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“I add mywelcometo Lady Gwynn’s,” Rogue inserted with considerably more suave charm. “I’ll have servants show you to your rooms, so you may rest and freshen yourselves before you meet us for the welcome feast.”
I managed not to roll my eyes at the phrase “welcome feast.” Rogue knew—hell, they all knew—how much I hated the endless fairy feasts. In the background, the men renewed their chant. The view had changed back to the drawbridge and they were hauling it up again. Had the rest of my soldiers made it over? I glanced up at Rogue and he nodded, answering before I could ask.
“Meet you?” Starling’s happy mien crumbled at the edges. “Am I not still your maidservant? You’ve cast me aside then. All right, I imagine the maidservants at the Castle of the Dark Gods are ever so much morespecialand—”
“Would you stop?” I interrupted her tirade. “I don’t have a new maidservant, okay?”
“Well, that explains the hair,” she muttered.
“I’ve been busy.” Mostly having a lot of sex, but also dealing with stubborn elemental spirits too. And healing. “But you can come fix me up for dinner if it makes you happy. Lord Rogue only thought you might want to relax a little.”
Rogue’s hand drifted down my lower back to just brush the top curve of my bottom, a reminder that he’d had something else in mind.
Darling Hercules trotted up just then, waving his tail in hellos, and informing me that the mouse population of the castle had rebounded in his long absence, but that he was working on it.
Goliath, he reminded me.
“We’re not in battle,” I told him. “We all agree that, since Goliath is your battle name, it should be reserved for that very special occasion.” I widened my eyes at the others, who hastily nodded in agreement. Except for Rogue, who looked coolly amused.
Darling Hercules considered and, to my surprise, agreed. Then asked about supper. With a resounding boom, the drawbridge connected with the castle, sealing us in once again.
“So, my Lady Gwynn,” Rogue said, taking my hand, turning it over and pressing a burning kiss to my palm, “since you will be busy being appropriately groomed by Lady Starling and I have business to take care of, I shall take your leave until the feast.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “What business? Don’t tell me the minions aren’t sufficiently oppressed.”
“Nothing interesting,” he replied breezily. “Besides, I’m sure you’ll want to startyourminions on planning the wedding.”
Starling squealed like some tropical monkey and clapped her hands together. “A royal wedding! At last. Itoldyou true love would triumph in the end.”
I ignored her, concentrating on scowling at Rogue for throwing me to the wolves. He grinned, completely unrepentant, then tugged my hand and pulled me in for a kiss that turned considerably steamier than appropriate in front of friends.
Just as I resolved to push him away, he broke the kiss, giving me a very smug look, and strolled away. “I’ll return in time to escort you to the feast, my lady,” he called over his shoulder.
Starling sighed on a long croon of delight. “He is positively dreamy.”
“He’s positively an asshole, is more like it.” I gazed after him, proud of myself for summoning the correct sour tone but unable to keep from admiring his very fine form. With a bit of a wrench, it hit me that we hadn’t been apart in days—or however long. And here I missed him already. Whoa. I seriously needed to take a step back.
“My Lady Sorceress?” Larch spoke up. “Do you wish me to stay or go?”
“Go?” I echoed blankly.
“The Castle of Dark Gods houses many pages. You may not have need of me, in your new household.” His blueberry face looked stolid as always, giving no clue to his preferences.
“Well, do youwantto go home? Or back to Falcon’s camp? It’s really up to you.”
“If you no longer wish to employ me as your page, I would as soon not stay, as I would have to find a new place in the hierarchy here.”
“He means it would suck, Gwynn,” Athena put in, pulling out her dagger and spinning it in a complex pattern so it wove between her fingers, like coin artists would do back home. She’d been practicing. “He’d probably get stuck scrubbing pots or something. You owe him better than that.”
Larch purpled and glowered at her. “The most powerful Sorceress Gwynn owes neither you nor me anything, you upstart fairy. You’re lucky they even let you—”
“Kids.” I held up my hands in a referee’s gesture. At least it wasn’t Starling and Athena bickering this time. “You all saved my life more than once and you’re also my friends. Of course I owe you. I haven’t seen any sign of Rogue having a personal page, so why don’t you continue as mine—I mean, ours. Would that work?”
Larch puffed with pride, something that made his fireplug body look a bit more like a plump blueberry. “I shall serve you faithfully and well, my Lady Gwynn! With your permission, I shall familiarize myself with the staff.”
“You don’t need my permission, Larch. Have at it.”
He trotted off wearing an imperious air that made him seem taller somehow.
