The bathroom?
“Is that so?”
Erin winced.
“How about I come in and take a look around,” he continued.
“I’d like to see if the living conditions are befitting of a princess.”
Carys hesitated.
“Of course…”
Erin nearly clawed through the closet door.
Footsteps entered the suite.
Not the sound Erin remembered.
Before, Magnus’s approach had always carried the soft mechanical rhythm of his wheelchair.
More steps crossed into the bedroom.
Erin held her breath, willing herself not to make a sound.
“It looks great,” Magnus said.
His voice was closer now.
Erin’s spine went rigid.
“Would you give the princess my apologies for not welcoming her myself last night?” he asked.
“I didn’t know until much later that she would be coming.”
“I will inform her as soon as she comes out of the bathroom,” Carys said.
There was a small pause.
“Carys,” Magnus said gently, “do you know anything about vampires?”
Carys cleared her throat.
“A little, Your Highness.”
“You know we have incredible hearing?”
“Yes.”
“So incredible,” Magnus continued, his voice smooth, polite, and absolutely wicked, “that I can hear your heart thundering, which tells me you are nervous about something.”
Carys made a sound Erin wasn’t sure what it was.
It sounded orgasmic even.
“And I can also hear Erin’s heart thundering,” Magnus added, “but not from the bathroom.”
Erin pressed her palm over her mouth.
Damn him.
She could hear the smile in his voice.
“I know you are in the closet, Erin,” he said.
“I just don’t understand why.”
Erin cursed beneath her breath.
At least, to her, it was beneath her breath.
To him, she might as well have climbed onto the bed with a microphone and announced it to the entire vampire capital.
Magnus chuckled.
The sound travelled through the room and slid under her skin with unfair ease.
“I have never heard you use such colourful language before…These two weeks are going to be quite insightful.”
Two weeks.
The reminder hit harder than the teasing.
Two weeks in Blood City.
Two weeks before the severance.
Erin made a mental note never to mutter aloud again.
Then, with dignity, she pushed the closet door open.
The room came into view first.
Then Magnus. The source of this chapter is g.com.
Magnus, standing in the middle of the room.
On his feet.
On his actual feet.
Erin’s mind emptied.
She did not recognise him properly.
But it was still Magnus—those storm-green eyes.
He was upright.
Tall.
Goddess, he was tall.
His shoulders looked broader without the frame of the wheelchair.
His grey hair was slightly damp, pushed back from his face.
He wore black trousers and a fitted charcoal shirt beneath a long coat with silver fastenings.
“What the fuck?!” she blurted.
Magnus looked entirely unsurprised.
“Yeah,” he said calmly.
“I’ve been getting that reaction since I got back. How are you?” Magnus asked.
“What the fuck!” Erin’s gaze darted to her maid’s face and found the same shock mirrored there.
Good.
Excellent.
At least she was not hallucinating alone.
Her eyes returned to Magnus.
She had not known.
She had never known how much space he would occupy if he stood.
He had always been graceful in his chair, dignified, devastating in a way that made others underestimate him.
But this—this was different.
This was every version of him she had never considered.
How was he so… Her thoughts scattered.
Tall.
Whole?
It seemed like he carried a new force inside him.
Erin suddenly felt light-headed.
The closet, the room, all of it blurred for a moment.
“Easy,” he said without moving.
“I’m fine,” she said automatically.
“Of course,” he said.
Carys coughed delicately.
“Should I… leave?”
“No,” Erin said at once.
“Yes,” Magnus said at the same time.
Erin shot him a look.
She stepped fully out of the closet.
Even a few feet away, she had to look up at him.
Her voice came out thin.
“How? When?” Her eyes dropped briefly to his legs, then back to his face.
“How?” she stammered out.
“Long story,” Magnus said.
“So…” he continued, his eyes flicking briefly toward the closet she had recently disgraced herself inside.
“I guess I have to subject you to the two-week ordeal, don’t I?”
“Uhm… sure.”
Wonderful.
Brilliant.
A princess.
Raised in court.
Now reduced to yes, uhm, sure..
Pathetic.
She cleared her throat and tried again.
“Father wanted me to stay longer, though. If that is alright with you.”
“My city, your city.” He said it as if it had always been true.
“How’s Garrick?” Magnus asked.
“He’s fine,” she said.
“Very fine.”
“Still getting married?”
Carys erupted into a fitful cough.
Erin’s head snapped toward her.
For goddess’ sake.
Magnus turned to her immediately.
“Are you alright? Shall I get a medic?”
Carys straightened too quickly.
“No… no, Your Highness.” She coughed again.
“I’ll go see to the princess’s breakfast,” Carys said, and fled.
Erin swore again.
Magnus looked back at her, one brow faintly raised.
“You curse a lot, don’t you?”
“Don’t you?”
“I’d say not as often as you.”
“Well, congratulations on your moral superiority.”
“Would you like to have the severance ritual held here?” he asked.
“So I can make preparations.”
Erin swallowed.
“Yes… uh… of course. Sure.” She wanted to slap herself.
What was wrong with her mouth?
Had all intelligent language fled?
Magnus nodded.
A shadow moved through his eyes before he lowered them.
“You don’t have to do this today,” she said before she could stop herself.
“I mean,” she rushed on, immediately regretting both speech and existence, “preparations. Not the ritual. Obviously the ritual can’t happen today. I know that. I am not completely ignorant. Partly, yes, but not completely. I just mean… you have been recovering.”
His gaze softened slightly.
“Erin, are you alright?”
“Yes, why wouldn’t I be?”
Magnus accepted it while not believing it.
“You will be moved into my castle for the remainder of the two weeks.”
Erin blinked.
“Why?”
“Tradition…” Magnus said.
“Oh…” Erin sighed.
It was not the intelligent, composed response she had hoped to give.