Page 77 of Spring Guardians & Songbirds

Lemon flowers.

Immediately, my gaze went in search of him. His brown hair was still wet and fell to his eyes, his perfect mouth moved in conversation, and forcibly, I wrestled my attention away from them only to land on his body. I gulped. The thin shirt he wore was almost sheer, even with most of his hard muscle covered with bandage, his body was something that made my mouth want to adore—teeth and tongue and all.

“A handsome sight, isn’t he?” Moriko drew out with snark in her usually composed voice.

She had caught me ogling him. “By all means, you’re free to enjoy it, too.” Without daring to look up at him, I dug into the delicious meal before me.

“You know my taste is for a different flower.”

Lifting the chopsticks to point her in threat, I said, “Call Nia a flower again, and I swear.”

Kilian looked confused and dopey, his eyes fluttering open and shut in a weird way.

She chuckled. “She lets me call her that with no issue.” Her eyes flinted to Kilian for a moment before they came back to me. “We don’t have Medi healers in Hanai, the earth heals our wounds at its pace, but he needs to be seen by one. Whatever that thing that attacked him was, it was a contortion of some sort of dark magic and it could delay his healing. We’ve given him something for the pain. It should come to effect soon.”

Giving her a small nod, I continued languidly chewing.

“Look at me, Snow,” he demanded, and my eyes snapped to him. “What is it?”

I couldn’t help the way my attention went to his injuries. I wish you could die without me feeling like I could die, too. “You’re bleeding.”

He didn’t look down on the patch of red soaking the thin linen, only at me, like nothing mattered. “I’ve never stopped bleeding, not since last I had you in my arms.”

The mouthful of food turned sour mid chew. Light rain pattering on the thin walls was the only sound that filled the deafening silence.

“So have I.” The way his silver eyes light almost in hope made my heart ache and all I wanted was to make his ache too. “The sharp sting of scales slithering over my skin, the prickling embrace of a snake, the venomous words of a predator have still left my skin raw and bleeding. I was held by what tore my heart apart. You never warned me of your edges, only made me hold you tighter. As if you wanted me to bleed. Did you want me to bleed?” He hurt me with purpose. I knew he did. He thought me weak, and I hated that he had thought right.

“You weren’t meant to.”

“Tell me, what was I meant to?”

“Hate me.”

“I already hated you.”

“Hate me enough to have your fill.”

“If anything, you made me a glutton for my purpose.”

A soft click on the glass table made the two of us turn to Moriko. “Well, that puts my plan to a screeching halt.”

Picking up a spoon, I dug into the next dish. Hunger made me rageful. “What plan?”

“She wants us to make contact with Solarya, to figure out the pattern of the sceptre pieces,” Kilian explained.

I scoffed. “Magnus’s ego will be too bruised.” The Sun King was like the animal he was compared to. Lions and their pride.

“So would mine, if I had one,” Moriko said. “Magnus and I are on the same boat. He will find comfort in my failure.”

“Then you make contact with him.”

She gave me a cold blank look. “The world thinks you dead. How would I explain to the sun rulers all that has happened? How will I justify how Adriata killed you and betrayed Isjord? Sure, they will be pleased to know, but how willing to help him and I would they be? You can act as proof and reassurance of not only what your father has done, but his innocence in this.”

“With a method called lies. He can help you,” I said, pointing to Kilian. “He knows a thing or two about lying.”

Moriko rolled her eyes at me. She rolled her eyes at me. The Hanaian queen rolled her eyes at me. “It would be smart to gain an ally in this, Snowlin. And I am not speaking as a friend, I am speaking as a ruler. If the worst comes to face, we are looking at war.”

Well that made me lose my appetite. “Do you think I trust Magnus enough to reveal Olympia to him? With my aunt lurking in all corners of Solarya at that.”