Page 12

O nce again, the Queen of Hallshire was staring down at me as if I was dirt under her boot.

“Welcome to our temporary clinic,” I said with a smile so forced it hurt. Arenn stood quietly beside me, but I could almost feel the anger rolling off him.

“Hmm.” She glanced around at our makeshift booths, seemingly unimpressed. “And why is it here? In Cora’s lovely ballroom.” Her gaze fell onto the queue as she scowled. “There are peasants dragging grime in from the fishing yards.”

“ People ,” I corrected her, giving up on my fake smile. “And I’m sure any grime can be cleaned. What’s more important is that they are receiving the treatment they need.”

Marigold scoffed. “Is this supposed to be some pathetic attempt to win favour with the Ryntook rulers? Because I assure you, dear, they will not appreciate you bringing in so many peasants to their palace.”

“I think I’ll wait to hear that from them myself actually,” I said coldly, unable to help myself. “And no.” I straightened my shoulders. “I am doing this because I wish to help Cora’s people, not to win any favour, so if you are here merely to cause trouble, please leave. I have patients to attend to.”

After Arenn’s arrival and now this, my patience was wearing thin. So, with a little more aggression than I would’ve liked, I spun away and stomped towards my booth.

It was only when Arenn caught up to me that I slowed to a stop, exhaling raggedly.

“You also need to leave,” I grumbled.

“Shall I kill her for you?” He tilted his head in an alarmingly innocent way.

“Absolutely not,” I gasped. Glancing back, I spotted Marigold poking her head around the booths. Disgust was smeared across her face while she gripped her velvet skirts, as if they were the only thing protecting her from the patients passing by. “She’s a menace, but she doesn’t deserve to die – especially not by your hand.”

“Then at least let me toy with her a bit.” Arenn’s voice curled with excitement. “No one has to know it was us.”

“I said no,” I huffed, but before I could turn away, I flinched at the sound of a plant pot shattering and a woman’s pained squeal.

Dirt spilled over the glossy ballroom floor. In the centre of the mess, Marigold was now on her back with her feet in the air. Her arms thrashed wildly as she fought with the wide hoop of her skirt, trying to haul herself up, only to flop back onto the floor over and over again.

“Help me up, you fools!” she snarled to her two guards. The two men jumped into action, their faces turning beetroot-red while they struggled to return her to her feet. Sheepish laughter rippled through those in the queue close enough to watch the display.

“What did you do?” My lips parted.

Arenn chuckled darkly. “Sent a root out from that plant pot to trip her,” he purred. “Do not fear though, sweet princess. Anyone can see the clumsy queen just fell, and she’ll be alright.” He chuckled again. “Or at least she will be when her guards manage to get her back on her feet.”

I held back a smile at the sight of her struggle. She wasn’t injured, except for maybe a bruised ego. With a shake of my head, I caught the attention of the nearest guard. “Will you please send in the next patient?”

He nodded before marching off towards the queue while I carried on to my booth.

“Wait.” Arenn caught my arm.

I met his gaze with a scowl. “What?”

“Let me help you.”

“No.”

“But I can be useful.” A grin pulled at his cheeks. Releasing my arm, he leaned against a sandstone column. “I can sort through your patients and compel those who are lying to leave, or,” his eyes glinted, “I can glamour away all the dirt from their clothes.”

I rolled my eyes. “Very useful.”

“Just give me something, human,” he pleaded, “something I can do to prove to you how much I care. Because I do.” His voice deepened, sending unwanted tingles down my spine. “I care incredibly so.”

Exhaling, I turned away to fetch something from my booth. “Wait there,” I called over my shoulder. When I returned, I shoved an old leather book into his waiting hands.

“That’s my medicinal plant book,” I told him plainly. “If you want to help, go into the woods and fetch me one of everything.” It was a pointless task. There were hundreds of plants in that book, and half of those herbs couldn’t even be found in Ryntook, but Arenn didn’t seem to know that – or at least he didn’t mind travelling.

