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FERRIN FOUND HIMSELF wishing, not for the first time, that he had Valynce’s fire magic so he could burn his cousin to the ground. None of them dared move from where they stood until they saw the royal carriage driving past, and then they all raced to Evyn’s side, including his sister.
“I must apologize for my betrothed’s behavior, Evynria,” his sister said, glaring out towards the road. “Normally, I’m the one he bothers like that.”
Evyn shook her head, though her entire body was drenched and shivering. “It’s not your fault.”
Ferrin removed his coat and threw it over Evyn’s shoulders. She granted him a wobbly smile, before rolling her blue-tinged lips together. He’d seen that look on her face before, always when trying to hold back tears. His earlier fury flared again like oil at the base of a bonfire.
“I’ve never wanted to punch someone in their teeth so they’d choke on them more than I have today,” Otsana growled.
He nodded. “I understand the feeling. Imagine growing up near him.”
“How much older is he?” Ylid asked.
Ferrin hesitated, tamping down his earlier jealousy, before answering, “Almost a decade. I was on my first decade when the Great Split happened, and I believe he was eight years over his first at the time.”
“You’re right,” Valynce agreed, still looking off into the distance. She’d been nine. Small enough to need protecting, and old enough to understand too much.
Evyn’s brows lifted, however, and she smiled. “I’m older than you? I was two years over my first during the Great Split.”
“That means I’m older than all of you!” Otsana said with apparent delight.
Ferrin frowned as his sister smirked and Ylid laughed at his expense.
“I’m older than both of you,” he protested, turning on them with one hand out in the air, exasperated.
They both shrugged. He sighed.
“Wait, how old are you, Otsana?” Evyn asked.
“I’m two years over three decades,” she said with a grin.
Evyn’s brows lifted. “That’s quite the age gap for you and Ylid.”
Ferrin stilled again, unsure what to say or do. Despite knowing he never stood a chance, being a duke of South Galvany, his heart hadn’t cared a whit and had still pined after her. Now it moped childishly, like any other result could have occurred, as he watched Otsana and Ylid grin at one another, unaware of his pain.
“I’ve always liked my partners older,” Ylid said, waggling their eyebrows with a smile.
Otsana laughed, squeezing Ylid’s hand, and Ferrin’s heart dropped a little.
Evyn cleared her throat. “I’m, uh, going to go back inside. Dry off.”
She looked at him rather pointedly, so he lifted a brow in confusion. Understanding washed over him. Evyn was trying to rescue him. A small smile lifted the corner of his mouth.
“I think I will, as well,” he said, proffering his arm to her. “Shall I escort you? You can tell me all about those new powers I just witnessed.”
She threaded her arms through the sleeves of the coat he’d lent her, before wrapping them around the one he held out. As they walked just out of earshot of everyone, he leaned down to whisper in her ear.
“Thank you.”
She looked up with a rueful expression. “I can understand.”
His brows drew together. Had Enloris once had feelings for someone else?
“To–To lose someone you had feelings for,” she said suddenly, eyes widening.
It was as though she could read his mind—Could she? Those new powers had been nothing like anything he’d seen her wield before, after all.
But what she said made sense. She’d lost Enloris to his loyalty to another, if not his heart, and Ferrin had lost Otsana to Ylid. Now his very own cousin was trying to take Evyn from him. At this point, he began to wonder if he’d somehow insulted Lyohr, Divinity of love.
He sighed pitifully and then started, strangely, to laugh. Evyn looked at him with a quizzical expression, before joining in. They reached the front steps of the manor, but could barely walk up them, laughing hysterically, leaning on one another for support.
“I don’t quite,” Evyn started to say, before another giggle escaped, “know why I’m laughing, but I... can’t seem to stop.”
“Me neither,” Ferrin said, wiping a few tears away, trying to breathe. “I think we both deserve a divine-damned drink.”
