Quill and Cobweb (The Chronicles of Whynne Book 2)

by B. A. Lovejoy

  “I thought they’d send someone totally incapable,” Luka deadpanned as his hand dropped over his face. “And for the most part they did.”

  Adam shook his head in amusement, leaning further into the small tent, his hand outstretched in my direction in an indication to take it. I flinched as the tent flap moved just enough to glimpse behind him, the uniform of a guard coming into view.

  “You’re already late,” Adam insisted as he shoved his hand further inside the tent, ignoring my worried expression. His eyebrows raised, his expression imploring me to listen.

  “I’m not going anywhere without Luka.”

  “I’m not asking you to,” Adam insisted. “I know how this works.”

  Fine then, I leaned forward, hesitantly taking his hand. With a strong pull, he had me out of the tent, and stumbling onto my feet on unsteady legs, his familiar smile in front of me.

  Not much had changed about Adam, not really. He had a few scrapes and scratches, injuries that were inevitable in his line of duty, but the General still teetered the line between boyishly and devastatingly handsome. He smiled, his dark lips parting to show perfect white teeth, as his hand brushed the tight curls that had fallen in front of his face out of the way.

  Still the King’s second in command. Still the only person willing to understand. More importantly, his eyes held a hint of sadness. Perhaps he wished that I had listened to him. Months prior, he had told me not to give myself up. Yet, here we were.

  “Just as breathtaking as you were when I left you, Wren,” Adam said, and I looked behind him to see Nikolas scowling. “Though you have gotten thinner, it’s nothing a good meal or two can’t fix.”

  “And who is to blame for that weight loss?” Asked Luka as he finally got out of the tent, immediately standing beside me. Once again, his hand was at my side, and I was surprised when he let me grab his wrist without struggle.

  “You,” said Nikolas under his breath, and Adam immediately sent him a warning look. Nikolas once had dreams of us being in love, those hadn’t gone away. Unfortunately, what he considered dreams, I considered nightmares.

  Thus, I avoided him.

  “She’ll tell you that she is,” Luka dismissed easily, because I was. “But thank you for the cutting remark, I’m sure it will haunt me,” he said, making certain that Nikolas knew it would do anything but that.

  Because, being technical, I was responsible for all that had happened to me. Even if it was through a stupid desire to be near him, even if it was through digging my nose in his business where it didn’t belong. I was the reason I was there.

  “Now, now, let’s not fight,” Adam said, attempting to loop his arm through mine, I did not accept it. “Wren has a busy day ahead of her.”

  I didn’t doubt that.

  Three guards stood around Adam aside from Nikolas, and they watched in amusement as I rejected the man’s offer. Not many women said no to Adam, and more surprising to them was the way that I reached for Luka instead, staring at the general. I would not walk beside him; I would not walk beside anyone else. I would not let Luka out of my sight.

  “Have it your way,” said Adam decisively, turning on his heel to walk. “Though I assure you that I’m a much better conversational partner. I’ve been told that I’m absolutely wonderful at parties.”

  I doubted that. My hand tightened around Luka’s arm as he stiffened beside me, realizing my intention. I’d walk through camp with him, or I wouldn’t walk at all.

  “Come along,” Adam insisted when I did not immediately begin to move. “You do not wish to keep him waiting. He’s not a morning person.” Under his breath he added, “he might even be a little bit ornery at being woken up early and made to wait. He’s childish, really, but I find it endearing.”

  Luka ducked his head, shaking it lightly at me, but he began to move as if already knowing where to go. I let myself follow him, not daring to look away.

  “Who is here?” I asked, taking slow steps to prolong the inevitable.

  “Seeing as how you were asked to wear your uniform; I think the answer is rather obvious, but I’ll forgive you since you have truly never been one for the morning. I’m guessing the King,” Luka responded as Adam charged on ahead. Behind us, the guards formed an arc, ready to stop us if any ambitious thoughts overcame me. I could feel Nikolas’s eyes at the back of my skull. “I wasn’t sure,” Luka said before I could so much as think to ask. “I only had an idea. I didn’t know what to make of it yet.”

