polite to leave a party without saying goodbye to the host.”
“Well, that isn’t something Mr. Thorson taught in class.” I didn’t bother ending my brisk back and forth, and he didn’t attempt to stop me.
He strode to the bed and eased onto the edge of the mattress. “Shall we share our secrets now?”