I can’t very well ditch her in front of these people, can I? And from the victorious smirk on Leeri’s face, she knows it. I straighten and tow the woman toward the edge of the balcony so we can fly straight to the dining room. If she wants a tour, she can have one mid-air.
She digs in her heels. “I’d rather take the stairs if that is all right with you,” Leeri says loud enough for Boris to overhear. “After such a long journey, I am quite spent.”
“Of course, princess.” Boris nudges me toward the stairs with a hard look in his eyes.
Having no choice in the matter, I steer her that way instead. “Is your arse tired from all that sitting?” I mutter under my breath.
Her smile tightens. “Keep that up, and I’ll pinch you again.”
“Pinch me again, and you’ll regret it.”
Her eyes glimmer as she bats her thick lashes. “Will I?”
We pass by a line of servants on our way through the gates to a wide, winding staircase leading up to a breezy reception room large enough for at least a hundred Scathian men. Time to begin our “tour.”
“That is a window. And that is a door,” I say, indicating both. “There are a lot of them in this castle. Many balconies as well. Oh, and see that brown thing? It’s a chair. We sit on them.”
Her lips lift. “Do you? Fascinating. Perhaps I can examine this chair you speak of after dinner.”
Why isn’t she irritated? I’ll have to try harder.
Leeri peers up at me as we ascend the next flight of stairs. “I liked your hair longer.”
“Then I am glad it’s short.”
She giggles, a terrible, grating sound. “Still fighting your attraction to me I see.”
“It’s easy to fight that which does not exist.” I nod to the rooms on this level. “That is the parlor, and the solar. There are a lot of windows in there. More chairs as well, and something called a sofa. It’s like a chair but softer and larger. Another door through there, and some more windows.”
Leeri stills on the landing, an errant breeze from one of the slitted windows tangling her violet hair about her slender shoulders. I halt as well, waiting for her composure to crack.
Instead, Leeri waves a hand between us, not a hint of irritation on her face. “This thing we do, the back-and-forth, the flirting.” She steps forward, sending me back until my wings collide with the wall. Her voice drops into a seductive tone. “As much as I enjoy it, I cannot help but think it would be far more fun for us both if we gave in.” Her hands find their way to my chest, the flat of her palms skimming up and down my shirt. “Our wedding is just on the horizon, after all.”
She thinks I’m flirting with her? Stars above, what sort of men do they have up in Nimbiss? This isn’t flirting. This is genuine dislike. Disgust, even.
“Leeri?” My fingers slip around her slender wrists, stopping them from continuing to explore my body.
Her gaze lands on my mouth as I ease forward to whisper, “I’d rather leap from the top of the castle with my wings clipped.”
What does the woman do?
Shelaughs.
Tugging free from my grasp, she laces our arms once more. “Oh, Senan. You say the most ridiculous things.”
Since when is honesty ridiculous?
When we finally step inside the dining room twenty minutes later, a riotous cheer erupts. A giggling Leeri clings tighter to my arm while bile burns the back of my throat. When she lifts onto her toes and presses a kiss to my cheek, I fight the overwhelming urge to scrub the feeling of her lips from my skin.
I have nineteen days to make her hate me so much she’ll call off our engagement.
Hopefully it’s long enough.
Nineteen
ALLETTE
I wakein complete darkness with my face pressed against a damp stone wall. It takes some fumbling, but eventually I manage to tap the fae light on the stone ledge at my bedside. I’ve missed these small conveniences while in the human realm.