Crown of Beauty and Vengeance

Chapter 33

Chapter 33

Lyv was relieved to not have to be Audry anymore but knew that her reveal would get back to her mother somehow. She had yet to figure out where and who her spies were but had a feeling it was only a matter of time before a raven found her with a threatening message from Queen Guinevere.

She was finishing the buckles on her boots when she looked over to see Posy pouting on her pillow.

"I know you want to go, Posy, but it will be safer for you here than traveling up to Asturia," she told her. "Besides, you love Eamon and he promised to take good care of you."

The pixie folded her arms across her chest, her pout intensifying.

"Don't look at me like that."

She stuck out her tongue.

"I promise we'll go on another adventure soon. Then you can go, all right?"

Posy flopped back on the pillow dramatically, eliciting a laugh from Gideon, who just came into the room. He was already in his metal and leather armor with his emerald green cloak pinned at his shoulders, something she hadn't seen him in before. It had been his when he was still a guardsman to Jai and still fit him perfectly. He joked earlier that he couldn't wait to see what Thia thought of him in it.

"She's mad at you for making her stay behind, isn't she?"

"She learned her theatrics from you."

"I don't know. Your whole reveal yesterday was pretty theatric."

"And you were the one to suggest how I went about it."

Lyv leaned over and pulled open the drawer of the small table beside her bed. Reaching toward the back, she pulled out Amory's note, along with the locket Destan had given to her for her birthday. Opening the note to run her eyes and fingers over the words before folding it into an even more compact size, she opened the locket and carefully placed the parchment inside to carry it with her. Once she had it secured around her neck, she looked over to see Gideon's eyes on it.

"Are you ready?" she asked, standing up as she grabbed her bag and cloak. "Everyone will be waiting."

"Ready," Gideon nodded.

Posy sat on her shoulder as they left their rooms, looking back and realizing she wasn't going to be seeing them for several weeks, if not months.

It was strange, walking the palace halls as Princess Alyvia and not Healer Audry. Of course, her true identity had spread throughout, as well as Gideon's. There weren't smiles as they passed the staff, but more curious looks than suspicious ones. She still said hello to everyone as she normally would.

It was when they got to the main courtyard that her nerves knotted in her stomach.

Everyone was there, readying their horses, but Lyv's eyes went to the two brothers who watched her appear through the archway.

Destan refused to look her way. He hadn't spoken to her at all since she told them who she really was. Of course, he was hurt by her deception. She needed to talk to him, though, tell him that who she really was had been the only thing she lied about. She still enjoyed spending time with him, but she knew that this secret had changed everything between the two of them.

Jai, on the other hand, had been looking in her direction before she even appeared. His eyes followed her every move, even as he secured his things onto the saddle. Lyv swallowed hard at the sight of him in his armor, his emerald green cloak already secured. Why couldn't she have the same thoughts about Destan as she did this male she was supposed to want dead?