She wished she could hate the way it washed over her and draped her in something that felt an awful lot like comfort.
Chapter twenty-two
One Bed
Inexplicably, there is always only one bed at the inn for one reason or another.
-Tales From Meridea, Volume III
Despite her rough start in life, Lucinda Blackthorn had little to complain about. She loved her home, she knew what it was to love and be loved in return, and she never wondered when her next meal would be. In fact, she considered herself to be uncannily lucky. Which was why when she stared at thestorybook room in front of her, she wondered where she’d gone wrong.
The answer came fairly quickly in the form of a tall and lean prince who flopped onto the blue quilted bed and stretched out his arms like he was trying to become one with the bed.
“This might be the most comfortable bed I’ve ever been in,” he said.
Calcifer hopped up onto the bed with a thump and padded to the top to knead the pillows. After a few good checks, he spun in exactly three circles before curling up into his signature ball. A rumble emitting from his fluff.
“See, even Calcifer agrees.” Prince Ira said.
“You were going to tell Agnes your real name.” Luci accused.
The prince merely sighed and stared up at the roof.
“Honesty seems like a good place to start,” he said.
“You can’t just tell people you are the crown prince. What if you get kidnapped? Ransomed? Murdered?”
He sat up and raised his eyebrows.
“That escalated quickly,” he said.
Luci ground out a frustrated sound and ran her hand over her face.
“Do you ever take anything seriously?” she asked.
It was a ridiculous question. She already knew the answer to. He was perpetually good-natured to the point of being infuriating. If she hadn’t come along, he probably would have gotten lost and become a sheepherder or something equally ridiculous.
He shifted and lifted himself off the bed to go stand by the light blue curtained windows a foot away.
“Lie down and rest a minute. We can’t travel till morning, so might as well rest,” he said.
Luci folded her arms over her stomach, and for a moment, they felt like the thickest armor.
“We should have already made it to the caves tonight. We are wasting time,” she said.
He nodded toward the window, “Come look.”
Half expecting to see a mud-caked town, Luci caught her breath at the view that stretched before her. A long brown field stretched out before them, before a rock formation took control of the landscape. Behind that. A mountain range that stretched into the horizon like it was trying to consume all the extra space in the world.
It was beautiful, surrounded by clouds and snow-capped peaks, even with the start of spring.
“The Blue Mountains,” Luci said.
“We are right where we need to be. Stopping here was a good idea. The horses will be rested, and so will we. We will go downstairs for whatever ten-course meal Agnes is no doubt putting together and see if she will keep Calcifer. When morning comes, we will make faster ground. This was a good thing, Luci.”
Maybe he was right, but it was hard to think about what Brielle was enduring while she rested in an inn that was straight from one of Brielle’s stories. The room itself was as cozy as could be. Walls were carved from oak that overlaid stone walls so that it felt like you were inside of a tree. The bed was massive and took up most of the space, but its wooden posts and blue quilts made it feel like home.
Paintings were hung on the walls. One of the princes bends down to press a kiss to the sleeping princess’s lips. Another, a rendition of the blue mountains outside. Over the bed was a painting of the sleeping princess with her blond curls pooling around her, sleeping in her blue gown as peacefully as a statue.