  “So, you hid me in your tent?” I asked.

  “I seem to remember telling you I would stay with you,” Luka proclaimed, and the frown on my face softened. “I didn’t want to chance them trying to make you leave without me, which I’m sure has crossed the King’s mind no less than a thousand times.”

  “You’re fond of me,” I whispered as the guards grew closer, teasing him.

  “That’s not a secret, Wren.” And yet, as we passed by a group of humans and they gave curious looks, it felt like it was one.

  “You’ll have to forgive our sudden intrusion,” Adam interrupted, casting a glance back towards the two of us that had me pulling ever so slightly away. “After the events of the past few days here, we thought it important to check on your status. Perhaps… Reevaluate it.” The side of his mouth rose as he looked away, admitting, “of course, Theo wanted to teach you a lesson, and Camden was all for it—But I’d feel personally responsible if you were to be eaten.” He shrugged, “they may have downplayed the situation to you a few days ago. It may have been more people taken than they previously represented to you. They didn’t want people to worry, but a person a night—”

  “A person a night?” Luka responded, the shock evident in his voice.

  “Well, we could hardly announce it,” Nikolas growled, and I gave a small jump as I realized that he had worked his way up to being at my side. “What would that do? Send more running to the woods?”

  I swallowed.

  “But thankfully,” Adam pushed on, “you have friends in high places, and if you do well…” He raised a hand as if presenting an opportunity. “But from what I’ve heard you’re already doing well, you’re just a regular liar is the problem,” he shrugged. “I wish I could say I expected more from you, Wren.”

  “I’m not leaving here,” I declared, even though every cell in my body screamed to. Alda was crap, but it was far away from the palace.

  “I thought you’d say that,” Adam tossed an effortless grin over his shoulder, the smallest hint of his tongue showing. “Theo said he’d convince you otherwise.”

  “And how will he do that?”

  “I think you’ll find him to be very persuasive,” Adam hummed.

  I caught Luka’s gaze out of the corner of my eye, tilting my head ever so slightly at the statement. Luka only tightened his jaw in response.

  “Not actual compulsion, thankfully,” Nikolas clarified from my other side. “He’s above that.” I was surprised to hear he was above anything, but I re-steadied my gaze forward anyway.

  We were getting further into camp, around where the market had sat just a day before. It was empty now, cleared out early with the arrival of the King, no doubt. All the wagons and stalls were gone, though the smoke still rose from the embers left by their fires. All that remained were the medical and ration tents, their owners standing in their entryways holding the tent flaps open as they watched us pass by, not so much as glimpsing at the gaps beside them. They’d probably experienced the same rush at other camps before. I doubted the market sellers wanted to be caught scamming the soldiers by the King’s guards. Alda might have been a lesser camp, but it was no secret that the King cared for his image.

  “Is Camden here?” I asked, looking away from the many indentations left by the market stalls.

  “No,” Adam said, “thankfully.”

  I nodded, secretly glad of the news. If there was anyone I didn’t wish to see, it was her. She might have been the King’s first choice for a bride, but sh
e was anything but kind. If I had to attribute being assigned to Alda out of all of the camps to anyone, it would be her. If the King suggested it, it was from her whispering in his ear, she merely praised him for the decision to make him feel as if it was his decision alone.

  King Theo had many consorts; he was a well-known ladies’ man, but for some reason he favored her. From what I knew of her, aside from looks, I couldn’t understand it. But then, I’d never met him.

  I actually knew very little of the man who ruled our land, aside from the fact that I found him detestable.

  “Can King Theo lie?” I asked suddenly, addressing Luka as a large, ruby tent appeared in the distance, positioned at the camp’s highest elevation. I’d nearly forgotten that the King was not wholly fae.

  Ahead of me, Adam let out a chuckle.

  “I do not know,” said Luka, his voice heavy with curiosity as he absorbed the conversation, as if he’d never considered it before. “I suppose we shall find out.”

