Annalise’s heart skipped a beat and then jumped into her throat at finding Soren so close, his warm brown eyes watching her. “Hello, Soren, or, I suppose I should call you Lord Soren now, shouldn’t I?” she replied. She smiled, but knew that the only cue he would receive to know she was happy to…
As she waited for the servants to serve the next course, Princess Annalise looked over the members of court in the dining hall, searching for one face in particular. Earlier, when Soren strode down the center of the throne room like a victorious conqueror come home, her cheeks had warmed and she’d been grateful for…
Soren stood with his hands at his sides, shoulders back, and head up. “I was apprenticed to learn the trade of seafaring, Your Majesty, and have spent the past ten years in service on various vessels.” “Judging from your title, it sounds like you did well.” “Yes, Your Majesty. I earned the title of captain,…
The dark sky outside was just turning to dawn when Soren woke the next morning in his father’s house. When he’d first seen his old room the evening before, it was exactly the same as when he’d left it over a decade before, although judging from the lack of dust, he assumed the maids came…
As was often her custom, Annalise spent the first hour of the evening at the high table with her father, his most trusted advisors, and his current favorite courtesan, Larken. Annalise noted with interest that despite Larken sitting next to her father, several times throughout the night he sent a choice piece of beef or…
Soren inhaled the fresh air of Dovelan, savoring the scent of pine and the mild bite of the autumn day that not even the smells of a city could disguise. The combination of the fading twilight sky and bright torches cast the stable yard in front of him in a variety of shadows ranging from…
After a rather unpleasant hour, in which Annalise had to explain no less than three times to her personal guards, the captain of the palace guards, and then the captain of the city guards what had happened, she was finally escorted back to the castle. Her hands hadn’t stopped shaking, although they’d slowed enough that…
Up close, the man’s stinking breath wafted over Annalise like a miasma from rotting garbage. His worn leather vest had several deep scratches, and there were several dark stains on his pants that looked like blood. “Let me go. You don’t know what you risk by being near me,” she said. She tried to yank…
Annalise never imagined she’d miss the feeling of wind across her skin. The sun filtered through the autumn leaves overhead, creating a dappled pattern of light and shadow on the ground. As the tree branches swayed with the light breeze in the garden, the earthy scent of fallen leaves and fresh earth surrounded her. She…