On the Wheel by Timandra Whitecastle

Author:Timandra Whitecastle [Whitecastle, Timandra]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fantasy, Fiction
Publisher: Timandra Whitecastle
Published: 2017-03-15T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

The door clicked shut behind High King Aellen, leaving Nora and Diaz alone in the king’s chambers. Nora frowned. When they had led her into the room, she thought she knew where this so-called conversation was going to end. Under the folds of the dress she had hidden a blunted piece of steel she snagged from the dresser. She could feel it poking into her thigh, having tucked it into her smallclothes. No idea what it was for, but lacking her own knife, she had seen the thin instrument as a way of inflicting an amount of pain to dissuade certain…attentions. Now that didn’t seem to be happening. This whole day was just one bizarre episode after another. Might as well go full bizarre. Seduction, Owen had said. Diversion. Well, there would be no better time than when she was halfway clean and in regal dress. Like now. She licked her lips. Must be easy, right? Especially after she’d been so suave and smooth earlier…

Diaz’s face showed in hard profile as he turned toward the door, as though he still had something left to say to his father. He and his father had spoken for a long time. She wasn’t sure about what, but from their tone, it had to be something serious. A warmth spread where his father had touched her, and she felt very self-conscious to have been at the center of attention. She eyed Diaz. He lifted a hand to his face, clenched it into a fist, then dropped it. Jaw still locked, he noticed her looking at him, and his eyes narrowed.

She forced a half smile onto her face.

“Whatever you were talking about.” She spoke as lightly as she could, shifting position so that the metal stuck into a different piece of flesh for a change. “I guess you didn’t mention that you and me don’t really work well together.”

She imagined him saying something along the lines of: we used to. His voice hoarse with emotion. For a moment, she lingered in the fantasy of him strolling over and taking her lips, caressing her gently the way his father had done, and disputing her words through deeds. However, he said nothing. He always preferred to say nothing, of course, but this time, instead of avoiding her eyes, he met them.

“Awkward, this.” With a sweeping gesture, she included everything between them in those two words.

He made a noncommittal noise at the back of his throat.

She nearly rolled her eyes. Instead, there were imaginary wrinkles to smooth from the dress. Her dress now. She glanced up at him again. Was it strange for him to see her in his mother’s dress? Maybe she should try a different approach. Attack was the best defense she knew.

“No apologies today?”

He shook his head. “No apologies.”

“Well, good.” He was talking to her, then. Nora tapped her leg with the flat of her hand. “So…what’s the plan?”

“The plan?”

“Why did your father leave us in his rooms? Is there something we’re supposed to

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