Chapter 14

‘Another round!’ Qynthia shouted for the tenth time tonight, raising her empty glass looking for the attendants. Rynelle stepped forward, halting his movements when Eliasson subtly shook his head. He stepped back, resuming his stance by the wall. His eyes briefly met mine, conveying his annoyance.

This was not how a Royal Forum generally went. I had envisioned it to be just like the last one – an awkward dinner filled with small talk as the royals attempted to pretend that their sole reason for being in the same room as one another wasn’t to negotiate trade agreements like savages. It’s amazing what a new, fresh-faced king with a seemingly good sense of humour and strong relationships with others could do to the dynamics of a room. Despite seeing glimpses of her outgoing and affectionate nature at the last Forum, in the presence of Xylan’s father, Qynthia would never have dared to turn the first night into a royal party – she had even convinced Slaviya to play a drinking game.

‘Maybe that’s enough, Qynth.’ Xylan laughed as she leant towards him, her eyes narrowing in defiance as she went, literally, head-to-head with him.

‘Xylan, honey, remember the last time you tried to cut me off?’ she threatened.

Xylan shot her a look of warning. I couldn’t help the grin that rose to my lips. I sure as hell wanted to know all the juicy details of what happened last time.

‘I’m going to bite. What happened?’ I eagerly leant forward, unfazed by the frowns of disapproval from Eliasson and Slaviya. I was too many wines in at this point to care about what was or was not correct behaviour, and Xylan was clearly nothing like his father.

‘It’s not relevant –’ Xylan started.

‘I stole one of his favourite books!’ Qynthia blurted.

Xylan groaned, running a hand down his face in frustration.

‘Oh,’ I replied, the answer not what I was expecting. ‘Is that all?’

‘It’s not so much that it was a book, darling Valare. More so, the book’s genre,’ Orlandia piped up, mischief written all over her face.

Xylan downed the rest of his drink before looking out the window. His tortured stare made the dining room’s glass window seem like it could crack at any moment. ‘To the God Merlot, why do you insist on surrounding me with insufferable women?’

‘Based on the character in your book, we thought insufferable women were just your type,’ Orlandia scoffed into her wine.

‘What was the book?’ I interrupted.

Before Xylan could shut the conversation down, Qynthia placed a placating hand on his chest before staring at me. ‘I’ll make a deal with you, Valare. I’ll tell you the name of the book if – Nuh-uh-uh,’ Qynthia placed her hand over Xylan’s mouth as it opened, ‘if you get us some more wine.’

‘Done.’

‘Valare,’ Eliasson cautioned.

I turned to face him rubbing my hand up and down his thigh just the way he liked. I fluttered my eyelashes at him. ‘Husband, would you really deny your wife a good time?’ I crooned, seeing his eyes flare with desire as he noted the double meaning. I could sense another set of eyes boring into the side of my head.

‘I’ll get more wine.’ His words came out rougher than usual as he tried his best to subtly rearrange his pants before heading towards the kitchens, Rynelle in tow.

I could feel the satisfaction settle on my face as I met Xylan’s stare only to see what could only be described as jealousy. I furrowed my brow in question, before my eyes caught Qynthia slowly running her fingers up and down his forearm. Why that elicited the same jealous feeling in me was something I didn’t want to dwell on. Catching my expression, the bastard threw me an inquisitive look in return, his jaw clenched. Well, we weren’t starting off on the right foot.

‘As promised, wine for the Queen,’ Eliasson announced as he strolled back into the room, pouring into Qynthia’s glass. Mazyr, donning his chefs uniform, walked in with a plate of food. Why the hell was he here?

I watched as his eyes landed on Orlandia, curiosity piquing in those mossy green depths.

Noting his attentions, Orlandia pursed her lips and raised a challenging brow, earning a smirk from Mazyr in return. He placed the plate down right in front of her. Mazyr turned away, throwed me a playful wink, in response to my warning glare, and sauntered out of the room. I didn’t miss Orlandia’s eyes zoning in on his toned backside.

‘Judging by your hesitance to talk about this alleged book stealing accident, I presume you are needing some of this?’ Eliasson asked, not waiting for confirmation before filling up Xylan’s empty glass. Moving around the room, Eliasson played host, filling up all the glasses, including his own, but leaving none for me.

