Page 182 of North Queen
Finally, he nodded.
“How long will you be gone?”
“Only a couple weeks.”
Too long. She nodded sadly and took another drink of her tea.
Norah made her way down the long hall of the castle to the library in the far wing, with an entourage of guards behind her. While her stomach wounds had healed over, the lengthy walk brought an aching stitch deep within. At least she didn’t have to go out into the winter to a separate building like in Mercia.
As she walked, she looked out through the windows at a narrow garden area with a thin pool in the center. It had wintered over, and its greenery had been cut back to the ground, but it would be beautiful when it came to life in the spring. On the other side of the garden ran another windowed hall, parallel to her own, and she stopped when she saw Mikael. He was speaking to an older man from his Circle, Kharav’s council. The man noticed her, and Mikael turned, with his eyes now on her. They stood a moment, their stares caught through the windows until she broke away and started forward again.
From the corner of her eye, she saw the king part from his councilman and walk down his own hall, keeping pace with her. Norah cursed under her breath. She would see him around the corner, where the halls met and became one. She could turn back—an appealing option. But she continued.
She came to the end of the windows and paused against the stone before turning the corner. She could still turn back…
And awkwardly shuffle through the army behind her…
And make it even more difficult when she next saw the king.
No.She pushed out a breath and turned the corner.
Mikael stood waiting where the halls joined before stretching to the library. “Salara,” he greeted her when she reached him. “I almost thought you’d turned back.”
“I thought about it,” she confessed.
His head gave a slight nod, and his eyes grazed the ground. “Are you going to the library?”
There was no denying it. The library spanned the entire wing; there was no other reason she’d be there. “I am.”
“As am I.”
She tilted her head in feigned amusement. “How coincidental.”
They walked side by side under the arched hall. Columns of stone rose to meet at the center above their heads and bounced the light with a majestic air. No matter how many times she walked this hall, she never grew tired of its beauty.
“It’s good to see you out,” he said.
It was good to be out, but she said nothing.
They reached the carved doors of the library—another sight that always overwhelmed her. Mikael could stand a man on his shoulders, and they still wouldn’t touch the top. But Mikael wasn’t looking at the doors; he was looking at her.
She shifted uncomfortably, searching her mind for how to part. “Did you have something to find here?” she asked, prompting him on his way.
But he gave a small frown. “No.”
She could only stare at him. “Then why did you come?”
“To be with you.”
Norah’s breath faltered. These were the moments that made her want him near, that made her forget about everything else.
He stepped closer. Her hand hung at her side, and he brushed it softly with his own, testing. The warmth of his touch seeped into her skin, creeping its way up her arm and through her body. So little time they’d spent alone the past several days. Her anger had been driving her mind, almost making her forget his effect. Almost.
She didn’t pull away.
“I don’t like how things have been between us,” he said. “Tell me how to fix it.”
He wanted to fix it? But she didn’t know how. They came from completely different worlds.
