“Don’t you think you deserve a little quiet?” Daniel placed the steaming bread between them.
“Maybe,” Vhalla confessed. She burned her fingers slightly, as she always did on the hot bread, too impatient to wait. “But I still have things to do.”
“What more could the world possibly expect of you?” Daniel shook his head. “You’ve given enough, you know.”
“Thank you.” Vhalla smiled tiredly at him. She couldn’t tell him what she still had left to do. “For now, though, I’ll settle for the taste of home you’ve given me.”
“You’re welcome to it anytime.”
“I wouldn’t want to impose on you . . .”
“Craig isn’t shy about occupying a room when things at his family’s home are less than ideal.” Daniel shrugged. “Jax has also slept in a bed many nights when he was too drunk to make it back to the palace.”
“If I ever do stay, you are not allowed to make me sleep in the same bed that drunk Jax has,” Vhalla teased.
“On my honor!” Daniel laughed. “But, truly. If you ever need to escape the palace . . .”
The unspoken words hovered and Vhalla claimed them with a small sigh. “Things are a little awkward.” She tore a piece of bread into crumbs. “But it’s my home, too. I need to learn how to be around him.”
“That’s fair. But the offer remains.” Vhalla was relieved that there was nothing in Daniel’s words or stare other than friendly compassion.
After their meal concluded, Daniel insisted on walking her back to the Tower. He explained the process of joining the palace guard, how the training was for the new recruits and for guards seeking to move up in rank. Daniel had the job of deciding who the best swordsmen were to be sent out into the Empire as keepers of the peace.
“Oh, one more thing.” Daniel shifted uneasily.
“What?” There was something about his face that nearly called into question her entire understanding of the evening they’d shared.
“I want you to know, that I didn’t lie to you then.”
“Lie to me about what?” Vhalla’s voice had fallen to a whisper.
“I did still look forward to seeing you return.” Daniel clearly struggled with putting his emotions into something tangible. But her heart was already beating in time with his. She already understood. “You really weren’t just something to ‘fill the hole in my heart’. You’re more than that. And, while sometimes I wish the stars had aligned for us just in a slightly different way . . .”
“You don’t have to explain it.” Vhalla took his hand and squeezed it lightly. Relief eased its way into his eyes and smoothed the tense line his mouth had been. “I enjoyed myself tonight. Actually, I’ve always enjoyed time with you. And, it’s easier now, now that we’ve had that time and there isn’t death on our doorsteps.”
Daniel’s fingers closed around hers for a brief moment. “So, come and visit me again?”
“Soon, I promise.” It was a promise that Vhalla’s heart had no hesitation making. And, it was only affirmed as he pulled her in for one more quick embrace before departing.
Daniel was everything that could have been. He was the embodiment of a simpler time and place where she was only a girl and he was a farm boy, where the only crowns in their lives would be the ones he’d braid for her out of field flowers. It was no wonder that they had both wanted to play at such a fantasy. But, neither of them were pretending anymore.
Vhalla headed up the Tower. For the first time in a long time, things were starting to feel simple. She caressed the watch around her neck, passing a faint glow in the library.
But nothing would ever be simple for long.
Vhalla saw the rose on her desk before the door even clicked closed behind her. Attached with a black ribbon was a note, in the same fashion as one she’d received once before. Her fingers traced the delicate velvet of the petals before flipping open the message.
Her eyes skimmed it twice, though it was only four words in a familiar, slanted script.
We need to speak.
VHALLA RESIGNED HERSELF to no sleep. She wasn’t going to sleep even if she stayed tucked in bed, so she decided to wander into the quiet palace.
There was no location on the note, no time marker, nothing other than four words. The only words with which he dared to intrude upon her world again. He’d trusted her to understand, and she did.
She had to stop to catch her breath as she stood at the window overlooking the Imperial garden. She hadn’t laid eyes on it since leaving for war. The last time she’d seen it, she’d snuck in to meet him for a lunch that had seemed so harmless at the time. Now she was sneaking in again to meet with that same prince under the cover of darkness.