‘Hey –’ I started. He pulled me from my own chair and straight onto his lap. His arm snaked around my waist, pulling me up against him while the other reached for his full glass.

‘Drink, wife. I wouldn’t want to deny you a good time,’ he purred, bringing the glass to my lips and tipping the wine into my mouth. I heard chuckles around the room that set my cheeks on fire. Once he’d put the glass down, I slapped his hand in playful admonishment and cleared my throat. I focused on Qynthia and Orlandia, steadfastly refusing to meet Xylan’s eyes.

‘I’ve upheld my part. Your turn.’

Qynthia glanced at Xylan, seeking his approval before continuing. Xylan merely rolled his eyes and shrugged. ‘Well, what are you going to do? Back out of your end of the deal?’ The soft smile and her quick touch of his cheek had my eye twitching.

‘The book I stole was Once Upon a Woods.’

My jaw dropped to the floor. His favourite book was a romantic-comedy, and not only was it a romantic-comedy, it was the romantic-comedy. The one Meredith and I were obsessed with and had constant debates over which character Louisah should be with. Hell, Mer and I stopped talking for a month when we couldn’t see eye to eye on how it had ended. Of course, my guy was the one to end up with her, so I was right in the end.

I attempted to pick my jaw up off the floor to ask Xylan, ‘Runaile or Nalu?’

His mouth moved upwards. It was the tiniest of movements, but it was there, nonetheless. ‘Runaile, of course. Was there really any other option? Whoever is team Nalu needs to go re-read the scene in the woods and then look me in the eye and tell me he was really going to give her what she needed.’

‘Right! And don’t even get me started on that bedroom scene –’

‘The absolute worst!’ Xylan scoffed, shaking his head in disgust.

‘Exactly! How anyone could have any sort of sympathy for Nalu after that is beyond me,’ I said, shaking my head.

‘The ones that do need to reassess their life choices,’ he agreed.

‘Goddess, this is so refreshing. I need you to come and talk to Meredith with me. She’s still team Nalu despite the debates we’ve had. Can you believe she just stopped talking about it all together after the end? Only a Nalu fan would do that. Team Runaile won’t let it rest until every non-believer is converted.’

‘Is your friend here in Amarald?’ he queried.

‘Yes, she’s my maid.’

‘Then we’ll see her first thing tomorrow morning. This can’t wait.’

I nodded in agreement, resolute.

Silence filled the room when we finished and I took in the eyes of the others I’d completely forgotten about in my excitement. They were glancing between Xylan and I, clearly having no idea what we were talking about. I caught Orlandia and Qynthia’s amused stares, which seemed to imply they were sharing an inside joke.

Eliasson cleared his throat. ‘May I kindly remind you that we have the traditional Forum opening breakfast first thing tomorrow morning?’

‘What time is it?’ I asked.

‘Eight in the morning,’ Eliasson advised.

‘Push it back an hour,’ Xylan stated.

My hand flew to my mouth, smothering a giggle at Xylan’s blatant order. He was definitely an upgrade from the previous King.

‘We can’t do that. It’s always held at eight in the morning as per the tradition established by our ancestors,’ Slaviya interjected. ‘I think we ought to remember our responsibilities as royals and ensure that this is at the forefront of our decision making.’

As expected, Slaviya jumped in to be the typical party pooper. I rolled my eyes.

‘Does six thirty work for you?’ I directed my gaze at Xylan, and he nodded in return.

‘Six thirty?’ Eliasson scoffed in disbelief. ‘You hate mornings. I was planning on bringing coffee and scones just to entice you out of bed in time for the damn breakfast.’

‘Although I do appreciate the sweet gesture, I’ll have you know that matters of the Woodsverse is no joke. As a ride or die Runaile fan I must do what needs to be done. Even if that does mean sacrificing my precious sleep.’

‘You’re not joking,’ he sputtered.

‘There’s no joking when it comes to the great debate of Runaile vs. Nalu,’ I said seriously. ‘Am I right, Xylan?’

‘It wouldn’t be right to knowingly sleep under the same roof as a Nalu sympathiser,’ he agreed. His voice held no room for argument as Orlandia snorted at our exchange.

Eliasson glanced between us as if we had lost our minds. ‘You do realise you two may as well be speaking a completely different language. No one else here has any idea what you’re talking about.’

We shrugged, before saying at the same time, ‘If you know, then you know.’