Chapter 15: Chapter 15: Nighttime Wanderings

The breeze blows gently around us, and as we walk the narrow street, it feels quiet, mysterious almost.

I haven’t been in a city before. Not a real city. King Rufus allowed me access to the castle, but even he wouldn’t let me step foot outside.

Until now.

My eyes keep darting around, trying to take it all in, and I take a deep breath of the strange smells.

King Helos hasn’t said a word, but our silence doesn’t feel awkward for once. It’s like he can tell that this is strange to me. New, exciting even, and he wants to give me the space and the freedom to just soak it all in.

We turn the corner and ahead there’s a small square. I gasp at all the activity, and Helos lets out a small chuckle at my surprise which makes me blush.

People are dancing, and music is playing softly. It’s like a small party, and as we draw nearer, I realize these people are all inebriated. Completely and utterly drunk.

There are stalls along the edge, merchant stalls packed up for the night and food stalls too. I look over to see what each is serving. I’m not even hungry, but my mouth is watering at the smells.

“Would you like something?” Helos asks me quietly and I bite my lip before nodding.

I don’t know why he is being so nice. I don’t know why he is indulging me, and though something in my head tells me he is absolutely after something, I don’t care.

I want this escape. I want this moment. I want this kindness from him.

He leads me over and he lets me pick whatever I fancy. Only I can’t decide, and he ends up buying a small bag of each of the things I am torn over: the dough-dipped chocolate and the breaded scampi.

He looks amused as we sit and I tuck in.

“Would you like some?” I ask, offering him some scampi.

He shakes his head, but he watches me eat almost curiously.

“What?” I ask.

“I didn’t expect you to eat seafood,” he says.

I laugh before looking back at him.

“You were the one behind those fruit breakfasts,” I state.

He nods. “I didn’t want to offend you.”

“Offend me? You think after everything that serving fish would offend me,” I say before I can stop myself.

He laughs at my words. “I suppose not.”

“The only thing I don’t eat is lobsters,” I say. “They mate for life. It would be cruel to separate them simply because of how they taste.”

He raises an eyebrow at me, but he doesn’t respond.

When I finish the scampi, I decide to force him to eat some of the chocolate because it feels awkward having him watch me scoff my face. Eventually, he relents.

The hand he uses to eat is the one tying us together, and as he raises the melted chocolate to his mouth, it drips on the tips of my fingers.

He pulls my hand and holds it to his lips and slowly he licks the chocolate off as I fight back the gasp.

I am staring at him now, and though I can’t see it in his eyes, I am certain what is in mine. Desire.

I gulp and look away, feeling the heat rising in more than just my face. Thank the gods we are outside, so the likelihood of him smelling my arousal is less.

“Shall we walk on?” he asks after a moment.

I nod and quickly stand up, though he is still holding my cuffed wrist. If he is embarrassed, if he is in any way thinking about what he has just done, he doesn’t show it. His face is passive.

He stands, still holding my hand, and then we walk on past the square, deeper into the city.

As we walk, I notice the tiny streams that run along each street. They’re raised, like little viaducts, with a tiny wooden roof that sits on top. I stop to look at them.

“What are they?” I ask.

“Freshwater. It runs off the mountains and we funnel it down so that everyone in the city has access to it,” Helos explains.

I can’t help it, I can’t resist it. I dip my fingers in, using my hand not attached to Helos, and I close my eyes.

He is right; this water is from the mountains. It has trickled the whole way down into a huge reservoir that then directs it through underwater pipes to where it needs to go.

“Did you build the reservoir too?” I ask.

He frowns. “How did you know…”

“When I touch water, I can tell where it comes from. Where each tiny particle originated. It is the same with salt,” I explain and his eyes widen as if this is some great mystery.

“The reservoir was already there. We just added the pipes,” he replies. “Did King Rufus not have fresh water like this in his city?”

I shrug. “I wasn’t allowed into the city,” I say as we start walking again. “He let me have free run of the castle, though, in truth, I rarely left the royal apartments.”

