Page 82 of Winter Gods & Serpents

“You could have gone too.”

“Fine way to try and get rid of me.”

“But you wound me, Adriatian. We’d begun getting along.”

Funny. “I have a name, princess.”

“Me too.”

“Your Highness?”

“Dickhead?”

I bit my tongue, I asked for that. “Adriatian it is.”

“I thought so too,” she said, throwing me a wink before finally entering her bedroom.

I ran my finger through my hair in attempt to soothe the drumming headache. This was harder than I thought.

Chapter 19

Blood and Shadow

Kilian

She’d come to the library, floating like a spirit around the dark lifeless corridors filled with rotting pages and the musky scent of ink and cellulose. I had not the slightest idea why she chose to wander at night and why particularly here, murder needn’t much researching.

Her slender fingers gently traced the dark wooden shelves, the white shift floated around her, luminant in the darkness lit by only odd candles, and her hair—her hair ever black, as always waving down her back, unbound and alluring like silk of night. I followed not few paces behind, able to take in all the details in all her silence. What she had told me at the funeral, the patrol in Casmere, they had stayed on my mind more than I’d usually like to keep thoughts. Overthinking created hesitation, doubts, and fear, not qualities of a good solider but it made me wonder what her life had been like.

She halted and turned pulling out a wine-coloured leather-bound book. Her eyes travelling along the harsh ink and faded words. She had such a giving concentrated expression. She always bit the side of her lower lip and her dark brows pulled tight together that wiggled just slightly when she found what she was looking for. Unsatisfied, she abruptly slammed it shut and placed it back before turning to face me.

“I’d suggest you end the staring, it would be disastrous if you ended falling in love with me,” she said, flicking a bunch of her satiny dark locks over her shoulder. “I’m bewitching you see, the ybris charms.” Moonlight peaking from the small iced windows had given her a white halo. She looked divine more than anything.

“I could,” I said, approaching close enough that she leaned back almost folding backwards in half. “If this realm turned upside down and sideways to hells.” Reaching over her head I removed the soft feather that had rested there since she’d left her room. “Revolting really, the murderous wiles.”

She glanced sideways at the feather resting in my hand and backed away straightening herself.

A winsome smile stretched innocently on her lips looking to devour me into her tease. “They make for the most of my appeal, darling.” Throwing me a wink she continued strutting graciously onto the library corridors humming that same melody she sung at nights before bed.

Darling?

She knew how to play with my patience—too well. Or was I letting myself be riled by her? She was easy to dislike, and I’d fallen into that trap too deep. Disliking her was a trap, I realized, she enjoyed the back talk and torturous teases.

“Doesn’t she ever sleep?” I asked Nia, who had sat by a reading table eyes glued on a book.

“Mostly not, but something must be bothering her if she wanted to get out of her bedroom. Usually she just lays in bed.”

So, it was common? “There is medi-healers that—”

“Tried.”

“And crafters?”

“Tried.”

“Doesn’t it worry you that she never rests or sleeps?”

She lowered her book down and finally looked up at me. “Doesn’t it ever worry you, that you might be the cause why she can’t sleep?” she asked, raising her brows and then shook her head at my silence.