Page 36 of The Blade in the Ashes
“You’re the Crown Princess,” he reminded me. “Don’t you want to know why foreign leaders just landed in your capital?”
Foreign leaders?
My stomach dropped with an odd sense of precognition that if foreign rulers were here, it wasn’t to stand against Hyrax.
Chapter Eleven
Iris
“Well, I’ll be damned.”
It had taken me a few days to actually work up the courage to return to this room. Days that were spent sleeping in brief spurts on couches or floors when I could find breaks between long hours spent planning and strategizing with Clay and Kent.
I wasn’t sure why I’d been nervous to step back inside these four walls. Was it fear that things would be noticeably different despite Nikolai’s assurance that everything was just as I had left it? Or was I more afraid that he had spoken the truth and the room was untouched?
Either way, Nikolai hadn’t been exaggerating. It was all identical to the room that was permanently etched in my memories. From the positioning of the flickering candelabras to every gown, jewel, and hairpin. Gods, it was even dusty in some places.
Absentmindedly, I chewed on my lower lip and thought back to that first mission with the Order. Nikolai had never been part of the plan. Our relationship was never supposed to have happened.
And when I left him? I had never planned to return.
“Care for a drink?”
I glanced over my shoulder to see Nikolai staring at me from where he leaned against the doorframe of the room, a playful smirk on his face. That smirk hadn’t changed after all this time either.
“Was that your attempt to startle me?” I deadpanned. It would take a lot more than that to scare me these days.
He prowled forward, his body the same mass of smooth, masculine domination that I remembered so well. I kept my face neutral, refusing to show the slightest reaction to him.
Nikolai Legum liked to live inside illusions, too. I might change my face and hair color, but he maintained this elaborate estate, kept his clothes tailored and his copper hair cleanly tied back to hide that darkness in him. He hid behind teasing grins and polite table manners, but I knew better than anyone how vicious he could be.
“Why would I want to scare you, bird?” he asked, reaching out to tuck a strand of wavy russet hair behind my ear. His eyes tracked the movement. “I must admit, this has become somewhat of my favorite part of the day.”
“What has?”
Hazel eyes met mine with burning intensity. “Seeing what appearance you will choose.”
I pinched my lips together, ignoring the urge to step back and put space between us. “Having only one hair color can be so boring.”
His lips quirked into a grin. “Perhaps. It’s not just the hair that changes, though.”
His grin widened when I shivered against the sensation of his index finger trailing down the line of my collarbone to rest on the right side of my chest, just an inch above the neckline of my vest. Slowly, he tapped his finger three times against my skin. “This freckle, for example, wasn’t there yesterday.”
I swallowed, even as I turned away from him dismissively and made my way into the closet of the room.
Gods, it might have been the most beautiful space in all the realm.
A small whimper escaped as I stared at it all. Necklaces of emerald and diamond. Tiaras. Rings. Earrings. Gowns of shimmering silk and elaborate lace.
It was a damn shame I couldn’t keep a single one.
I went to the drawers first, pilfering through them and pulling out anything that could be remotely of value.
“Do you have nothing better to do than memorize my freckles?” I remarked over my shoulder as an icy shiver traveled down my spine when I thought about how much attention he had to be paying to me to notice such details.
“You’re my wife, of course I think about you.”
I scoffed aloud, both at the casual way he said it and the ridiculousness of the statement.
