As she resumed her writing, Auren’s smile slowly faded into a look of deep, quiet contemplation.
He watched the steady, rhythmic movement of her hand, his mind turning over a much darker, pressing question.
Who cast the spell for her?
The peace was broken when three young maids entered, their giggles echoing off the stone walls.
One of them, a girl with a sharp gaze, walked straight up to Auren.
“Auren,” she said, leaning over the table and ignoring Evryn entirely.
“The winch at the garden well is stuck again.
Can you come and help us?
It’s far too heavy for just us girls.”
Auren’s eyes shifted at once to Evryn.
It was only one look.
Brief.
Quiet.
But she knew it too well.
He did not want to go.
He did not want to speak either, so he looked at her instead, and without either of them saying it aloud, she understood that once again she would have to be the unkind one for him.
Evryn didn’t lift her eyes from the page.
“Please ask one of the stable hands,” she said, her voice steady but firm.
“Auren is busy assisting me with the ceremony lists.
We have no time to waste on the well.”
The maid stiffened, her face flushing with irritation.
“Always busy with her.
They’re stuck together like shadows.”
The words were small, but they struck hard.
Evryn heard the words again in her mind, not because they were cruel in themselves, but because of what they carried.
That mocking tone.
That little poison hidden inside a whisper.
The kind that did not attack openly, only circled a woman’s dignity until everyone was invited to question it.
Evryn’s hand stopped mid-sentence.
She stood up slowly, her chair scraping harshly against the floor.
“What did you just say?
Face me.”
The maid didn’t flinch.
“I said you two are always together.
Evryn, it’s not normal for an assistant to be so…
devoted.”
“He is doing his duty,” Evryn snapped, her hazel eyes burning.
“And I am doing mine.
If you spent as much time working as you did whispering, the well wouldn’t be broken.”
The maid let out a mocking laugh.
“Oh, we believe you.
We all believe it’s just ‘work.'”
The sound of the slap was sudden and sharp.
The maid’s head snapped to the side, her hand flying to her stinging cheek.
Auren stood up immediately, his eyes wide as he watched the fire in Evryn’s expression.
“Do not speak of me as if I throw myself into corners and shadows like someone with no name to protect.” she said, each word sharp and proud.
Another maid, standing just behind her, let out a cruel little laugh.
The second maid let out a cruel, high-pitched giggle.
“Poor Evryn.
Maybe you should play games.
You should see how Ray spends his time when you aren’t looking.
He’s much better at it than you are.”
The color drained from Evryn’s face.
Auren felt a sharp, sympathetic pang in his chest…a phantom pain that mirrored the look of betrayal in her eyes.
Without a word of explanation, Evryn turned and bolted out of the kitchen, heading straight for the male servants’ quarters.
“Evryn!
Wait!” Auren shouted, following her.
“Stay away, Auren!
This is personal!” she yelled back, her voice thick with hurt.
He caught up to her just as she reached the door to the men’s room.
“You can’t go in there, Evryn.
It’s the men’s quarters.”
“Then get him out here!” she cried.
“Get Ray out here now!”
Auren nodded grimly.
“Stay here.
Just relax.”
He released her wrist, stepped into the room and felt a wave of disgust.
Ray was there, hurriedly pulling on his shirt, while a maid scrambled to hide under a pile of linens.
Auren wanted to kill him, He truly did but he barely held it back he knew he had to protect Evryn from the sight of this truth.
“Evryn is outside,” Auren said, his voice a low, dangerous growl.
Ray, pale and trembling, stumbled out into the hall.
Auren didn’t look at him, his hand reaching into the stone.
He grabbed the girl by the arm…his grip like iron…and shoved her through.
The gate vanished, leaving the room empty and silent.
Outside, Evryn’s voice was a jagged razor.
“Was there someone with you, Ray?
Answer me!”
“Evryn, love, you’re imagining things…” Ray started, trying to block the door.
“Move!”
She shoved past him, her strength fueled by a lifetime of suppressed hurt.
She threw the door open.
The room was empty.
Auren was sitting calmly on a trunk, looking like a man who had been reading in the silence for hours.
Evryn froze.
Her eyes searched every shadow, every corner, her chest heaving with the effort not to cry.
Then, she turned slowly back to Ray.
The silence was worse than the screaming.
“Ray,” she said, and her voice carried no tremble now.
“I am done with whispers.
I am done with the shame of hearing my own name in the mouths of people who enjoy watching women look foolish.”
Ray opened his mouth, but she cut him off with one look.
“No,” she said.
“You will listen first.”
Auren watched her closely.
This was not a girl wounded into chaos.
This was a woman gathering her pride piece by piece and setting it in place before she spoke.
“You have let this follow me from the king’s palace to this house,” Evryn said.
“Every look.
Every whisper.
Every smile that waits for me to notice too late.
And I am done pretending not to see it just because I hoped you would have enough respect to stop on your own.”
Ray stepped toward her carefully.
“Evryn, I can explain.”
She laughed once; it was a terrible sound.
Small.
Bitter.
Empty of all warmth.
“That is always what men say when they are caught too near the truth.”
Her chin lifted.
“I will say this once, and I will not repeat it.
If you ever make me stand in a room again with people looking at me as if I am too blind to know what is being done behind my back…
then whatever stands between us will end that day.”
Auren watched her from the bed, mesmerized by the way she chose her words…sharp, dignified, and filled with a fire that commanded respect.
Ray reached out, trying to take her hand to calm her.
“Evryn, please, let’s just talk…”
“Don’t touch me,” she snapped, pulling away.
“”I am not in the mood for your explanations.
