جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 40

LUCIEN’S POV"The council elders have called a meeting, Your Majesty."I looked at the guard."They called a meeting?" I said slowly."Yes, Your Majesty. They are assembled in the council hall and request your.....""They request." I looked at him calmly. "The elders called a meeting and are requesting my presence?."The guard shifted, his eyes darting to the floor. "Yes."I straightened my shirt. "Tell them I'm coming."The heavy oak doors of the council hall groaned as I pushed them open without announcement.Ten elders. Seated in the curved formation they always used when they wanted to feel collectively powerful. Old faces, old titles, old ideas about how a kingdom should be run and who should be running it.I took my seat at the head of the table. I said nothing. I just looked at them and waited.Elder Voss spoke first. He always did."Your Majesty. We have noticed, in recent days, how close you have become with the human." His voice dripped with disdain. "We believe this... atta

When I woke the room was pale with early morning light. I turned my head. Lucien was on the floor beside my bed. His hair had been pushed back from his face and I could see the stubble along his jaw. He looked younger asleep. I looked at the ceiling. The dream sat in the back of my mind. Mira's throat. All those bleeding faces. The nightmares had not stopped once since I arrived here. Not once. "You're awake." I looked down. Lucien's eyes were open, watching me. "Yes," I said. "Are you okay?" "Yes." I lied. He looked at me a moment longer like he wasn't entirely sure he believed that. Then he pushed himself up from the floor and sat on the edge of the bed, running a hand through his hair. "I need to go," he said. "But if you need anything.... anything at all.... I'll be there immediately." "Okay." He stood. Crossed to the door. "Lucien." He stopped and turned. "Thank you." Something moved across his face. "You're welcome, My Lunaria." Lunaria??

The silence lasted approximately one second.Terak stood in the doorway completely coated in white, flour still drifting down from his hair onto his shoulders like the world's least festive snowfall. He looked at the destroyed flour bag in Kaelen's hands. He looked at the counter. He looked at the ceiling, which had somehow also been affected.Then he looked at Kaelen.Kaelen looked back.His mouth twitched."Don't," Terak said.The twitch got worse."Kaelen.... Do not."Kaelen pressed his lips together so hard they went pale. His shoulders started shaking. He put one hand over his mouth."I am warning you," Terak said.A sound came out of Kaelen that was not quite a word. He doubled forward over the counter, hand still over his mouth, entire body shaking with the effort of containment."I swear to the Moon Goddess….."Kaelen lost it completely.The laugh that came out of him was enormous and the sound of it bounced off every stone surface in the kitchen and came back twice as loud.T

"Did he just flirt with you?"Kaelen said it like he was reporting a natural disaster."Kaelen…..""No. No, no, no." He held up both hands. "You don't understand. Lucien does not flirt. The man does not flirt. He does not smile at women, he does not flirt with women, he does not even look in the general direction of women for extended periods of time." He pointed at me. "I have known that man my entire life. Grown up with him. Side by side. The only female he has ever interacted with comfortably in his entire existence is his sister Seraphine." He shook his head. "And sometimes ….honestly I used to wonder, I used to think, maybe he's just not into women at all. Because no woman. Not one. Has ever gotten so much as a second glance."I looked at him. "You thought he was…..""I had questions," Kaelen said simply. "Valid questions. Based on observable evidence." He gestured at the door Lucien had walked out of. "And then he goes and flirts with you."I didn't say anything.But deep down I

AYLIN'S POVI didn't move.Lucien had turned toward the door and found me standing there with a cloth of muffins in my hands and absolutely nowhere to hide, and for a long second nobody in the room said anything at all."Aylin.""I...." I straightened. "I brought the muffins. You said you wanted to taste whatever I baked."Something moved across his face. "That's very kind of you. You can leave them on the desk."I walked in.I kept my eyes forward, set the cloth down on the edge of his desk, and told myself very firmly not to look at the woman by the window.I looked at the woman by the window.She was watching me.She was.... there was no other word for it.... stunning. The kind of face that stopped you without asking permission, sharp and elegant and completely certain of itself. Her hair was dark, her eyes were light, and she held herself with the particular stillness of someone who had learned to take up exactly as much space as they intended to and not a fraction more.And she