With a wide grin, he clutched the book to his chest. “Anything for you, my dear princess.” And before I could roll my eyes again, he hurried out of the ballroom.

Patients poured into my booth like a steady trickle after that. Each one, I diagnosed, wrote them a slip, then sent them to Ivy if they needed medicine. The minutes passed in a blur, the repetitive nature of it all finally sending my heart back into a steady rhythm. Another patient. Another problem solved. Another intense wave of satisfaction.

Until my latest patient walked out and a waft of herbs hit my nose. I glanced up just in time to see Arenn waltzing in with a huge green bouquet in his hands.

The parchment I was holding fell to the floor.

“I have done as requested, dear princess,” he announced, extending out the bouquet as if he were a lover presenting me with a gift.

“H-how?” I stammered. “It hasn’t even been an hour.” The bouquet was bursting with different herbs, plants, and rare flowers. Some of them could only be found hundreds of miles away, far up into the goblin mountains, and some—“These are supposed to be extinct!” I gasped at a small cluster of blue flowers.

Arenn’s grin only widened. “That would explain why they took so much power to conjure. I almost collapsed into the grass.”

“You made these? With your magic?” I gasped.

“Of course.” He smirked, shrugging as if it were no effort at all. “And if I’d known smelly plants were the way to your heart, I’d have filled your bedchamber with bouquets of them.”

So many words caught in my throat as I struggled to process just what this meant for our clinic. More than our clinic. The realm!

Eventually, running my fingers through my hair, I blurted, “Arenn this is so wonderful! There are plants in your hands that can help treat so many different conditions – plants that we haven’t been able to find for decades!” My wide-eyed gaze caught on a rare, wine-coloured herb as I gasped. “This one is endlewire! It’s even better at mending wounds than nightbriar.” Arenn watched me with a smile as all my words poured out. “This will help so many people. We have to show Ivy, she’ll be ecstatic. And I need to tell the others too. Oh, Marius and Terr will scream!”

With a satisfied smirk, Arenn dropped the plants into my hands. “Go.” He gestured to the exit. “Show your friends your flowers and I will remain here.” Taking a seat across from my desk, he leaned back in the wooden chair. “Once you’ve let out all your excitement, you can come back and thank me properly.” He shot me a wink that, for once, I didn’t scowl at.

My Corlixin friends were just as thrilled when I presented them with Arenn’s bouquet of plants. All three of them paused their work to marvel over the different herbs that the faery prince had somehow conjured. Of course, they had many questions, too. Why was there a faery in the castle? Why was he willing to help me? Thankfully, my friends were too focused on the endlewire and all the other rare plants to worry about the vague answers I gave. I also chose not to mention the fact that I was somehow engaged to two different princes.

That discussion would require far more wine.

Once Ivy had taken the bouquet to her medicine counter, I left Marius and Terr to return to my booth, ready to ask the guards to send in the last few patients for the night. Though my distracted mind had made it barely a few steps before I slammed into a wall of dark cotton and firm arms.

“Naria.” Lukas’s voice filled my ears.

Gasping, I steadied myself and stepped back. Lukas stood before me dressed in a dark shirt and breeches set while his strong hands held me by my shoulders.

“I’ve been looking for you since dinner,” he said, concerned. “Where have you been? What is all this?” He glanced around the ballroom.

“I…” My voice trailed off as embarrassment burned my cheeks. Actually, no. I shouldn’t be ashamed of what I’d done. Today was a good day. Together, my friends and I had helped so many people.

“It’s a temporary clinic,” I explained, standing tall. “I didn’t have any meetings today and there were a lot of people asking for our help so we helped them.”

“Naria…” Lukas sighed, wincing. “This is all very noble of you but are you not afraid of how this might affect your image?”

I tilted my head.

“You’re supposed to be making a name for yourself here as a queen,” he continued, eyes darting around. “Instead I heard from Marigold that you’ve been ruining Queen Cora’s ballroom and filling the palace with people from the fishyards.” He lowered his voice. “Rumours are being spread about you, Naria. And not nice ones either. I’ve been trying my best to quell them but it grows increasingly difficult when you spend your time doing things like this.”

