Chapter 61 Habit

Chapter 61 Habit

The night was nearing a point when the moon was ascending in the sky. The palace was quiet, and besides a few guards, she didn't come across any other people.

She opened the door of Morava's bedchamber and closed it behind her. She was panting wildly when she heard Morava's harsh voice, "Where were you, dullard? You were supposed to help me change into my nightgown.

"Princess!" she rasped, her face flushed. "I have something very urgent to tell you!"

Morava frowned and narrowed her eyes. "What is it?" she asked as she studied the urgency on Ivy's face.

"The king— the king—"

"What about him?" she growled, growing impatient."

"He— he—" Ivy panted as she placed her hand on her chest to calm down. "He was with a woman in the courtyard!" And then she gave an account of what she saw and heard while there.

Fury boiled in Morava as she stared at Ivy. "Are you sure?" she growled. Just yesterday he defended a servant girl and killed Giada over it, and then tonight, Ivy found him in the courtyard with another girl? Was she the servant girl which he had killed Giada over?

"I am!" Ivy nodded vehemently.

Morava's temper had no bounds. She picked up a porcelain horse from the side table and threw it on the floor. The porcelain shattered into thousands of pieces. "I will kill her!" she hissed, shivering in anger. "Take me to the courtyard!"

"Princess!" Ivy called her. "Don't be in such a rush. We have to form a plan. And we have to be very secretive about it. We need to find the girl who is behind all this. And I suspect that she is the same one the king is defending."

Morava snapped her fiery gaze to Ivy. She flinched and pressed herself against the door. "Princess, please calm down," she urged. "We have to be careful now."

She clenched her jaw and spun on her heels to go back to her bed. "What do you suggest, Ivy?" she shouted. "That I just stay here in my chamber as the king fucks her?"

Ivy followed the princess. As soon as Morava sat down on the bed, Ivy kneeled in front of her and took her sandals off. "Princess, we cannot let anyone know what we are doing. And there are two reasons for that. One, you have already seen how the king would react if we go attack his servants or disobey his orders. Two, we have to trap the girl, take her out and execute her quietly."

Morava stared at Ivy, her anger dissipating slightly. Ivy got up and helped her remove her gown. Morava contemplated what Ivy just said. She was right. They had to devise a plan to plot against the girl who was responsible for her humiliation, and quietly kill her. They would feign ignorance after the fact. It was easy to blame others for your mistakes, since there were so many people within a palace. And she was the princess of Pegasii, after all. She knew how to play this game. A smile curved onto her lips. She looked at Ivy who was now helping her to take off her jewelry.

"I want you to keep an eye on Eltanin's whereabouts. See what he does for the entire day, who he meets with when he is not in the throne hall. While you keep a watch on him covertly, while I will watch him openly." Watching him openly would mean that she was interested in him and that was a public image she wanted everyone to see. They should believe that she was obsessively in love with him. She chuckled.

Ivy removed the last of the pins from her hair and said, "Yes Princess. I will brief you about what he does when I can."

Ivy put a nightgown on her, and after tucking Morava under the blanket, she went to clean up the pieces of the shattered porcelain horse. After cleaning it up, she sent a message to King Biham to send in four of his most efficient spies. After all, once she caught the girl, she would need assistance in killing her. She was not just a simple nobility sent along with Morava. She was Biham's special spy.

----

Eltanin didn't let go of Tania's hand the entire way back to the bedchamber. Then he escorted her all the way down to her room. "Do you want to take a bath?" he asked, his voice a low baritone.

She nodded. What happened under the willow still lingered like an electric charge between them.

Eltanin brought his hand to her cheek and brushed it with his thumb. "I will leave you for now and return with some food."

Another nod.

He reluctantly left her, knowing that it was important for her to have some space to contemplate about what had happened between them and it was important.

When he left, Tania went to take a bath. She opened the shower and stood still beneath the cool water. The coldness of the water hit her hard at first, but then it soon soothed her aching belly. There was this strange heat in between her thighs and she didn't know how to calm it. After a long cold bath, she felt better. She liked the fact that the king had left her alone. He wasn't there when she came out of the shower wrapped in a towel. She kind of missed his presence already. He was always so nosy and dominating that within a short period of time he had become like her habit. She shook her head and then changed into the red silk nightgown that he had placed on the bed for her.

Her eyes traveled to the dinner tray that was placed on the side table. She ate her food, missing his antics once again. At one point in time, she considered whether she should go upstairs or not, but she blushed and decided against it. Has she grown needy? Tania went to bed and closed her eyes. The lights on the ceiling dimmed with only a few of them mimicking like shooting stars. Her hands went to the cold sheets beside her. She took a deep breath. This was all wrong, and yet it felt right. She needed to distance herself from the king, yet couldn't help but be caught in the vortex of it. So many thoughts bounced around in her head before sleep finally overtook her.

Nightmares followed.

"Take my baby away from here, Cordea!" A woman lying on a bed of straw pleaded with her maid. The newborn baby was covered in blood and sticky water.

"But princess Kinshra, what about you?" her maid asked as she took the child into her arms.

"I can't stay here any longer!" Kinshra said through her tear-stained face. Her lips quivered. "My people from Vilinski are coming to take me anytime now."

"Take your baby with you," Cordea urged. "She will have a better future!"

"She won't be welcome there, Cordea. I am afraid that they will kill her!" Kinshra looked at the infant in her maid's arms and burst into more tears. Cordea handed her the baby once more. Kinshra kissed her daughter's soft head and face. The baby clung to her mother, rooting for her breast. Kinshra fed her while she still could and then gave her back to the maid. "Keep her safe as long as you can," she said in a shaky voice, thick with emotions.

All at once—