Reign the Earth (The Elementae #1)(21)

I shook my head fast. “No, Kai. Not here.” I bit my lip, sucking in a breath like with it I could hold so many secrets. “Did Osmost return?”

He nodded. “He’s hunting outside.”

“How far behind you is the king?”

“Not far,” he said. “Apparently the attackers got his money, and he’s not happy.” I nodded, and he hesitated, forming more words slowly. “The thing before,” he said carefully. “What if it happens again?”

“It won’t,” I assured him, but it was false. I couldn’t even consider controlling it, because it wasn’t possibly real. Was it? Then I shook my head. “I’m not even certain I did … that.”

He nodded. “Just be careful. I’ll send Osmost out tonight, and I’ll let you know as soon as I’ve heard from Kata.”

“What if he doesn’t return by morning? They’ll be suspicious.”

A ghost of a smile appeared on his face. “Of what? My hawk off hunting?”

I shrugged, but my head turned as I heard a horse whinny outside. The carriage was pulling up, and even as a shiver went down my spine, I went out of the room and almost ran for the doorway. The domina was there, bowing to Calix and Danae as they emerged, but Calix smiled when he saw me, motioning me forward.

I went to him and he pulled me into his arms, kissing me. My throat felt tight as so many things pounded in my chest. Galen’s strange advice to lie to him, the stolen money that Rian might have taken, and worse, the power that might mean my death. At my husband’s hands, no less.

And also, stupidly, the strange look on Calix’s face when he asked if I cared for him. I wondered if I could care for him in truth, if that would keep me safe if I was what I feared, if simply caring for him would make him love me.

“Come,” I said, pulling back. “You have had such an ordeal, my husband. I will tend to you.”

He smiled and kissed me again, pulling me close to his side when he was done. “Thank you, wife,” he said. “Galen,” he called, seeing him. “Follow us and report. Domina, I will need a bath.”

She had never raised her head, but she bowed farther. “Of course, my king. My servants will lead you to a room.”

The servants brought us to a different bedroom than I had been in before, with hot water in a basin and clean cloths beside it. Calix sat, and moments later servants brought in a huge basin for his bath and started filling it with bucket after bucket of steaming water.

“Wash me while they fill it, wife,” he said, looking at me and the basin on the stand. “Like you did the other night.”

Something about the way he said it in front of his brother made it seem shameful, like my attention to him made me weaker and submissive, and heat burned in my cheeks. I took a cloth anyway, dipping it in the water, and I used it to rinse one hand gently.

“Are you going to report, brother?” he snapped.

Galen cleared his throat. “We lost ten men, and—”

“So few?” Calix demanded, sitting straighter. “We lost ten men and almost a thousand tri-kings.”

“They had the advantage,” Galen said. “We couldn’t do much on the road. They chose their spot well to attack the gold without much engagement.”

“Every man who guarded that gold who is still alive will be executed before I have my dinner,” he growled.

“Calix!” I gasped.

His snarl turned toward me. “They should have died to protect it,” he snapped. “It’s a matter of honor.”

“I’m not going to execute my men,” Galen said, his voice steely.

“Then I will do it myself.”

“Oh, will you?” Galen scoffed. “You will hold the sword, brother?”

“My feet,” Calix snapped at me.

I cringed but obeyed him, taking off his boots.

“When you hold the sword, it is I holding the sword,” Calix told his brother. “You are my arm. You are my hand. And that is all.”

“No,” Galen returned.

“You have so little care for my queen?” he asked, and I froze. “Keep washing, Shalia.”

“I have the highest regard for your queen,” Galen said.

“She could have been murdered today. Our peace could have been destroyed. And you won’t punish your men for their inadequacies? You may as well spit on my wife and my marriage.” I looked to Calix, but he wasn’t looking at me, invoking me like I wasn’t there at all, just using me to make a point to his brother.

“My men defended her admirably. And they will continue to do so.”

“So my wife is more important than my money. Is that what you are saying?” Calix asked. He looked down and saw that I was finished washing his hands and feet. “You may disrobe me, wife, so that I can bathe.”

I didn’t dare turn toward Galen, but I heard him make some small noise as Calix stood with a smirk on his face. I rose with him to untie his shirt. “You disapprove of the way I treat my wife, brother?”

“I made no such comment.”

Calix chuckled. “Execute them, or I will brand them as traitors and their families won’t receive a pension,” he said. “And they will still be dead.”

I pulled Calix’s shirt over his head, and my hands shook as I reached for the ties on his lower half. Was this a trick? Surely he didn’t want me exposing him to his brother. Had he no modesty?