And I am certainly not in the mood for your hands.” She turned on her heel and vanished into the hallway.
Ray stood in the room breathing hard.
Then his eyes moved around it, searching.
His frown deepened.
“Where is she?” he asked.
“The girl who was here.”
Auren rose slowly from the bed and looked at him with open disgust.
“Stop.”
Ray’s eyes snapped to his.
“Stop what?”
“This,” Auren said.
“This filth.
This coward’s game you keep playing while she stands outside defending her own dignity against the dirt you leave behind.”
Ray’s face darkened at once.
“Careful how you speak to me.”
Auren stepped closer.
“No.
You be careful.”
The room seemed smaller now.
Tighter.
Then Auren spoke again, lower now, each word colder than the last.
“You have one chance left.
One.
If you make her heart hurt like that again…if you leave her standing alone to fight for a dignity you keep throwing away…I will not be so kind as to hide your mistakes next time.”
“Is that a threat?” Ray sneered.
Auren held his gaze without blinking.
“It is mercy.”
Then he turned and walked out, leaving Ray alone with that word.
Auren walked alone to a clearing in the woods, his jaw tight as he looked toward the house where Evryn was resting.
“Asshole,” he muttered under his breath.
With a sharp flick of his wrist, he forced a golden gate to tear open in the air, connecting directly to the royal library at his palace.
He ignored the agony, stepping through into the cool, silent library, He grabbed a ladder, climbed with terrifying efficiency, and snatched the remaining three volumes of the series she had been reading.
Minutes later, he stepped back through the gate into the farm’s warm air and found Evryn seated alone under the shade of a large tree.
“Evryn,” he called out.
“Yes, Auren, I am here,” she replied, looking up with a tired sigh.
“I brought you something,” he said, holding out the books.
“I thought it could fix your mood”.
Evryn’s eyes widened as she grabbed the books, her face lighting up before she caught herself.
She looked at the covers, then narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously.
“Wait…
so you were lying about the ending earlier?
You just enjoy teasing me, don’t you?”
Auren looked down at her, a small, amusement expression on his face.
“I did not lie.
It has a tragic ending, but that is in the fourth book”.
“Oh my god, don’t you dare start!” she laughed, clutching the volumes to her chest as if he might take them back.
“I was literally just thinking about where I would ever get these.
You actually fixed my mood for once.”
“How did you get the first book anyway?” He asked.
Evryn gave him a mischievous, “little bird” smile.
“I stole it from the lady’s library.
But she didn’t have the rest of them.”
Auren looked at her, a small, dark smile touching his lips.
“Little thief”.
Evryn looked at the three books in her hands, then back at Auren with a suspicious tilt of her head.
“And what about you?
From where did you get these, Auren?
Don’t tell me you just happened to have the conclusion to a rare series tucked away in your bag.”
Auren met her gaze, his expression unreadable and calm.
“I have my ways,” he replied, his voice a smooth, low vibration, “much like you have yours”.
Evryn let out a soft laugh, her fingers tracing the pristine covers of the royal volumes.
“I will return them to you exactly as you gave them to me…
new and without a single crease.”
“Do whatever you want with them,” Auren said, a lazy, devastatingly handsome smirk playing on his lips as he leaned closer, invading her space just enough to make her breath catch.
“They are a gift from me.”
Evryn looked up at him, her hazel eyes bright.
“Oh, thank you so much!
You just gave me the energy to start working again.
Let’s go!”
She tried to dart past him, but Auren smoothly stepped into her path, his broad chest blocking her escape.
He liked the way her eyes widened when he got too close.
“You were just relaxing, Evryn.
Stay still,” he murmured.
“Let me relax, too.”
Evryn immediately stepped back, crossing her arms and tilting her head with a challenging pout.
“How could you relax?
You don’t even know how to prepare a bathtub as a task.
Move, Auren.”
She sidestepped him, guiding him directly into the grand bathroom.
Auren followed like a dark shadow, watching the way her shoulders squared as she tried to maintain a strict professional distance.
“I never saw you preparing the bath for her,” Auren noted, leaning his tall frame against the marble counter, casually trapping her between himself and the tub.
Evryn stopped by the edge of the tub, keeping a safe two feet of distance as she whispered dramatically, “Because…
she has her personal servant to do that.”
Auren tilted his head, a wicked glint entering his silver eyes as he deliberately took a slow step into her personal space.
“What is that?”
“For example, the king,” she explained, taking a frantic step back to re-establish her boundaries.
“Always has a personal maid.
Preparing his clothes, dressing him, staying beside him in his room…” She glared at him as he took another step forward.
“…even in the bathroom.”
“Even in the bathroom?” Auren repeated, his lips twitching as he watched a beautiful flush creep up her neck.
He stepped closer again, his heat radiating over her.
“I am sure you will become her personal servant once she finds out you learned all these tasks,” Evryn said, her voice turning sharp as she backed up until her heels hit the rim of the sunken tub.
Auren crowded her completely, his gaze dropping to her lips before rising back to her eyes.
His teasing smirk suddenly vanished, replaced by a quiet, intense seriousness.
“Don’t teach me that, then.
I don’t want to learn it.”
“Why?” she demanded, her heart hammering against her ribs, entirely flustered by his sudden shift in proximity and tone.
“I don’t want to be with her in the bathroom,” he murmured smoothly.
Evryn blinked, breaking the heavy tension with a sudden, amused laugh.
“Why?
Because she is old?”
Auren’s lips twitched, the serious facade cracking just a fraction.
“You are wicked, Evryn.”
“Then keep your distance if you want to stay my assistant,” she shot back playfully, planting a hand on her hip, “or I will send you brushing her back right here.”