  Chapter Three

  It was far smaller on the inside than it appeared from afar. I suppose I should have been thankful for that, because large spaces with many rooms often hide many secrets. But I couldn’t help but compare it to the tents around it, especially the one I had been sleeping in just hours prior. The thin cotton barely waterproofed and the area big enough for a sleeping roll and a small trunk for one’s personal belongs. We slept in such things regularly while the King only visited and brought with him a tent the size of a small house. Silk walls adorned with embroidery and large vents overhead that were far different than the plain, loosely woven cloth I knew. Pelts hung from the walls to keep out the cold, the King was rumored to be an accomplished hunter. Luka and I had laid together just hours before underneath a thin regulation blanket, the one that nearly everyone in camp was allocated. Yet the King had fur to line his walls and fight back the winter cold—If he was as generous as some of his fans said, perhaps he would have donated those pelts to the thousands of people he left to freeze out in the late autumn breezes.

  To say it was a curious thing that he showed such obnoxious wealth even here, where people suffered for his glory, did no one any justice. He was a selfish, unempathetic king, and one look at the soft ground within the tent only reaffirmed it. Holes, the kind left by tent pegs, were evident underneath lumpy woven rugs. He’d forced people to move their tents for this.

  “It’s best that you don’t overthink things, Wren,” Adam said with a sort of hollowness, pushing aside a fox pelt to lead us through the inner doors. “The minds of kings are not easy to understand.”

  It was obvious that Adam had had the same realization before and had pushed it aside.

  “I should be glad then,” I spat, “that I am only a peasant.”

  “Only a peasant?” Adam laughed. “I think you’re a little more than that,” he said, casting a look behind him as Luka and I pushed back the curtain of fur and entered the main portion of the tent.

  A round, cloth-walled room awaited us, a simple desk with two chairs in front of it and one behind. The furniture was mismatched, likely stolen from guard’s houses for the occasion, but the seat that sat alone was notably finer than the other two.

  And empty.

  “He’ll be here soon,” Adam said apologetically. “He likes to make an entrance.”

  I wasn’t surprised by that.

  Doing as Adam indicated, I walked forward and sat in one of the two chairs at the desk, Luka settled beside me in the other, his fingers gripped onto the armrest tightly. Adam nodded at the motion, satisfied that we’d settled into his expectations without any further issue. Casting a final look at the two of us, as if wondering whether or not we would flee, he exited, leaving us alone.

  “Best behavior, Wren,” Luka said once we were alone. “No verbal sparring.”

  “You have no faith in me,” I sighed, slumping back in my chair.

  “If you were not prone to misadventure…” Luka began.

  I scoffed. “You’re prone to rudeness.”

  He sighed, but I noticed that the side of his mouth rose ever so slightly.

  I looked away from him, taking in the desk before me. The surface was empty, free of any hint of judgement about our future. Somehow, that was unnerving. “You meant what you said?” I asked. “You will stay by my side?”

  “No, I like to say things I don’t mean,” Luka replied. “Just to keep you on your toes.” I could see him shake his head beside me out of the corner of my eye. “Do you think I take you so lightly? I said it before, I would not lie to you, even if I had the ability.”

  “Promise it then,” I demanded, turning to him and presenting my hand with a flourish. “Swear it to me.”

  “Wren…” My eyes stared into his.

  “I think you should do it,” said another voice, one at the edge of the tent, and suddenly I was jerking my wrist back. “It would save me quite a bit of trouble.” Luka’s head snapped back to face forward, and I turned around sharply, eyeing the curtain we’d walked in through.

  The King lounged against a tent pole, his leafy golden crown nearly blending in with his curls.

  I felt myself grow pale as he stepped into the light.

  Fae were beautiful. That is a fact that no human would refute. They were otherworldly and enchanting, their features enticing in so many ways. Even the ones with bark on their face and twigs jutting out from their skulls had a quality that made one want to step closer if they were unaccustomed, that made you want to hold on longer when they touched you. The King was different than that.