Anger curled in my throat. “I’m helping people,” I growled. “Is that such a crime?”

“No.” He pressed his fingertips against his brow, exhaling. “But all the time you’re walking around in a bloodstained gown, you’re not helping yourself. People need to respect you, Naria. You’re a princess,” he argued.

“As if I’d ever cared what others thought of me,” I scoffed.

“You should when it affects me.”

I blinked. His anger settled as he took another deep breath.

“Listen,” he exhaled. “As long as you’re fulfilling your duties and trying your best with the other rulers, I couldn’t care less how you spend your time here. I want you to be happy, Naria. And if running around with leaves in your hair makes you happy,” he paused to brush some nightbriar from behind my ear, my skin tingling, “then please, run as many temporary clinics as you’d like. But…” My breath stilled at his now serious tone. “I need you to understand that since we are engaged, your actions affect how people see me too. And I won’t dare repeat some of the comments people have said to me in regards to your… behaviour.”

My eyes narrowed. Inside me, fury melded with the tiredness from working all day into seven awful words that I should’ve never said, but still they came out, harsh and cold.

“Well perhaps you shouldn’t marry me then,” I replied.

Hurt flashed in his eyes as he drew back, but then his gaze caught on something else. Within seconds, his jaw tensed. Any hurt melted into darkened fury.

“What is he doing here?”

I spun away. Arenn’s tall frame leaned against a sandstone column, metres from where Lukas and I stood. A bitter smirk pulled at his lips while his arms folded over his chest.

“I wondered what was taking you so long,” he said to me. Then he met Lukas’s steel gaze. “Good evening, Your Majesty .” His words were followed by a mocking bow.

Lukas stiffened before taking my arm and pressing me close to his side. “I told you this morning to stay away from her,” he snarled at the faery prince.

“Must’ve slipped my mind.” Arenn shrugged.

“You’ve spoken today?” I glanced nervously between them.

Lukas scoffed. “I found him earlier today skulking around your bedchamber. I told him if he didn’t leave the palace immediately, I’d have him dragged out.”

“And I said I’d like to see you try, boy king,” Arenn laughed. “Now please,” his tone was short as he stepped away from the column, “return my princess to me and run along back to whatever meaningless task you’ve been occupying yourself with.”

Lukas held me tighter. “Naria doesn’t belong to you.”

“Oh?” Arenn chuckled. “But she’s yours, is she?” He stepped closer as my knees began to tremble. “We are connected, my sweet Naria and I.” With a grin, he raised his wrist to show off the two matching crystals, identical to the pair on my own arm.

“Stop,” I begged him.

But Arenn ignored me, teasing the crystals with his fingertips. “She can sense me and I can sense her. Like when she’s sad, hurting, excited… full of desire.” With a devious grin, he lowered his arm. “Can you do that?” He tilted his head. “Can you sense her late at night when she’s lying awake in bed? Thinking thoughts that I wouldn’t dare to repeat out loud?”

“Stop!” I almost screamed. Tears were building in my eyes, but I blinked them away.

Turning to Lukas, I ignored the small crowd of onlookers that had at some point gathered around us. “Please can you just take me away from here?” I pleaded in a quiet voice. “I’m tired and hungry, and I can’t bear to be here any longer.”

Lukas’s powerful gaze met mine as my heart stuttered. For a brief moment, his eyes dropped to the crystals on my wrist before he tightened his grip on my arm and cleared his throat.

“I’ll take you to the banquet hall. They should still be serving food.” He spoke in a cold tone. Then he glanced at Arenn. “Unless you have any objection to me taking my fiancé to get some dinner?”

Arenn shrugged. “You can take her to as many dinners as you wish,” he murmured. “But what is mine will always come back to me eventually.” I stiffened as he swiped up my hand and placed a cool kiss on my fingers. “I’ll see you soon, dear princess.”

I didn’t have a moment to reply before Lukas tore me away, wrapping one arm tightly around my waist.