He gives me a funny look and I feel a pang of loss for the man who’d in almost every way been my father. Who’d died so unnecessarily.

“He wasn’t what you thought,” I say before I can stop myself.

“What do you think I thought?” he asks.

“That he locked me away, that he wanted me like that, that he…” I look down because I know I can’t say the words to him in this moment without either blushing from embarrassment or worse: need.

“So, he didn’t touch you then?” he says.

I shake my head. “No. He was like a father to me.”

“I see,” he says and then he stops.

I feel myself panic for a moment at whatever words he is going to say next. I know I have done this. I have brought us to this conversation. And I curse myself for not just holding my tongue, but in that moment, I couldn’t do it.

I just can’t stand what everyone thinks he was. What everyone assumes.

“If Rufus never touched you, then was Issar your first?” he asks.

I scowl. “Of course not,” I snap almost angrily. “You think that because Rufus treated me with respect that what, I was untouched until Issar put his filthy hands on me?”

He narrows his eyes as if he wants to say something, but I cut across him.

“You called me a whore once; you said I was a desire of the flesh, and part of that is true. A part of me is that, a small part. And I have to work every day to control it. But the rest of me is human, normal.”

I don’t even know why I’m saying this, why I’m explaining this to King Helos of all people, but the way he is looking at me makes me want to explain it, to make him understand.

“I do not think you are a whore,” he says.

I roll my eyes. I don’t believe him. Not for a moment.

He yanks up my chin so that I’m looking fully at him.

“I know you are not. Do you think my guards haven’t said anything to me?”

“About what?”

He tilts his head. “They’re under strict instructions not to let any man into your rooms. Not to let anyone into your rooms, in fact.”

My face heats. But my anger flares too at what he’s insinuating. “You think I’d behave like that? That what, I’d have a queue of men waiting for me to fuck them all?”

He shakes his head a tiny bit. “I expected it of a siren. Can you blame me?”

I bite my tongue so hard. He really is a prick.

“Kera…,” he begins and then he falls silent for a moment as if he’s trying to figure out what he wants to say in his own head. “You are nothing like the creature I expected.”

“What does that mean?” I reply.

He stares at me. I can see it, something swirling in his eyes, and yet he doesn’t say anything. His secrets are clearly that. His.

We walk on further, and then from behind, we hear the sound of horse hooves approaching at speed.

I turn as Helos grabs me, pulling me out of the way, and the rider rushes past.

He holds me to him in his one arm, and I’m there, staring up at him like an idiot while my heart thumps loudly in my chest. All I can smell is him, all I can feel is him. He feels stronger, even more muscular than he looks.

My uncuffed hand is on his chest. I can feel his heart too. I can feel the beating of it. His is thumping just as hard, just as aggressively as mine.

I gulp, blinking, and those damn amber eyes stare back at me for so long I wonder if we have both frozen to the spot.

“We should head back,” he says.

I nod, pulling myself from his grasp, and immediately drop my gaze.

We walk back in silence. It feels awkward, tense almost. I can still feel the heat of him, the hardness of his muscles, the definition of them under my fingertips.

I can feel the creature in me stirring with a deep, aching longing.

As we walk back into the castle, I start to worry if I have once again offended this man, this king. Neither of us has spoken since.

He leads me back to my rooms and we stop outside the door, where he unlocks the cuff. Only he doesn’t let go of my wrist. He stares at me again.

“Thank you,” I say quietly.

His lips curl up. “You’re welcome,” he replies just as quietly before finally releasing my wrist and taking leave.

And then something makes me do it, something reckless, something foolish.

I reach out and grab his sleeve, and he frowns, turning to face me.

“Please, can we do this again?” I ask.

His lips curl up even more. “Would you like that, Kera?” he asks.

I try so hard not to blush. “Yes.”

“Then yes, we can do this again,” he says before bowing and leaving me at my door with the guards still there, all watching.

Only he doesn’t walk down the hall and back to the castle. He walks up and I stand there, unmoving, until his figure disappears into a room beyond.