Ruin and Roses (Cursed Kingdoms Book 1) by Deanna Ortega

Author:Deanna Ortega [Ortega, Deanna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2022-03-30T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

The king didn't understand, not until I told him my mother's name. And then he was consumed with grief. He shouldn't have been allowed to mourn her because it was his blade she fell on. Sefar. So, I told him what I wanted to do each day since he had killed her—what I was left holding back for years. He didn't love her, he didn't lament for her. The loss he felt was his magic. And instead of longing for her, he waited for the day he regained his magic, his eternity.

Waking was always disorienting after I dreamed of her. I lost sense of time—days, months, years, always half expecting her to be sitting there on my bed patting me awake with a wicked gleam in her eyes.

That morning was no different. My eyes squinted open against the morning light, and I reached for her readying myself to tell her that dawn was far too early. And she would respond by saying that the flowers were their most glorious at sunrise.

But my arms came away empty. She was gone. She wasn't coming back. There would be no more morning strolls through the gardens. I slipped into my robe. I couldn't—wouldn't think about her.

There was too much for me to do since that morning I was meant to trade one type of purgatory for another. Ellesmere for Lunasa. The unknown enemy for the backstabbing friend.

"Oh good," Lou said at an octave that was much too chipper. "I was afraid I'd have to wake you."

Fabric rustled at the foot of the bed, as she tossed something there. I adjusted the pillows so that I was sitting up and rubbed the sleep from my eyes. Pulling the small pile of clothes toward me, I winced. "What's this?"

"Clothing." She enunciated it slowly as though I was incapable of understanding. "While you're always in states of naked...normal people do often cover up in public."

She gestured to the slip I was wearing when I arrived at my rooms, the night prior.

Lacing my hands in front of me, I bit back a smile at her rudeness. "Why are they on the bed and not being packed?"

"I've fixed them."

"And what was wrong with them?"

"You had so many useless dresses." I snorted at her assessment, and she continued. "But I figured you could spare some. So, I turned a few into pants."

I leaped from the plush confines of the pillows towards the pile and pulled each pair up and examined them. They were practical and feminine...and pants. How those three things fit so well together made me feel Lou had some of her own magic.

The first pair had been made from a sapphire gown and I stepped into them without waiting to look at the others which were cream-colored and grey. She managed to cinch the waist. I still had a figure in them—and didn't look like a dumpling the way I looked in men's pants—but my legs were completely mobile.

"Thank you." I could've kissed her, but I settled for a hug.

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