“Hear hear,” she agreed with another chuckle. “Do you, do you know I don’t even really drink?”
“Xedara’s torch has driven us to corrupt you thoroughly.”
She sighed, her laughter fading off. “Clearly that is their aim.”
Evyn leaned her head against Ferrin’s arm as they went up the rest of the stairs, winded from their chaotic laughter, and his heart warmed. He had lost Otsana, but his heart still stirred wildly for Evynria. The issue being, hers ached for Enloris. Either way, her company was what mattered. It was good enough just having her beside him, leaning against him with ease and comfort, being there for him in his time of need despite what she’d gone through.
The staff opened the doors for them, and they headed down a few halls towards the guest rooms.
“Where are we headed?” she asked, her cheek still heavily against his arm.
“Your room,” he answered, before realizing the implications. “Uh, I’m going to drop you off so you can change into something dry.”
Her chuckle was soft this time, a subtle lift of her shoulders, a tired grin. “Not to seduce me?”
By the Divine, this woman had no idea the hold she had on him. He felt his face warm and had to close his eyes for a moment to gather his wits.
“No, not as of yet.”
She didn’t say anything at first, but then in a quiet voice, replied, “But perhaps sometime later?”
He almost thought he’d heard her incorrectly, wishful thinking warping her words into ones he’d like to hear. His heart had been pounding loudly in his ears, so it could be possible he’d misheard, but then she leaned away from his arm and looked up at him. Her cheeks were rosy and she gazed at him intently from beneath her lashes.
“If you desired,” he found himself saying, his voice coming out in a rasp.
She stopped walking and the world also seemed to come to a standstill with her, but then she peered past him.
“This is my room, if I remember correctly,” she said, looking at him and then the ground.
He turned to see the room behind him. The Evergreen Suite, as his mother had suggested in the dining hall the other day. He’d forgotten.
“I’ll be back,” she said, slipping past him and through the doors without looking back at him once.
He’d managed to catch a glimpse of the blush still on her face as she ducked into her room, and it sent his heart hammering. He leaned a hand against the wall for support, reeling. Had she meant what she said? Was she still just playing around with him, trying to reestablish equilibrium after the visit from Wil?
He remembered his cousin kissing Evyn’s hand and scowled. The king had no right to breathe the same air as Evynria, let alone kiss her hand. He’d have to tell her of Wil’s nature before she had to visit him tomorrow... alone. The hand leaning against the wall clenched into a fist. Perhaps there was a way to cancel it, or to accompany her anyway, Wil’s request be damned.
The door opened again and she stepped out into the hall, interrupting his thoughts, his breath, his heartbeat.
She wore a simple velvet gown in a deep shade of goldenrod with a neckline that wrapped halfway up to her jaw and long sleeves that hung tightly just past her wrists. The bodice hugged every curve and the skirts fell from her hips luxuriously. Her hair was still slightly damp, but hung in loose ringlets that framed her face, giving the effect that she was some kind of water nymph, or siren from the deep.
He’d seen her in far less than this, but that didn’t seem to matter to his body. There was a confidence and bravery in her stance that lured him in, a decadence to her attire that made him want to savor her. He cleared his throat, pushing himself up straight from where he’d been leaning.
“That dress really suits you,” he managed to say, offering his arm once more.
Evyn turned slowly, revealing that from the clasps at her neckline, to the base of her spine, there was no fabric. “Do you like it?”
Again, she interrupted all of his faculties, leaving him mindless, only aware of hunger—desire.
She grinned at his silence, taking his arm. “It’s rather comfortable, as well.”
He laughed, shaking his head. “We truly have corrupted you, haven’t we?”
Lifting her face to look at him with a sideways smile, she said, “No, not fully yet.”
He stared back, stunned, before he realized his trousers had grown uncomfortably tight in the groin. Ferrin quickened his pace, trying to subtly readjust as he cleared his throat.
“Well, let’s see what we can do about those drinks.”