Page 77 of Smut Lovers
Chapter One
Lira
L ira Dinuviel slipped through the front door of the Matterhorn’s Nest, moving swiftly yet confidently through the common room and up the stairs.
She didn’t look around, not wanting anyone to meet her gaze and remember her presence, though her training noted roughly a dozen individuals, most with heads down or engaged in quiet conversation.
No one made any threatening moves or seemed as if they would interrupt her focused strides to the rooms above, and Lira easily disappeared up the staircase, following it around and up again two more times to the top floor.
Withdrawing the brass key from her pocket, she quickly opened the lone door at the top of the stairs, stepping inside and shutting it behind her in one quick motion.
Once inside, she leaned against the door for a moment, heart beginning to beat rapidly as she considered her situation for the hundredth time.
Am I really doing this?
The question wasn’t new. She had been asking herself the same thing ever since the message had arrived that afternoon, a small handwritten letter delivered to her rooms in the palace by a disinterested servant.
Though she had spent the first hundred years of her life in the temple, devoting herself to her god, her last century had been spent on the road, traveling with the Tallerin; still, it was odd to realize that she found this cozy inn room more relaxing than the fine accommodations the current prince of Firene had offered her as one of his brother’s traveling companions.
Is Rory still the Tallerin? The question was also something she had pondered, long before they had returned to the city.
The former prince had been banished from Firene, but his return to warn his brothers of the approaching army had been enough to defer his punishment—for now.
His brother Jasper was the Tallerin now, and not doing a terrible job of it, if the talk Lira had been hearing was to be trusted.
The threat of imprisonment and death still lingered, though, and Lira hoped Rory would figure out his situation sooner rather than later.
Then again, her old friend was completely heartbroken.
Lira sighed, wondering if she would ever be as desperate as Hannah and Rory were, both clearly meant for one another but unable to get it together long enough to make it work.
And yet another reason why Rory was never for me , she reminded herself.
She may have left home all those years ago to travel with him because she wanted more, but she knew him—and herself—well enough now to know better. Rory was a friend, nothing more.
And a good thing , she told herself, standing up and taking off her jacket, or I wouldn’t be here tonight .
She moved to the bed, the biggest feature of the attic room, and sat down, glad to see that the bedding was clean and the mattress comfortable, setting her coat beside her.
It wasn’t as if she’d never had a friendly tussle in a tavern over the long years.
She’d had her share of convenient lovers while traveling the continent, though nothing spectacular enough to tempt her to stay more than a few nights.
But this was different. Caganasti was more than just an easy companion, someone to pass a pleasant evening with and go on her way.
She had known the elf since her childhood, already a wild young man in his hundreds when she was still a girl, but Lira remembered well the feeling of her first crush.
She had been at the temple then, still dreaming of a life in service to her god, a life that would have her never explore farther than the city walls—back when the idea of following through on her interest in the wizard was scandalous, not because of the sex, which she had always imagined would be glorious, but because no one thought Caganasti would ever settle down.
No one predicted that four hundred years later, the wizard would have established a shop and rarely left its walls.
No one would ever believe he would become a Royal Advisor to the prince.
People change , Lira thought. Even I am very different from the girl he once knew.
She understood the shift, except her situation was the reverse.
Lira never thought she would leave this place, and spending the last few days at the palace had felt like the walls were closing in all around her.
Her only release had been drinking with Gorn at the tavern by the docks, trading crystal goblets for wooden tankards with the sailors, but Gorn was also just a friend.
Lira was adventurous now, but never enough to bed the dwarf.
If you’d asked me back then if I ever thought I’d be more at ease in a rough tavern than painted temple walls, I would have sworn the opposite… yet here I am. And happy to be here.
Now what? She frowned, pulling the letter from her pocket again to study it.
The handwriting was vaguely familiar, though she had only seen the wizard’s writing a handful of times in her long life.
Lira was a spellcaster, but her magic was a divine gift from her god Valerius, not the spellbooks and arcane magic that Caganasti favored.
She didn’t need to study old books or recite ancient incantations to use her power.
Lira opened the letter again, eyes drinking in each word.
My lady Lira,
In the hopes that this letter finds you as amenable as our last encounter suggested, I formally invite you to a more lengthy engagement.
Use this key and join me in the attic room at the Matterhorn’s Nest tonight.
I understand you have more questions about your dear companions, and I am eager to be of assistance, but I find myself even more greedy for the pleasure of time spent by your side.
As the Nest offers discretion and promises privacy, I might even be so bold as to satisfy your curiosity about the marks of my power, perhaps with a thorough examination of my person.
Ever Yours,