Her Blind Deception (The Dark Reflection Series Book 2) by Hailey Jade

Author:Hailey Jade [Jade, Hailey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2023-08-12T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

Rhiandra

In the cool light of early dawn, I slid out of the warm bed. Draven was still asleep, and I stood by and just watched him for a few moments, watched the slow rise and fall of his chest with a feeling of tenderness I didn’t want to peer too closely at, before I crept across the room. I turned the key in the lock of the liquor cabinet slowly and when the cupboard door creaked, I froze, held my breath. But he slept on.

The partition lifted with barely a rustle, and beyond it the mirror gleamed almost unnaturally bright, reflecting more light than there was in the dim room. And there I was, careworn and scarred, not a girl who could keep any man in her thrall, let alone the one sleeping in my bed. He could never see me like this. If he did, all the leverage I’d won over him would dissolve.

And what about the leverage he had over me? What was I trading for this intimacy? What was I hoping to buy with it? Did I think that one day I might be able to turn around and tell him that I’d lied, that Gwinellyn was actually alive, and could I please bring her home now, thank you?

The cold touch of magic numbed my skin, and a shudder raced down my spine. In a dark cell in this very palace, the ones who had given me these scars breathed the same air as me.

‘This is early for you, ma’am,’ Leela commented as I stepped into my sitting room, still barefoot and dressed in nothing but a robe. She was sitting by the fire, flicking through a pamphlet as she waited to be summoned. Her gaze skimmed the door. ‘Would you like me to bring your breakfast?’

‘I’ll eat in the dining room,’ I said. ‘And have them set the table for two.’

Her eyebrows lifted slightly, but that was the only sign of surprise she communicated. ‘As you say.’

I wondered what she thought of me as she set off to order about the other servants and attendants. Perhaps that I was playing the same game I always played. She’d seen my rise to power, seen me seduce and marry a king and secure myself a crown. Why was this any different?

No. She was far too sharp to be fooled into thinking this was anything like that had been.

Creeping back through the bedchamber, I slipped into the bathing room and shut the door behind me. I ran a brush through my hair, rinsed out my mouth, turned my face this way and that in the mirror to check for impossible imperfections, and by the time I’d finished the bed was empty. Disappointment swooped through my stomach at the sight, and I titled my chin in the air with a sniff, as though I was trying to put on a show for someone watching and not just for myself.

When I entered the dining room, I was surprised to see Draven already sitting at the table with a newspaper spread before him.

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