Slamming my hand down on the container to secure its lid and the contents it held that I didn't want to deal with more than necessary, I hugged it to my chest as I bent my knees to swoop down and wrap my fingers around the glass. The scent of spices burned my nose as I rose with it in my hand, turning to face the intruder that had me startled.
My eyes locked onto a chest I was beginning to recognize from the fit of the tailored shirt that always fit it so perfectly. Lifting my gaze, I met Rowan's eyes. I was caught off guard by the intensity of his gaze. I didn't know how long he'd been watching me but it must have been longer than I was aware if he had to clear his throat to grab my attention.
We held each other's eyes for a drawn-out moment before his gaze dropped to my hands, causing me to tense. My hand holding the glass tightened as I second-guessed my decision to give into temptation after successfully resisting it for days. Considering who he was and how fancy the bottle looked, the contents it contained couldn't be cheap.
Adjusting my grip so the glass wouldn't slip out of my fingers, I hugged the container holding Artemis's food closer to discreetly push the lid open. Hopefully, if he caught a whiff of something, it wouldn't be the rum but the bodies of the small decaying mice.
Artemis must have caught the scent as intended. It had her releasing a cry for more that broke the tense silence in the room.
Rowan cleared his throat again. "I didn't mean to startle you."
"You didn't," I answered with a shake of my head. The lie had my face warming. It was clear from my reaction that he had.
The way his brow twitched in response told me he wasn't buying it.
"Everything good?" I inquired, trying to shift the focus off of me while trying to get some answers to the questions he had left me with when he had abruptly taken off over an hour ago. He had led me to his wing, only far enough for the soldier stationed outside the large double doors to spot me before he took off without a word of explanation.
Words that continued to evade him now that he had returned.
Turning my back to him, I hid my face that contorted in disgust as I downed the remaining inch of rum in my glass, wanting to get rid of as much incriminating evidence as I could before inevitably being caught. I used to laugh at how obvious my parents' attempts at being sneaky were, yet here I was making the same mistakes.
The thought had me pausing in pure horror. I was nothing like my parents. For starters, I had something fundamental that they lacked, a semblance of control. Without it, I would have been no different than them, I would have emptied the bottle the day I learned it existed. I wouldn't have taken just enough to feel a strong buzz, I would have filled my glass to the rim and drank until the world tilted around me and I needed a refill.
But I didn't. I had control.
But for how long?
Not wanting to face the slipping reality that the question would force me to, I choose to focus on Rowan's silence. Setting my empty glass on the edge of a large pot, I fed Artemis another mouse before returning the lid to the container. Clicking it shut, I turned to face Rowan.
I stilled when my eyes met his, registering that something had shifted in the way he was looking at me. Skilled as he was at hiding his thoughts, I couldn't get a read on what was going through his head. My mind started racing, going to the worst-case scenarios that it could come up with. Of course, all of them starred the Queen.
"What's wrong?" I asked, feeling the color drained from my face.
The unease twisting in my stomach only grew when Rowan raised a hand to run his fingers through his hair, pushing the locks back in a nervous tick that was out of character for him and intended to buy time.
