What Lurks Between the Fates (Of Flesh & Bone, #3)(42)

Her brown skin had warm undertones, her features kind as she smiled at me slightly. Her long hair was pulled away from her face, twisted into a complex braid that hung over her right shoulder to drape over her chest. She’d twisted ribbons and gems into the braid, making it shimmer as it caught the candlelight and speaking to a wealth I hadn’t seen in the others so far.

“My name is Nila,” she said, stepping toward me. She clasped her hands in front of her, pausing as I settled my gaze upon her hesitantly. The last servant hadn’t lingered after doing her task, moving on quickly to the next guest she undoubtedly had to see to. “I am to be your lady-in-waiting at Queen Mab’s request.”

“I’ve no need for a lady of my own,” I said, trying to keep my expression polite. “I’m fully capable of seeing to my own needs.”

It wasn’t her fault she’d been ordered to tend to me, but I couldn’t shake the reminder of how Lord Byron treated his servants—how Lady Jacqueline behaved as if they were so far beneath her, they might as well have been the dogs. I had no desire to become like that.

“Be that as it may, our queen has sent me to assist you. Might I offer some advice?” Nila asked, tilting her head to the side as she raised her hands to the broach at the front of her cloak. She unclasped it, pulling the heavy fabric around her shoulders and draping it over one arm so that she could fold it neatly over the back of a chair.

“I’ve a feeling you will no matter how I answer that question,” I said, stepping toward the table.

Fresh food had been laid upon it while I’d been tortured in the throne room, and now that the pain of such things had faded, I couldn’t fight the grumbling in my stomach. Mab was right, I was not a human, and as such, Faerie rules probably didn’t apply to me.

I needed to eat if I was going to maintain any sort of strength for what Mab would put me through. She’d proven today just what she was capable of, the pain she was willing to make me feel if I defied her. A shudder rippled down my back as if it remembered the feeling of my skin being torn from my body, and cold air kissed the skin through the tear in my dress.

In the end, I didn’t know that it would matter. Nothrek would never be safe for me now, not with the way my ears tipped at the top and the magic marked upon my skin. I raised a single hand to touch the subtle point on my ears, wincing at the reminder of just how much I’d changed.

“Your life here will become much easier when you learn to just give her what it is she wants. Once she gets bored with you, you will no longer suffer under the pains of her attention,” Nila said. She raised a single hand to her shoulder, brushing her hand down a long, thin scar that marred her bicep. It looked as if someone had carved her open with iron, taking a piece of flesh from her skin.

“You say that as if you’re speaking from experience,” I said, turning my attention to her.

I grabbed a piece of the flatbread off the table and tore a chunk from it. It was dense, coated in spices. Its delicious scent reached my nose, and it took all I had not to shove the entire thing into my mouth. Instead, I took a small bite and chewed delicately as Nila and I sized each other up. The buttery flavor of the flatbread coated my tongue in warm comfort, drawing a small groan from me as she watched.

“I grew up in the Summer Court. My father was an adviser to King Rheaghan and his closest confidante. I was barely two hundred when we came here with the King on a diplomatic mission to visit his sister. I became a curiosity to Mab when she claimed there was something inappropriate brewing between her brother and me. My father and Rheaghan both insisted that was not the case, and everyone knows the King is a rake and will not settle down until the day he finds his mate; but Mab decided to keep me here, regardless. Life became much simpler when I told her all about my feelings for Rheaghan and our stolen moments in the gardens when my father was away,” Nila said, shaking her head as if she’d been foolish to allow such things.

I shouldn’t have been surprised. Not when I knew the enigmatic power the Gods held, and how impossible it was to resist that.

“Why would you share those moments with him?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest.

Something about the situation didn’t feel accurate, as if I was missing the pieces of the story. If it was true, my opinion of Rheaghan would be even worse than it already was just for the fact that he was Mab’s brother and had allowed her to become what she was today.

“Our moments in the gardens were innocent. Rheaghan liked to allow me the time to talk about the cactus flowers I enjoyed tending to. There was never anything inappropriate about them; he merely kept an eye on me when my father was unable. But Mab likes to see the worst in people. Give her just enough that she can make her assumptions, and she will gladly do so and leave you in peace, Princess,” Nila said, stepping up to me.

She touched the ribbons tying my dress on my arms, unknotting the one at my elbow. Her fingers brushed over my Fae mark almost reverently, lingering upon the white lines specifically.

“I’m not a princess,” I said, staring up into her dark eyes defiantly.

I didn’t care what my connection to Caldris meant to these people—being a princess implied I would one day sit in a stuffy throne room and conduct business for the courts. I’d be more likely to run free through the meadows at night and avoid all sense of responsibility entirely, and I wouldn’t apologize for it.