Total pages in book: 163
Estimated words: 152616 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 763(@200wpm)___ 610(@250wpm)___ 509(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 152616 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 763(@200wpm)___ 610(@250wpm)___ 509(@300wpm)
“More like you had to piss me off,” he retorted. “If you want to leave, then we can hit the road right now, but you won’t since you’ve got it in your head you need to be here when the Prince returns.”
I really should’ve kept my reason for staying to myself. It hadn’t helped matters. “I’m not trying to upset you.” A warm breeze caught a shorter strand of hair that had slipped the pins, tossing it across my face. “I’ve already upset Naomi today.”
He crossed his arms. “Is she leaving?”
I nodded. “Hopefully, but she’s angry. She has every right to be. I didn’t tell her everything about her sister.” I leaned my head back against the pillar of the breezeway. “And I can’t find Claude anywhere. Have you seen him?”
“No.”
Throughout the day, I’d tried to get my intuition to tell me where Claude might be, to tell me anything, but there was nothing but those three words repeating.
Something isn’t right.
Worry gnawed at me as I stared at the manor walls, my thoughts going to Prince Rainer’s visit. “Don’t you think it’s strange that the Prince of Primvera showed only after the others left?”
“I think everything is fucking strange right now.” He squinted, watching one of the stable hands brush down a mare. “Especially this stuff with you possibly being a caelestia.”
That was another thing I should’ve kept to myself, because Grady had looked at me like I’d grown a third eye. He was having a hard time wrapping his head around it, and I couldn’t fault him for that, but I thought of what I’d seen in that mirror. I wasn’t so sure that the brief change in color had been my imagination.
If it hadn’t, what was it?
But that wasn’t really important at the moment. The vision was.
I swung my legs off the ledge and stood. “I’m going to try to look for Claude in his study once more,” I told him, brushing off the bottom of my tunic. “And if I find him, I’m going to try to convince him to cancel the Feasts.”
“Good luck with that,” Grady replied.
“I’ll let you know if I find him,” I told him, hesitating. “I wish you— ”
“Don’t say it, Lis.” He backed up. “I’m not going anywhere without you.”
I sighed, nodding. We parted ways, him heading back to the wall and me going inside. I made my way to Claude’s study, hope sparking when I saw that the door was ajar. I hurried forward, pushing it open. I came to a complete stop.
Claude wasn’t in his study.
His cousin was.
Hymel’s head jerked up from where he sat behind the Baron’s desk, slips of paper in his hand.
Something isn’t right.
“What are you doing in here?” I blurted out.
The splash of surprise quickly faded from his features. “Not that it’s any of your business, but I’m going through the stack of letters.” He lifted the parchments he held. “Which happen to be notices from debtors, namely the Royal Bank.”
My stomach sank as I glanced at the ever-growing stack. “What do they want?”
He looked at me as if I had asked the silliest question, and I had.
“How late is he?” I asked. “And does he have the coin to settle his debts?”
“Not too late,” Hymel answered, tossing the parchments onto the desk. “And there’s enough coin. Or will be.” He looked up at me. “What are you doing here?”
“I was looking for Claude,” I said, deciding that the prevalent financial issues were something I was going to have to stress over later. “I can’t find him.”
Hymel’s dark brows rose. “He’s not here.”
My lips pursed. “I can see that. Do you know where he is?”
“Last I knew, he was in his quarters, but I’m not his keeper.”
“Clearly,” I muttered. “He’s not there. I’ve checked twice.”
“Then he’s probably with the Bowers.” Hymel leaned back in the chair, looking mighty comfortable where he didn’t belong. “And he’s likely on a bender with it being the start of the Feasts tonight— well, at midnight.”
“And because of that, shouldn’t he be here and not off someplace else?”
“One would think that,” Hymel stated dryly. “But this is Claude we’re talking about. Last Feasts, he spent half of them hallucinating winged creatures in some abandoned mine with the Bower brothers.”
That sounded so bizarre it had to be true. “So, there’s a chance he won’t show for the start?”
Hymel shrugged. “Possibly. He hasn’t before.”
And I wouldn’t know that since I never saw him during the Feasts.
“Considering the mood he was in when I last saw him, I’m thinking he’ll probably be seeing winged beasts once more.”
My chest tightened. “What do you mean about his mood?”
“He’s been morose since the meeting with the Prince of Vytrus.” Hymel picked up a paperweight carved from obsidian. “After he apparently agreed to give you to the Prince.”
My mouth dropped open. “He did not give me to the Prince,” I said, and I doubted that was what caused Claude to be depressed. He’d been relieved by it. “And I saw him after that. He didn’t appear bothered.” At least not until we’d started to talk.