“Just make sure Gandrett gets to Denderlain court safely,” Mckenzie added when none of them spoke. He could feel the noblewoman roll her eyes. “And when all this is over, why don’t you disappear already?” Her words sounded annoyed, but he saw it in the small details of the way her eyes tightened and her throat bobbed as if she wanted to take back the words she had just spoken, that his rejection had hurt her.
He didn’t respond but said to Gandrett, “My apologies for ditching you this morning. I had important matters to attend to.” My apologies for running away last night. And, it’s better you don’t know the matters until the time comes. He took a steadying breath when her face showed as little emotion as a polished iron. So he turned to the woman who was as beautiful as a masterpiece painted by the masters of Ackwood and couldn’t find anything on her lovely face that would hold his interest. “Thank you, Mckenzie, for keeping Miss Brayton company.”
Mckenzie recognized her dismissal with a sour look, got to her feet, and threw her arms around Gandrett before doing so. “Let him help you, Gandrett,” she whispered, but not low enough to keep her words from his Fae hearing. “He might be a grumpy pain in the ass, but he knows what he’s doing.”
With those words, Mckenzie left them in the rising heat of the ascending sun, and Nehelon’s mouth went dry as Gandrett, a ghost of a smile on her lips, turned back to the maps.
He swallowed. Once. Twice. Then took a seat where Mckenzie had been a couple of moments ago.
“I spent the morning arranging for a carriage and escort to Eedwood Forest.” His words sounded dull in his human voice. “You’ll leave at first light in two days.”
Nehelon didn’t need to look up to know Gandrett had feared—anticipated and feared—this moment when the plan would be laid out for her.
It had been Lord Tyrem’s decision to keep her in the dark about details until the very last moment. Now it was on him to tell her.
He had put it off that night when he had found her dancing with Mckenzie and Brax, both twins, even though by far more skilled at it, not even a shadow of the grace with which Gandrett moved.
“The Denderlains always hunt in the same part of the forest. You won’t be able to miss them.”
Gandrett remained silent, her hands in her lap, fiddling with the edge of a scroll.
“Mckenzie agreed to oversee your wardrobe. Brax offered to take you to the forest himself…”
“He can’t.” Gandrett cut him off, eyes fierce, but quickly smoothed over her expression. “I mean… It’s too dangerous for him to go. If anything goes wrong with Joshua…”
“The Brenheran’s need Brax as their heir, I know,” he finished her sentence. But didn’t fail to notice the flicker of light in her eyes. She was anxious for Brax.
Nehelon ignored the surge of anger that accompanied the realization.
“Because his life is too precious, it will be I who escorts you to the edge of the forest. You will take a horse from there.”
Her eyes didn’t flicker with fear for him, and the lack of it smothered the anger with a pang of disappointment.
What had he been hoping for? That she would even hold a shred of warmth for him? Her touch the night before—curiosity. She had been examining a foreign species. That was all.
“I’ll need weapons,” she demanded, and he wanted to tell her that he would lay all the armament he had at her feet when the time came. If the time ever came.
But now was not the time.
Chapter Twenty-One
Brax visited her first thing that morning, hair combed, a fresh jacket protecting him from the cold breeze. Frost had eaten away the blossoms overnight, leaving wrinkled fallen petals all over the palace grounds. He hadn’t found her at her chambers but spied her from the window at the end of the hallway, sending him down the stairs taking two steps at once.
He crossed the courtyard, hands in his pockets, the fingers of one hand playing with the silver chain he’d pulled from the dresser last night, his course set toward the waiting by the stables.
Gandrett was a vision in fir-green, a color that brought out the golden flecks in her eyes. Of course, he could hardly see them in the gray light of dawn. She smiled at him when she noticed him approach in a hurry, probably seeing his casual jog for what it was—an attempt at keeping himself from flying toward her.
“You thought I’d let you leave without saying goodbye?” he said by way of greeting.
Gandrett’s smile widened.
It had been weeks since that first stroll in the park he had taken her on. Back then, she had marveled at the trees, at the lushness of the grass, the colors of the flowers. He had seen it in her eyes, the wonder at all the beauty she’d missed out on during her time in Everrun. And he had noticed how her cheeks had stained when he had caught her staring—not at nature, but at him.
A Child of Vala. He shook his head at himself. With all the women throwing themselves at him—heir or not—it had to be a Child of Vala.
Nehelon had warned him, the night he had brought her back from Everrun, that he was to leave his hands in his pockets with her if he didn’t want to jeopardize his brother’s rescue mission. So he had. Even if the first thing he’d noticed was that the girl was unlike anyone he’d been with. It was like looking into a calm lake, a surface as clear and beautiful as crystal glass, no indication of what lay in the depths beyond.
He normally didn’t care, didn’t want to know what lay in anyone’s depths. But Gandrett Brayton was an enigma he was determined to figure out.
Even if it would have to wait until Josh returned so Nehelon couldn’t make any claims.
“Is there anything you want me to tell Joshua when I find him?” she asked, not saying good morning either. Her lips were like cherry blossoms, pale-pink, and the collar of her dress, lined with soft leather, leaned like tulip petals against the slender column of her neck.
He let his gaze linger for a second before he looked her in the eye. “Tell Josh that if he doesn’t get his ass over here, I’ll personally dig a tunnel into Eedwood castle to go kick it.” He laughed, not at all feeling like it, but he did it because it made her smile. Anything for that smile.
And if it didn’t make her smile, at least it made her cheeks turn pink and her eyes shutter.
Even if she was a Child of Vala, not versatile in flirting and court chit-chat, despite Mckenzie’s countless hours of getting her used to it, there was a different strength in her. A quiet beauty that had crept into his mind and lingered. And her skill with the sword…
Nehelon was a fool if he doubted anything could keep Gandrett from bringing back his brother.
Brax’s fingers curled around the chain in his pocket as he studied her face in the rising daylight. “I won’t tell you to be careful, Gandrett,” he said and reached for her hand, watching her eyes widen slightly with that weird satisfaction of knowing his touch had some small effect on her. “But I’ll ask you not to forget me while you’re gone.” He turned over her hand and pulled the silver necklace from his pocket.
Gandrett’s eyes drifted to her hand, surprise written clearly on her features, as she pulled back her hand to examine the small silver pendant set with splinters of emerald.