Page 107 of In Violent Waves

Wilder looked between the three females and then nodded before turning on a heel and walking out.

“What in the world has gotten into him?” Maelys muttered, bewildered.

Lyra plucked at her downy comforter and shrugged. Her eyes were on the very full tray that Daisy had brought in. Her mouth watered, and she cleared her throat.

“Daisy?”

“Oh goodness me! Sorry,” she replied, striding to Lyra and handing her the tray. “Hope you’re hungry!”

Lyra shoved handfuls of berries and small cheeses into her mouth as Daisy and Maelys talked.

“I have never seen him in such a tizzy,” Maelys muttered.

Daisy hovered beside the bed until Lyra patted the corner, and then she plopped down.

“It seems as if he’s worried about her,” Daisy replied, nodding to Lyra.

Maelys reached to grab a grape, and Lyra swatted at her hand. Unperturbed, Maelys grabbed one anyway and popped it into her mouth. “You might be onto something.” She spoke with her mouth full. “He was very protective of her on the way here.”

“Under orders,” Lyra clarified.

Maelys threw her a look that said otherwise.

“He stayed by her side the entire time she was fighting off the spider venom, and when he left to bathe, he gave me specific instructions to alert him the moment she woke if it happened while he was gone,” Daisy added.

“What are you two trying to say?” Lyra volleyed her head between Maelys and Daisy.

“It’s obvious, isn’t it?” Maelys asked with a smirk.

Lyra rosewhen the sun was already well into the sky and enjoyed the serenity of nothingness. She had a day off from training and hadn’t decided yet what the day would bring.

A soft knocking on the door had her shifting her attention from the light streaming through the window to Daisy’s face.

“Still in bed, I see?”

Lyra yawned and stretched her arms up above her head.

“I didn’t have training this morning.”

Daisy grinned and patted the cream ruffles of her uniform.

“Well, then. What would you like to do today, so that I know how to dress you?”

Lyra frowned, and her nose scrunched. “I’m not sure. Maybe the library? Oh! Are there gardens here?”

Daisy walked to the armoire and began rifling through it. “There are the queen’s gardens and the northern gardens. Both are expansive.”

“Which do you prefer?”

Daisy froze with her hands on a sky-blue gossamer gown. “I don’t know. I’ve never walked through the queen’s gardens.”

“Could you go with me, then?” Lyra asked, sitting up against the pillows.

“I would like that very much.”

Lyra swung her legs off the side of the bed and stood up. “Then it’s settled. You’ll go with me.”

They walked arm-in-arm through the queen’s gardens, and it was magical.