Thank you for all the feedback! I love advice too and any ideas that you guys have. I might not update as often because I started school again, but I will do my best. Things are about to get interesting fast ;) Thank you again to everyone reading and enjoy this next chapter!
Royce slid unsteadily into the saddle, ignoring the feeling of Kadir's legs cradled around hers, the heat of his front against her back. "What do I do?" she breathed, taking the reins like she would a horse.
He back went ramrod straight when she felt his hand travel down her spine. "Posture, Royce, I didn't think I'd have to point that out to you." He chuckled right beside her ear.
"How do I get him into the air?" Royce asked instead, caught on the way her name sounded when he said it like that.
Before she could protest, his hands wrapped around hers from behind. "Just like a horse, but two kicks means run, which we don't have space to do." For they were on the largest cleared space of the deck.
"So one kick."
"Yes."
"Then why are you holding my hands?"
"Because I like you."
She glared at him over her shoulder and kicked her heel into Freefall's side. Royce resisted her scream as they shot into the air, climbing higher and higher with each wing beat, going at a near verticle slope. Kadir's arms switched to lock around her waist, her golden braid probably slapping him mercilessly.
But when he howled, she howled with him.
When they leveled out, Royce was grinning far wider than a proper princess should be. She glanced over her shoulder and was met with the feeling of Kadir's hand sliding smoothly behind her neck, then the feeling of his lips pressed against hers.
Shocked, she couldn't move. She had kissed him before-at that cabin-but this was different. This kiss wasn't supposed to save her life. It was supposed to do something else.
After a moment of stillness he pulled away, peering at her through those long pale lashes.
Royce's smile dropped.
"Kadir… you know we can't."
He looked down. "I know, I'm sorry. I just… ," He cut himself off, running a hand through his pearl hair. "We could try, Royce. Dammit, we could try."
She faced the sky again. "No, we can't. Don't do it again, Your Highness."
He flinched.
Silence stretched, taut as a bowstring, the only thing to snap it was the whistling wind. Royce saw Sweetheart pull into the air on her left, from where she had previously been flying below. May smiled at her, a positively green Baldor in the saddled behind her. It seemed he wasn't exactly comfortable with Royce piloting.
Royce tried to give her friends a smile back, but couldn't. Kadir just looked the opposite way.
May glanced between them, leading Royce to mouth the words I'll tell you later.
"Royce." Kadir said suddenly.
"I told you this was the end of the discussion." She tried and failed to keep her tone from snapping. Why had she reverted back to snapping at him?
"Royce."
Finally, she looked over and whitened.
Flying wing to wing with them, as May was, was a large osprey. Its dark eyes told her more than she needed to know.
It was no ordinary bird.
Kadir's hand flattened on her stomach but the fae made no move to attack them. It only angle slightly west-as if to lead them along.
And, perhaps like fools, they followed.
X-X-X-X-X-X-X
Maeve's palace wasn't a palace as she'd expected. It was a sprawl of stone and water, the fae milling about in boats instead of carriages like they did in Terrasen.
Freefall didn't shoot to the ground this time, as if he somehow sensed the uneasiness. They glided down, following the strange osprey. When they were close, Royce could see a black and white wolf sprinting below them, heading towards their destination.
Her parents had told her about Fenrys, about how he hated the bloodoath with every inch of his being and fought by their side while he could. Rowan pitied him. Aelin was thankful for him.
They landed smoothly, claws clicking against damp stone. When Royce slid off the wyvern, the white wolf's eyes were on her. They didn't hold the mischief Aelin said they would. They were dull. Lifeless.
Kadir came down beside Royce, followed by Baldor and May. Shields fell into place like the clank of armor.
"I wasn't expecting you to arrive so soon," Royce heard a silken voice say.
The group whirled, wyverns spreading their wings to appear bigger.
Before them, stood Maeve.
She had a beauty only Lysandra could rival, with long, silken black hair and piercing violet eyes. Her skin was the color of moonlight, lips painted red and curled into a devious smile.
"Let's see," She looked over them all. "The Adarlan and Witch Prince, the Terrasen Princess, the son of my previous second in command, and… who are you, lovely?"
May didn't answer, only held Maeve's gaze with unflinching ferocity hidden behind her hazel eyes.
Queen Maeve and the daughter of Silba's Heir, Heir herself to the Torre.
The owl behind Maeve seemed to rustle in recognition.
Maeve only smiled wider. "You all must be hungry. How about dinner?"
X-X-X-X-X-X-X
Royce wasn't seated near her friends. It was only Kadir who sat beside her, after baring his fangs at one of the fae-Connall-that tried to make him sit with separated as the others were.
Beside Royce, however, wasn't Maeve. It was a girl.
Well, not girl. She could have been anywhere between twenty and five hundred with those pointed fae ears. She two was beautiful, with golden skin and raven dark hair. For a moment, Royce thought she was Maeve's daughter, but her green eyes made her pause.
Maeve still had the sick smile from where she sat at the head of the table, Fenrys to her right.
The girl beside Royce, to Maeve's left, stared hard at her plate.
"Something you want to say, Fable?" Maeve asked, stuffing a forkful of chicken into her mouth.
Fable shook her head, setting down her wineglass beside Royce's arm. Their skin tones, she couldn't help but notice, were the same.
Kadir held her other hand beneath the table. She could feel his iron nails occasionally brush her knee. None of her companions had touched their food, Royce included.
Maeve said into the silence, "Well, I'm sure, Your Highness, you and Fable will get along well. You are-"
"Maeve." Fenrys warned, looking up at last.
"Shut up."
His lips clamped together.
Maeve waved a hand between Royce and Fable. "I'm sure you've figured out that you two are related. You see, Fable is the orphaned daughter or Lyria and Rowan Whitethorn. Well, I suppose it depends how you define orphan."