Page 123 of The Shrouded Queen
Thiswould be the memory I’d carry to the Underworld with me. Seemed about right.
I wouldn’t need a betrayal to ruin our friendship; I had a sinking suspicion I’d accomplished that all on my own.
Rade looked like he was going to say more, but the door clicked open, followed by a startled, “Oh!”
I turned to see Velka standing there, gaze averted awkwardly. “Sorry, I didn’t— I was told to come get you. Final preparations, my king.”
I saw the scene through her eyes. The two of us breathless, Rade on his back, my unbuttoned tunic held together by my fist. The heat in my cheeks went up by several degrees.
“Amunet?” Rade ventured cautiously, his gaze burning into the side of my head.
I smiled flimsily through swollen lips without looking at him. “Go. I’ll be all right.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah.”
He hesitated a moment longer. But a glance at the semi-open door, and Velka waiting behind it, made him think twice. He grazed his fingers over my hand. “We’ll talk later?”
There would not be alater. But I said, “Of course.”
He gave me one of his crooked smiles and headed to the door. He paused. I busied myself with doing up the clasps of my tunic to avoid his gaze. He sighed before his footsteps thumped down the hall.
“Okay if I come in?” asked Velka.
“Of course.” I flopped back on the pillows, wanting nothing more than to bury myself under a pile of them and never see the surface again.
Velka shut the door and approached. “You all right?”
“We were just…” I gestured vaguely with my hand before I let it drop to the mattress. “I reacted badly.”
Velka nodded sympathetically and perched on the edge of the bed. “When Bain and I were first mated, I’d yelp every time he touched my butt.”
I shot straight up, pity party momentarily stalled. “Bainis your mate?”
“Yeah.” She cringed. “Long story.”
“I thought you hated him.”
“I do sometimes. Most of the time.” She laughed, a tired sound. “Thin line between love and hate.”
I gaped. There had been a strange dynamic between them, which I’d noticed my very first night here. They were always watching each other, but I’d thought their glances seemed veiled with hostility. I wondered what had caused that rift between them. I opened my mouth to ask one of a dozen questions.
But Velka said, “Forget about Bain. I wanted to apologize, Your Majesty. Again.”
I blinked. “For what?”
Her tattooed fists were clenched on her thighs. “I tried to stop him. Really, I did. And believe me, Keir will be punished accordingly. I’ll see to it myself, if I have to. Sitting in a cell in the mountain is just the start.”
“That’s where he is?” I confirmed. “In the mountain?”
“Much deeper in the mountain than we are now,” she assured me. “Rade’s given strict instructions that no one is to see him until after today.”
I stilled. “He hasn’t said anything?”
“No. Didn’t say a word the entire night I was on guard. Oddly quiet by Keir’s standards. But he knows he overstepped. He’s probably coming up with a scheme to get out of whatever punishment the king has in mind for him.”
He hadn’t told anyone what he’d tasted in my blood.
