Okay, she was still gorgeous when she was sneering, but that was difficult to appreciate in the moment.
“You’re looking lonely over here,” a sultry voice purred.
I raised my eyes to find a busty woman peering down at me like a lioness ready to strike. She looked familiar, and I wished I could blame my inability to recall her name on the alcohol.
I held up my tankard, and it splashed all over my sleeves. “Got plenty of company right here.”
Apparently she wasn’t convinced, because she slid into the booth next to me, her curvy thigh practically resting on top of mine.
I flashed a feral grin at her, aware that it was all she could see of my face with my hood shading my eyes. “I said I’m not interested.”
Her seductive grin soured into a sneer. “Well, that’s a first,” she hissed as she popped up from the counter and strode away.
Did she mean that was a first coming from me, or the first time she’d been turned down by a drunk male in this tavern? It made my head pound to ponder it, so I didn’t.
I left way too much coin on the counter for the barman, considering what I paid him under the table, but the ale was making my head spin, and I didn’t have the mental energy to count what I owed.
When I stumbled into the streets, the castle loomed over me.
I made it a good three steps before I vomited. At least I made it into the gutter.
Ale has no place in the mind of a king, Jerad’s voice reminded me. That’s what he’d always say when I tried to convince him to come out with me.
“Well, I’m not king yet,” I spoke to no one in particular. “And if our father has his way, I’ll never be.”
If something ever happens to me, the responsibility will be passed to you. Are you ready to give up your childish behavior?
“Too late, something already happened,” I choked. “Shouldn’t have come with me that night.”
A slurred voice cut through the alcohol clouding my mind. “You’re the one who shouldn’t have come out tonight.”
Firm hands gripped my shoulder, then someone kneed me in the gut.
The pain buckled me, my drunken limbs swaying in shock.
The man holding me spit in my face. “You must not be from around here. Otherwise you’d have known to leave your jewelry behind.”
A fist caught me in the jaw. I swung, but the man before me caught my hand midair. He wrenched a golden ring off my finger—Jerad’s ruby ring, before shoving me to the ground.
“Give that back,” I hissed, but the words came out slow, slurred. Unintimidating.
“Yeah, okay,” the man chuckled.
I spit on his boots.
Something collided with my skull, then everything went black.
“What in Alondria is wrong with you?”
The voice was familiar enough that it stirred me from sleep, but I found myself annoyed at being ripped away from the darkness so hastily. It had been peaceful in the darkness.
Now the street lanterns blinded my eyes, amplifying the pounding in my head.
A shadowy figure stood over me, concern etched across her brow.
Blaise.
The grin on my face came out of nowhere. Everything hurt, and I’d almost been murdered and left for dead by a bunch of lowlifes. I wasn’t sure what I was happy about, but the giggles burst from me all the same.
Until Blaise slapped me in the face, that is.
“Ow.”
“Get up.”
I nestled into my almost-grave, burying my face into the ground to shield it from her open palm. “You know, I think I’ll just stay here.”
Scrawny arms looped underneath my underarms and tugged.
I hardly moved. Another giggle escaped my lips. “You’re so tiny. Did you know how tiny you are? You used to be even tinier. I remember one time—”
“Shut up and help me,” Blaise snapped.
I frowned. Blaise was mad, but I couldn’t figure out what for. But I loved Blaise, and I didn’t like it when she was upset. “Okay, okay.” I let her help me to my feet, leaning against her slight frame for support.
We hobbled up the street like that, Blaise yelling at me every few minutes when I tried to convince her the better path home was through the moat.
“I think Cinderella is married,” I found myself saying.
