Page 90 of The Keeper of the Kingdoms

Casimir locked eyes with Jaxus and slipped his arm around me. “And how are you feeling, my betrothed? Do you fare well after your illness? I was so worried when word reached us. I would have made plans to travel to the First Kingdom to heal you myself, but I was needed here.”

Jaxus squared his shoulders and pressed his lips into a firm line.

I tried not to look at him as I leaned away from Casimir, not wanting him to get too comfortable in that position. “Much better, thank you. There was no need for you to come to the First Kingdom. I was in good hands and I know how much you dread your rotations at the capital.”

“I do not dread them—” Casimir began, but he was cut off by the first course being brought to the table.

The serving staff set the first plate in front of us all at the same time. The gold-rimmed dishes each held a tiny mushroom in the center. An exquisite delicacy only found by wharf birds in Calanthe.

“How you spoil us, Rosemary.” Casimir smiled, his red hair falling over his brow.

“It’s nothing. I still have a few tricks up my sleeve to procure the best.” Gran smirked, loving the notoriety of surprising her guests.

“What is this?”Jaxus hissed in my mind.

“It’s a delicacy,”I replied.

“It’s one mushroom, Firefly. One very tiny mushroom,”he said, bemused, studying his plate. When he looked up at me across the table, I almost burst out laughing.“They do know I’m a dragon, right?”

“There will be more,”I chuckled.“Calm down and eat your tiny mushroom.”

“If I’m only served one tiny mushroom at a time, I’m going to eat your betrothed before we are finished.”

My eyes flashed to his and I gave him a tiny shake of his head.“Do not make me laugh.”

“What kept you, Casimir?” Violet, his mother, asked, breaking my conversation with the hungry dragon. “Surely your replacement could have handled whatever the issue was?”

“It was a child who’d been struck on the crown of his head with a dropped tree limb. The repair was complicated and needed my hands.” Casimir didn’t brag needlessly. He was the best, and if the child’s life was in danger, he needed to stay.

I used to envy the specialty he possessed. It made sense that the elders wanted our lines united.

“Did it go well?” I asked. “Should you have left?”

“Kiera, come now, it’s me, of course it went well.” He smiled his smarmy smile. “He will recover. The scar might be large, but he will retain full function.”

It was hard for me to believe I’d found him charming once. Over the years, his head had swelled with his own self-importance. These days, I wondered how I ever felt that way. It now seemed so arrogant compared to Jaxus’ easy demeanor. He really was insufferable. He thought so highly of himself and had deemed himself so indispensable here that he hadn’t considered coming to the bedside of his ‘betrothed’ for more than a passing moment. It was typical of him, not that I would have wanted to see him when I had Jaxus to care for me so well.

“It reminded me of that patient we had while we were training, Kiera. Do you remember? The head surgeon said there was nothing more that could be done, but they just hadn’t met me yet, had they?”

I groaned internally. There was that self-importance.

“Something wrong?”Jaxus asked in my mind.

I shot him a look.

“He seems lovely, by the way. Really humble.”Jaxus added.

I stifled what would have been a snort laugh and pointedly didn’t look Jaxus’ way as I replied.“If you watch carefully, I think you can actually see his head going up a size right in front of your eyes.”

Casimir turned to me. “You can tell it better, love. I was too absorbed with saving the lad’s life to fully witness how miraculous it was.”

Love? Where had that come from? Was he attempting to mark his territory? If so, it was a weak effort. I wrinkled my nose, not at all liking this side of him.

Jaxus leaned forward with his hands folded, elbows on the table and his chin on his fists. His smile was all feigned interest. “Yes, Firefly, do tell.”

Oh, shit.

Now that’s how you mark your territory!