Part 14 (2/2)

I eyed her nightgown with its frills and flounces, wondering precisely what kind of surprise she had planned. Shaking my head, I told myself it didn't matter. She could be naked in front of me and it wouldn't matter. Her virtue was safe from me.

I looked over her shoulder, searching the shadows of the corridor behind her. ”Did you hear anything? A sound?”

She dragged her bright blue eyes from my chest back to my face. ”I'm sure it was nothing. It's an old castle. The stone makes sounds sometimes. Or perhaps it was the wind.”

”It wasn't stone settling or the wind. It sounded far away, but it was in the castle. Here in these walls.”

She shook her head slightly, an emotion edging into her eyes that was at odds with her usual exuberance. ”It was probably Cook butchering a hog.”

I studied her, watching her smooth throat work to swallow. She was lying. ”It wasn't a hog.”

She s.h.i.+fted on her feet and glanced over her shoulder, looking uneasy. ”Sometimes others stay up late carousing in private chambers. We all need our amus.e.m.e.nts.”

I stepped closer, not above using my nearness to manipulate her. She had used every opportunity to touch me. I usually edged away, but this time I gave her what she wanted.

Life at court could be as tricky and dangerous as life on the Outside, and manipulation wasn't an unfamiliar practice. Pandering favor often determined fates. I knew that from being a part of my father's household. It would be no different here. For me, it was probably worse. At any time, for any reason, I could lose favor with the king, if I truly even had it. I might be betrothed to Princess Maris, but that would not keep me from getting my throat cut if Tebald so chose.

I brushed a silky blond lock of hair off her shoulder. She released a tiny gasp, leaning into my touch. ”Why are you lying to me, Maris?” I whispered. ”Clever girl like you, you know everything that goes on in this castle.”

Her lips worked before speech found her. ”There are all kinds of things you hear at night in this castle. Best to ignore them.”

”Tell me, Maris.”

”Don't go snooping around, Fowler.” For the first time she didn't look so much like a little girl. She looked nervous. I dropped my hand, suddenly feeling wrong about touching her and using her feelings.

She leaned forward like she wanted to chase that hand. ”Go back to bed, Maris,” I ordered. ”You shouldn't be here.”

”And why shouldn't I?” She took a step forward, until our bodies practically touched. ”We're to be married. What's wrong with us being together now?”

By that logic, nothing. Nothing was wrong with it.

Except we wouldn't marry.

Very soon, she would wake up and I would be gone. Contrary to what I told Tebald, I wasn't about to live out my father's plans and wed Maris.

She pressed a fingertip above my heart and trailed it down my chest. Emotion burned in her eyes as she gazed at me. I couldn't take what she was offering me. I wouldn't be that big of a b.a.s.t.a.r.d. Life was hard, full of disappointment and loss. She hadn't experienced much yet, but she would. I'd rather not be the one to deliver her that education.

I set my hands on her shoulders and moved her back from me, setting her very deliberately outside my bedchamber door. ”Go to your chamber, Maris.”

Something sparkled in her eyes that should have warned me. Defiance? Determination. She stood on her tiptoes and circled one hand around my neck. Leaning forward, she clumsily pressed her lips to mine.

I placed my hands on her arms and gently tried to push her away from me. She clung, her hand tightening on my neck and her lips mas.h.i.+ng harder to mine with a mewl of determination. My eyes were still open as I struggled to break the kiss in the most sensitive way possible. I didn't need to overly wound her ego. The last thing I wanted to do was to send her crying to her father about me. Tebald already didn't trust me. One look in his eyes and I knew that, but I needed him to think I was agreeable to this marriage. I needed Maris on my side. At least until I was gone . . . and then I wouldn't care.

From the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of movement. With a little more urgency, I gave a final push and set Maris away from me to look down the corridor. Luna and a guard stood a few yards away.

The guard chuckled, looking us up and down with a lecherous grin. ”Getting a head start on the wedding night, eh?”

Maris gasped and released a small breathy giggle. ”Mind your tongue, guard,” she reprimanded without any real heat.

The guard's smile vanished from his face. ”My apologies, Your Highness,” he said, his tone at once circ.u.mspect.

Luna made a small strangled sound. Myriad emotions crossed her face. ”Fowler?”

I stepped forward, extending a hand as though to touch her. ”Luna . . .” My voice faded at the sight of her taking a sudden step back. She angled her head, staring at me in that uncanny way of hers. As if she could in fact see me.

The betrayal was there, written all over her face. Of course she'd heard that kiss. Luna heard everything. Of course she misread the situation. She thought it was mutual.

”Luna.” I tried again for speech and then stopped short, glancing uneasily at Maris and the guard. I couldn't very well reveal that I had been a victim of Maris's advances. If I upset her, she would run to her father, and I didn't need to alert him to the fact that I wasn't receptive to marrying his daughter. He could figure that out the day he woke to find me gone.

Maris returned my stare, pressing her fingertips to her lips, looking up at me beneath her eyelashes with a very coquettish expression.

”It's good to have you up on your feet again, Fowler,” Luna said, her voice that of a stranger.

”Isn't it?” Maris chimed in, smoothing a hand against my chest possessively, intimately.

I looked back and forth between the guard and Luna, noting she wasn't dressed properly. Were those tears in the white fabric of her nightgown? I took a step closer. ”Luna, is anything amiss? Why are you up from bed?”

”Nothing to fret over. Just a little squabble with a dweller.”

”What?” Immediately tense, I looked around as if one of the creatures might suddenly jump out at us.

”Yes. It appears that's what they do for entertainment around here. Throw victims into a pit for dwellers to eat.”

My gaze shot to Maris. ”Is this true?”

”I-I . . . it has nothing to do with me. Father and the other men enjoy it . . . for sport, you know.”

”No. I don't know,” I growled, thinking of the risk involved with bringing dwellers into the castle. It was stupid and unnecessary. Luna could have died. And who were the chosen victims anyway? What did they do to deserve such a fate?

Maris must have read some of the emotions on my face. She added a second hand to my chest, her voice softly cajoling, ”It doesn't have to remain that way. When you and I are wed, we can change things. Make them better here. However you like.”

Nothing appealed to me less than staying here and fighting for change in this place where I didn't want to be. Not to mention Maris was a little nave if she thought I would ever be given any power. Even if her father was no longer a consideration, Chasan was. He would be king next. He wouldn't roll over for his sister or me. No one would be making changes without Chasan's consent.

Recalling what Luna had said, I demanded, ”Wait. You said you had a squabble with a dweller?”

”Um. I happened to fall in.”

”You fell in?” I looked her up and down, searching for injuries. She turned her face away and I knew there was more to the story than that. ”Are you hurt?”

”I'm fine. Just a few bruises. Nothing like the poor man those dwellers butchered, and nothing you should worry about.” This last she said with pointed antagonism. Her message was clear. I shouldn't care about her. My jaw locked hard. It was too late for that. She wasn't going to get her way in this. We'd come too far, I was in too deep to give up on her.

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