Page 127 of Of Bargains & Betrayal

My legs wobbled a little, and I pinched my nose, letting out a heavy sigh. “I thought we’d ride. I could’ve borrowed Apollo. He was lovely.”

I may have drawn out that last word on a whine, because the dyrehorse I’d had the pleasure of riding once was truly a magnificent creature, and I’d thought today would’ve been my chance at unrestrained access.

“Well, we plane stepped instead.” Gallan shrugged. “But don’t go telling me you want me to whip you back to the Keep in ten minutes. I need at least a few hours before I can pull both of us back through like that again. So—” He swept his arm out to the street sprawling out before us. “Welcome to Embervale.”

Clearly, my time behind the depressing black walls of Grimm’s Keep had tainted my expectations, because I was having a hard time processing the sea of color around me.

Buildings painted blue, red, and even yellow, with the odd neutral tone tossed in between. Bunting strung high across the street from roof to roof with canvas flags painted with vibrant symbols. Planters too, dotting windows and front steps and set out in front of vacant shop carts, in a plethora of vivid jewel tones. And it wasn’t even full daylight yet.

Gallan had brought me to another kingdom entirely.

“It’s lovely, isn’t it?” He dropped a muscular arm across the top of my shoulders again and pulled me along, inhaling deeply. “There’s something about the smell of the sea. Soothes your soul a little.”

Goddess, did it ever. I wasn’t even a coastal creature, but the brine-saturated air felt incredible flowing in and out of my lungs.

“Thank you for bringing me.” I tossed a smile up at him. “I suppose we beat the morning rush, didn’t we?”

A beat of laughter rumbled out of Gallan’s chest. He squinted and gave the horizon a scrutinizing glance. “Oh, I’d say we beat it by…three or four hours. You’ll have to use your imagination a little, or I can just try to knock you clean off your feet every few paces so you get the full city experience.”

I dug my elbow a little into his side. “I’ve been to a city before, Gallan, but thank you.”

Maybe I would’ve been better off suffering through another day of Eilir’s eternal optimism.

“Well, that’s your loss, princess,” Gallan chuckled. “That means we’ll just have to fill our time with riveting conversation instead.”

Oh, here we go.

“You know,” I said, “I wouldn’t be opposed to, oh, I don’t know, a tour of the city. Maybe a little history, or⁠—”

“Utterly boring. This is the only street in Embervale that deserves a single footnote. It’s where most of the taverns and shops are. The Busty Wench there.” He gestured to a bright blue building front that had the apt image of a voluptuous-chested woman on its hanging sign. “And just over there. No, princess, the other over there. That black building with the missing sign? Ardwright’s Apothecary. Those are the only two places you’ll ever really need to know here.”

Drinks and medicines—I had to give him credit; those were the two most important places in any city, town, or village. Not that I saw myself ever having much use of them. I suspected once Maksym realized I’d slipped my proverbial leash, I’d be kept under lock and key at the Keep indefinitely.

“Riveting, Gallan. Thank you,” I chuckled.

Gallan gave me a squeeze that forced a squeak of air from my lungs and kept guiding me down the almost deserted road. We passed a single stationed guard and a bleary-eyed fisherman running late for his departure in the few minutes Gallan gave me to take in my peaceful surroundings.

A few more minutes tacked onto that clearly would’ve been too much to ask for.

“So, what’s troubling you?” he finally asked. “Oh, future queen of mine.”

Fuck me. Twice.

What a loaded statement from start to finish.

I didn’t have an immediate answer for him, though I felt compelled to tell him the truth in some regard. My conversations with Eilir were fairly candid, but the sprite was so optimistic and forward-looking, I never felt right talking to them about my overwhelming grief. Their tiny shoulders did not need that burden when my arrival had clearly fulfilled some aching part of their own soul.

Forget trying to broach that topic with my captor or his mage either. We’d sooner all tear each other limb from limb before anything productive came out of a conversation.

But a fragile kernel of my heart told me I’d be safe in my vulnerability with Gallan, and I trusted its quiet yet equally concerning voice.

“Positive you want to spend this lovely morning listening to me sing my sad song?” I asked, because I’d give him the decency of an out.

But Gallan just slid me a sidelong glance and nodded.

Still, it took me a minute to muster up the words that left my chest aching. Words I’d had so much damned time to think about the uncomfortable truth behind the last few days, in the loud moments of silence between Eilir’s lessons that would leave my mind with too much freedom.

“I didn’t ask for any of this, you know?” Goddess, it felt defeating to say it out loud to someone else. “Not what happened before my brother tried to…kill me, or after. I had my own life. My own friends. A job I loved. But then, everything happened like a fucking landslide. My father. My Brother. Maksym. Kieran. And I—” I let out a shaky breath, and my unsteadiness only worsened when Gallan stroked his thumb over my shoulder. “I kept thinking I could handle it all in stride. Just one day or hour at a time. That, at some point, it would get easier, just as long as I kept moving forward. B-but…”