A Dark and Starless Night

Chapter Seventeen

The maze in the palace gardens was a carefully groomed work of art, statues and fountains of marble breaking up the greenery. White and pink kalmia flowers clustered here and there, honeybees floating from one flower to another. This time of the evening, servants were lighting lanterns along the trail, guiding any courtiers taking an evening stroll through the maze.

There was a soothing quality to the warmth of the air and the smell of the plants, and the growing dark that surrounded Eve in the alcove she had slipped into was comforting. It was a dead-end in the maze where a marble bench under a winged statue resided. It was the perfect place to be alone while the tears worked their way out of their system. She wasn't sad. Far from it. She was a pit of anger, raging at the audacity of her mother to strike her. She had never really hit her before, maybe gripped her too hard or slapped her hand away from something. But that slap hadn't been for Eve's safety. It had been a personal attack because Eve had been honest. And whatever Yva had been insinuating about Rik and Fin... Eve wouldn't stand for it.

But words had escaped her, as if her mother had slapped them right out of her mind.

"I'll give you a mark for your thoughts," a voice said, and Eve looked up from the ground to see Rik.

He was wearing a casual grey shirt and a pair of loose trousers. His hair was messy, heavy with sweat. She quickly scrubbed at her cheeks and straightened up.

"I was just thinking it's going to get cold soon," she said, standing. "I'll take that mark now before I head home."

"It doesn't count if you're lying," he said, approaching her. He sat on the bench and rested his forearms on his knees. "Do you remember when we met?"

She nodded and sat beside him. It was a lifetime ago. Before she had fallen so in love with him.

"You were hiding from one of your tutors if I remember right."

"And you were hiding from your mother, because you'd just gotten into a fight with one of the pissants I'd been forced to try make friends with."

"Ren Daffriese," she said, shaking her head. "He was a racist little prick."

"That he was," Rik admitted, laughing a little. "His father had him sent east because he kept pissing me off."

"Stars above, to have that power at the age of, what, thirteen?"

"Fourteen and a month, I'll have you know."

"It feels like a lifetime ago now, doesn't it?" she said, resting her hands on the seat and leaning back.

"It does. Now we're both pinned down by the weight of expectations." He gently gripped her chin and tilted her face so he could get a look at her cheek. "That looks sore."

"It wasn't that hard," she said, pulling away and flushing. "I just wasn't expecting it. She just won't admit that what she tried to do was wrong."

"There's a good chance she never will. Parents are like that when they have a plan for you."

"Would you marry a child ten years your junior?"

"Do you even have to ask that? Ned's a special kind of scum," he said, with more vitriol than she'd ever heard from him. "I imagine it was hard to adjust to such a different world with a snake like Ned making false promises. Not making excuses," he said when he saw Eve's expression, "I just can't imagine what it was like."

"Neither can I. I just wish she would tell me why. And then she had the audacity to say that being friends with you and associating with Fin was damaging to my reputation."

"You're joking," he said, laughing a little. "I have an incredibly positive impact on reputations, I'll have you know."

She bumped him with her shoulder and laughed a little.