The Princess and the Warlock

Chapitre Seize

The clothes he had Aimee lay out made no sense to me. "Where's the rest of them?" I demanded, holding up the small scrap of material up to the light. "Are these men's pants?"

Aimee was perched on the side of my made bed, her hands in her lap. "They're called shorts, miss. And they're not men's, they're meant for women."

I tilted my head to the side. "I'm meant to wear these? Do you know how scandalous these are?"

"It would be more scandalous, I think, to wear a dress and have it plastered to your figure." She paused. "Miss."

No way was he expecting me to wear these. "Isn't there anything else I can wear? Something less...revealing?"

"On the contrary, more revealing would be a dress. Did you hear me when I said having a dress plastered to your figure is more scandalous?"

I shut my eyes briefly, releasing a sigh. "Aimee—"

"I suggest you put them on, miss. We still have to clear your legs."

I sucked in a breath, blinking rapidly. "Clear my legs of what?"

Other than the fact that these 'shorts' exposed way too much leg, they were actually very comfortable. They ended just about to my mid-thigh, a soft green cotton material that wasn't as tight as I thought it'd be. And the shirt I wore was kind of like the top to one of my dresses, white and light. I still wore a type of corset Aimee called a "corset gorge", but it was different than one I'd worn before. It was cut in half—supporting my top and cinching my waist in. "They're big in France," Aimee had told me. "Do you know where France is?"

I didn't, and Aimee didn't elaborate.

I now walked downstairs trying to slow my breathing and tugging on the hem of my shorts. Walk tall. Ladies walk tall. A lady always displays confidence. But I didn't feel any amount of confidence. I felt as unknowable as a worm hidden in the ground, out of place.

"Kaius?" I called out to him, reaching the landing on the bottom floor. The staircase deposited me at the edge of the front door, and I only just noticed it for the first time. It was large and heavy looking, only one singular window at the top to allow light to pass through.

I didn't know why, but I reached out and pressed my fingertips to the grain of the wood. I hadn't been outside, not since I arrived in the Wildwood, not for real. Reliving Kaius' memories in Florence didn't really count. But it was strange. Being cooped up inside the castle walls was claustrophobic, choking. Being cooped up inside Gossington felt freeing, like each day was a new experience in this place. And maybe it was because I had seventeen years to explore the rooms of the palace, but even the atmosphere here felt different.

"Amora?"

I dropped my hand from the door and turned around, finding Kaius standing in the doorway to the dining room. He was wearing a pair of pants much like the material of my own, but his were cuffed higher up on his ankles. His shirt was a loose tunic, his hair unclasped. I immediately reached down to tug down my shorts' hem, tossing my head of short hair to the side. "Hi."

"What are you doing?" he asked, watching my hands flutter around the hem. "Are they not comfortable? I can see if I can conjure another pair."

So these were magic pants? That made them feel even weirder. "They're very short."

Kaius' head tilted a little bit to the side, still looking at the shorts. "They are not as short as you might think they are."

"Shorter than I'm used to."