A Crown of Dawn by Brindi Quinn

Author:Brindi Quinn [Quinn, Brindi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Fantasy, Romance
Publisher: Never and Ever Publishing
Published: 2021-04-29T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

Is It Worth It?

“Your hair’s really long.”

That was Edius.

“It lengthens when it’s wet,” I said.

“Didn’t notice before,” he said.

Because he had been looking at me much more intensely in recent days.

He exhaled his reluctance over what he was about to say: “It… looks nice.”

Meanwhile—

“Chaaaap. Chap? Chap!”

“What do you want, you pest?” lashed Rafe.

“Just to see how my favorite magician’s doing. Need any help with that roast corn, mate?”

Rafe furrowed his brow over Windley’s sudden devotion. A reason for his beaming teeth and abrupt desire to assist. Coming to a realization, he flicked his gaze disagreeably to me—which I quickly averted from—before burying his face in his hands: “Oh my goddess. You told him.”

“Told him what?” said Edius.

I clapped. “Let’s all name a fruit we’d like for dessert!” My voice was unnaturally loud. “I’ll go first! Cherries!” I stomped my feet and grew a tree of them.

“Raaafe.” Windley had his arm around the sorcerer’s shoulder, giving him a hearty shake. “How about you, chap? How do you like your dessert?”

“Next time I’m staying home,” Rafe grumbled, and then to me: “Never again, Your Majesty. Never again.”

But you know, in friendships as long as ours, never again is an impossible phrase. Rafe would allow me many more offerings of advice over the years. Though few would be quite so lewd. Actually, most would be about parenting. But I digress.

It was for the best that Edius was not in on the joke, and I hurried to grow him the southern fruit—known as pineapple—he desired.

“Did I get it right?” I asked, shaking out my damp hair that was starting to curl and coil.

“You’ve… never seen a pineapple before, have you?” he said.

“So I did not get it right,” I concluded.

“Eh, close enough.” He stabbed at the prickly thing with his knife. “Though it tastes more like an orange.” At my expression, he put up a hand and a grin. “It’s fine, you little ferret. I like oranges.”

I enjoyed Edius.

But I did not enjoy the way our eyes met too long after he said it. It was hard not to stay caught on eyes like those—hard not to smile back at a mouth like that.

Windley squeezed my shoulder. Self-proclaimed master of lust, he knew what we were going through. “Oy, Ed. Care for a walk, mate?”

He was a good friend.

A good partner.

A good person.

Sometimes the sweetest things are in the most unexpected of packages.

Dinner and dessert and rest accomplished, we ventured further into the labyrinth.

Rafe, still at the front like a captain, was trying to find rhyme or reason to the layout of it all. “Your majesty, did you have more of a contemporary design, classical design or meander design in mind when you built this? I know it isn’t circular or seeded, but those can still be used as bases.”

“To be honest, Rafe, it seems you’ve just spoken a foreign language to me. I had no design in mind, merely envisioned a labyrinth from a storybook I read as a child.”

Rafe held his chin.

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