Page 78 of Noble Charms

“I can. I will. It doesn’t have to be complicated. Look.” Hampenstead let Aria go and approached the bedside table. There, he had a document. Aria recognized it. A contract. The same he’d signed for Ellor. “Take this. Read it. And sign it.”

He placed it in Aria’s hands and patted the side of his face. Aria looked into his eyes, through his glasses.

“I’ll treat you right. I-I’ve got much affection for you. You’re the prettiest elf I’ve ever seen.”

Aria’s fingers tightened over the document.

Hampenstead kissed him once on the lips, and Aria didn’t return the gesture. “Sign it when you’ve decided I’m right, and send it to me before Winterend. It expires at midnight that night.”

Aria could feel the magic embedded in the document—assigning over his magic as an adame to Hampenstead. A temporary spell that would vanish, harmless and heartbreaking, if Aria never signed.

“You’re too talented to slum it out at bars, Aria. This is what you were meant to do.”

Aria read and read the document every day leading up to Winterend. The paper grew soft from the number of times he unfolded it.

His soul said no, but that voice had grown muffled as the temperatures plunged in the city, and Aria wanted nothing more than to have a warm body against his.

NOBLE

Damn near everything reminded Noble of Aria. He’d thought two weeks away from him would have softened the memories, but they grew more pronounced, like his soul opted to keep Aria as a ghost if he couldn’t have him in person.

Noble dismounted the horse and handed the reins to the stable boy. The speckled mare he’d ridden looked like Lima. He still loved that name—Lima. Aria’s horse.

Noble rubbed his temples as he climbed the stairs to his room. He heard his mother laughing distantly in her room downstairs as she got ready for the big night. They were going to start with a family dinner and then begin the gala with all the noble guests.

His mother’s voice reminded him: she’d had an adame growing up. He wondered where that elf was today. Had he cared for Noble’s mom, or was it just a job to him? Aria didn’t think the role was romantic in the slightest. That much was clear.

And Noble had begun to agree. He didn’t want Aria to work for him. He wanted Aria to love him. He closed the door to his room and made his way to the awaiting bath, steaming warm, to clean the day off himself. Even the bath made him think of Aria, though. He remembered sitting in his bath at his home in New Hieroph while Aria read The Bard Bride aloud, behind a curtain, and how they’d laughed together at Eleanor’s adventure.

Noble made himself leave the bath. He dried off, donned the formal outfit left for him by Morgan, who was no doubt halfway back to New Hieroph by now for a romantic evening with his fiancee.

As Noble fastened cufflinks on his shirt’s sleeve, he thought that Aria would probably wear a bardic robe to such an event. A long, flowing gold gown tied at the waist, with his hair loose and soft around his face. They would sit side-by-side while they ate roasted carrots and shared dinner rolls and clinked together their glasses of red wine. Noble stared at himself in the mirror, at the dark circles around each eye, and groaned. He tried to wipe the mourning and memories from his face. He was in no mood to party, but alas.

A knock sounded at the door. “Come in.”

The door creaked slowly, and Noble spun around to see his aunt. Princess Prittey. She said, “I figured I’d find you in here.”

Noble let out a thoughtful hum. “Well, it is my room.”

“You’ve not come out much. Only to ride that horse, or spar with your friend.”

Noble shrugged. And then gestured for Prittey to come in. “Have a seat, if you’d like.”

She was tall and dark-skinned, with two dozen small braids wound together in one larger braid that fell down her back. Her dress was simple—too casual for dinner downstairs and the gala after—and she said, “I haven’t gotten to talk to you at all since you’ve come to stay. I wanted to say hello. And give my condolences on your marriage.” She sat in the wingback chair near the window.

“Thanks, Auntie,” said Noble. He sat on the edge of his bed, opposite her. “But I’m truly beyond that now.” He didn’t care about losing Virginia. She barely crossed his mind these days.

“You’ve begun to court a new lady? Someone we’ll see tonight?”

Noble sighed. He was used to these questions now—his mother, his other aunts, and even the staff all wanted to know if he’d set his sights on a new woman to be his bride. “No.”

“No desire?”

Noble snorted before he could stop himself. He’d endless desire. For Aria.

Prittey smiled knowingly. “You can tell your auntie, Noble. Who is she?”

Noble watched her for a moment. Prittey was perhaps the only person in his family that he could trust to tell this to. Keeping it quiet like this might have been why his mind was fixated on finding Aria in every place. He was suppressing something outwardly, and his insides were having to bear the pressure. But the timing was suspect. “Why did you come here now?”