Forged in Frost and Fire (Book 1 in the Chronicles of Kings trilogy)

Chapter Twenty Four

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾　　☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙

He wasn't wrong, you know?" Gray said, stretching his legs out in front of him as he took a long sip from a golden gauntlet. I had only had limited time with Gray Brandt, but from that time, I knew he was a heavy drinker. He had gone through a quarter of the bottle before he had half a thought to offer any to me. I had declined, obviously. I didn't like what alcohol did to my mind.

"What?" I blurted. I was in the middle of shoving some sort of pasta dish around and around on my plate. I had been hungry before, I knew hunger like a close companion, but the moment I had brought a forkful of food up to my lips, I found my stomach twisting with nausea. I had tried a bit of bread, and it was the finest thing I had ever tasted. Palace food. It was a shame it tasted bitter as ash on my tongue.

"Sable," Gray said, tilting his head back and letting it thunk against the fine cushion of his luxurious seat. Palace luxury. "He said you were malnourished. I can see your rib bones from here, you know." He wiggled a finger in my direction and I felt my cheeks go cold. I sat up straighter and yanked my collar up.

"Is this how you get all your women to open up?" I grumbled, staring down at my water. I wished now that I had gotten the wine, maybe it would've stolen some thoughts of Tellie from my head. After I thought that up I almost immediately felt guilty. I should've been grieving her, should've been thinking about her, it was the right, normally, thing to do. But it hurt so much. I just wished a giant hole would open up on the floor and swallow me whole.

"By calling them twigs?" Gray asked, raising a brow. "Why yes indeed, in fact, if all goes per schedule you should be drooling and on your knees in two minutes."

"I'm hot already," I deadpanned, wiggling my fingers at him.

"Ah yes, I wonder who's actually able to get the ice queen sweating," he said, looking over at me. I felt my jaw tense as an image of Foley swam into my mind, quickly associated with the urge to vomit.

"No one," I said, shoving another piece of roll into my mouth. I swallowed it down quickly, not even bothering to chew it.

"But, back to what I was saying before my mind went to a crude place." He grinned. "I blame the wine."

"I blame you," I broke off another piece of bread and started to rip it to pieces.

He continued on as if I hadn't spoken. "Why are you so twiglike?"

"Starvation," I said. "It's a wonderful weight loss program, you should try it some time." Now I was really wishing I had gotten some of that wine before, it could have muted his voice to a dull buzz.

"What town did you come from, that caused you to starve?" The question made my fingers freeze in the action of tearing off another piece of bread to shred. I couldn't tell him that I was from a small village in Rame. Although I wasn't in the army, I still had to keep up my facade that I was a natural born fae.

"Um." I swallowed hard. "It's...small. I'm not sure you'd know it."

"Makes sense, we have a lot of small, starving villages." He said. His thumb swiped circles around the rim of his goblet and I glanced up at his face. His voice was morose, his eyes hooded and dark. He didn't say it with his normal sarcastic glee. How odd. I thought people who lived in castles and drank from silver goblets didn't care about the people beneath them. I knew the nobles in Rame certainly didn't.

"And the white hair?" he asked. "Have long has that been going on for?"

"Ever since I've been fae," I said, giving him a mocking smile. It wasn't exactly a lie, in fact, it was the straight truth. I didn't have to be completely dishonest with this man, I supposed.