  The King was far different than that.

  He had a beauty to his boyish features, a charm to his ever-quirked mouth. King Theo had a look that was captivating, one that made you wish to do anything to please him. He was the type of handsome that one drowned in, the type that washed away sensibility. Even steeled to hate him, I could not look away, I could not fight the resounding need, even as Luka shut his eyes tightly beside me.

  A long, pained exhale escaped me as he smiled, knowing then that he had me ensnared. This was the power of a high fae.

  “My, you are far more charming than Camden described,” he said, and I felt as if I could not breathe. “Adorable, even.” I could have cried at those words, what kindness to be called such a thing by someone so gorgeous.

  The King strode closer and my eyes followed him, barely processing the almost feline glint in his features as he took me in—

  No, us in.

  “Kinsley,” he said, and I vaguely registered that Luka was still here, sitting beside me. “It is good to see that you took my advice.”

  I think Luka nodded.

  “You look far better,” the King said. “Wren,” he asked, and I was nearly dazed by my name. “Have you told him how much better he looks now? Without those nasty donkey ears on his head?”

  The world came crashing back. Beside me, Luka practically turned to stone.

  “You’re welcome,” the King said, as the charade of beauty my mind crafted shattered and my fingers clutched the fabric of my tunic tightly. “Though you will have to tell me who did it, wouldn’t want any more Unseelie sneaking back in.”

  “Luka is not an Unseelie,” I corrected, not needing to see Luka’s shoulders fall to set the other man straight. “He’s only half and therefore as much Seelie as you are.”

  “Wren,” Luka warned under his breath.

  The King ignored me. “I must say, I’m surprised to see that you two are still here, still together. Were the offerings of Seelie at camp not enough, Wren? I assure you that there are plenty of other Seelie men out there, or women if that is what you prefer. You needn’t bother with a half Seelie, you could have been sleeping in a nice cabin this whole time.” He exhaled heavily, as if exasperated with the thought, “no worries, we’ll find you a new fae lover at court.”

  I immediately rose to my feet, casting him a glare.

  “Relax,” said the King, “it is merely a joke.”

  �
�Jokes are meant to be funny,” I informed him.

  “I find the idea of the two of you hilarious,” replied the King, and I felt my grip tighten on the desk between us, only releasing when Luka made to grab my forearm.

  “Breathe,” said Luka’s voice simply.

  I glowered, falling back in my chair with a huff.

  “Absolutely hilarious,” the King mumbled sunnily across from me, taking in the two of us with an expression akin to a cat cornering its prey. The realization made me tense. “Well, Luka,” he continued as I watched him warily. “Have you thought it over? Will you now fulfill my request?”

  Luka responded immediately, “no.”

  “Ah,” said King Theo. “Then it appears that you’re of no use to me. Leave, and we shall try again at some other time.” He dismissed him easily, as if he were simply a mild inconvenience and nothing more.

  Luka quickly made to leave.

  “What,” I began, my hand shooting out to hold Luka’s wrist. “He’s not leaving,” I said hastily, my mouth agape. “Luka,” I begged him.

  “Relax,” said King Theo, “we shall keep him outside. I’d like to speak to you alone.”

  “You will speak to me with Luka here—”

  “No,” yawned the King, “I think not. Leave, Luka. Be patient and they might give you a biscuit or two,” he said, as if dismissing a pet. I could not believe it.

  Even more so, I could not believe that Luka deigned to listen. I gaped at him as he shrugged, shaking my hold off his wrist. My eyebrows furrowed as I watched him go. He parted the curtains and he was gone. He made no move to turn back.

  “He always was smart, that one,” King Theo said. “You should learn from him; his obedience is one of his few good traits.” After a moment, he added, “you should also call me Theo, for you will find us to be friends in no time.”

  “I highly doubt that,” I said, attempting to hide the venom in my voice, waiting for the curtains to move and Luka to come back. He should have returned by now.