Page 49 of The Shadows Between Us
I reach forward and pat his cheek mockingly. “There’s a good lad. Now off with you.”
“You’re lying,” he says as I reach for the door to leave.
“Am I? Shouldn’t take too long for you to verify for yourself. But don’t dally. You have until lunch to be gone.”
My smile is radiant as I leave his rooms. I only have control over one man, and yet, the power of it washes over me in intoxicating waves ofheat. When I am queen, will I experience it a thousandfold, knowing I will command tens of thousands?
WITH THE THRILL OFvictory still upon me, I go in search of Kallias. It’s early in the day still. Surely too early for meetings? After hailing down several servants, I’m finally told the king is breakfasting in the library.
Why didn’t he extend me an invitation?
I learn why as soon as a servant admits me into the room. Kallias is surrounded by correspondences. Amid countless papers and writing utensils, I think I see a bowl with hardboiled eggs, and half a piece of toast lies facedown on a book nearby. A book I suspect he is using as a paperweight.
“Now don’t you make being king look grand,” I say.
The Shadow King looks up from the letter he is composing. “It is good to see you, Alessandra. I feel like it’s been ages.”
“That’s because it has.”
He winces slightly. “I hope you can see for yourself that I’ve had good reasons for my absence.” He gestures wildly at the parchment he’s drowning in. At the movement, a whirl of shadow follows his arms.
“We have a problem,” I say without any more preamble.
“Are you all right?” he asks, looking up and giving me a quick once-over.
“Ikaros Vasco came to see me. He questioned whether our courtship is real. He suspects us. My father even showed up at the palace to take me home, because he was so convinced I’dfailed to win you.”
Kallias finally sets down his pen. “How is that possible?” Then a look of annoyance crosses his face. “Is this because of the time you’ve been spending with that Calligaris boy? Dammit, Alessandra, you shouldn’t have—”
“It is because ofyou,” I say, daring to cut him off.
He stands and clasps his hands together in front of him, his shadows darkening to midnight tendrils. “I have done nothing but show my interest in you. You sit at my immediate right during meals. I send you gifts.”
I wait for him to go on, but I realize he doesn’t have anything else to sell his point. “You hardly ever join us for meals anymore. True, you send me gifts, but you never accompany me to events away from the palace. Your neglect of me is showing. Myron started to take advantage of that, but I have done away with him. You need to do more, especially since we cannot behave as a normal courting couple.”
“Whatever do you mean by that?”
“Normal courting couples whisper sweet nothings into the other’s ear. They laugh when they are close together, sharing breath. Normal couples can’t keep their hands off each other.”
“We can’t do those things,” he says, his words clipped.
“We don’t have to do those things. That’s not what I’m saying. Devils! Do you want to sell our act of courtship? Thencourtme, Kallias. Take me on outings away from the palace. Spend time with me outside of mealtimes. Deliver your gifts to me in person. Act like a man who is infatuated.”
He watches me a long moment, considering my words carefully, I hope.
“No,” he says slowly. “No.” More firmly this time, as though convincing himself. He looks around at the mountain of papers. “I haven’t the time for that.”
A convenient excuse. What is holding him back?
“I would ask you to join me,” he says, “but as you can see, there isn’t room at the table. I will see you—when I see you.”
He flicks his fingers toward the door, a silent dismissal.
I’M FULLY AWARE THATI look like a child as I stomp back toward my rooms. But no one is around to see, so I indulge myself.
When I hear someone rounding the corner up ahead, I straighten and allow my slippers to tread normally. I do my best to keep my irritation at the intruder at bay. Yes, this ismy corridor.
“Two letters for you, my lady,” a servant says with a bow, extending a silver platter in my direction. I retrieve the envelopes before disappearing into my room.
