Blood Ties

Chapter 27: Nadia

 Nadia stared at the ceiling. She rolled onto her side and trying to convince herself that her insomnia was due to the lack of gentle rocking of the waves, which had accompanied sleeping on a ship for the past few months. It didn't work.

All she could remember, all she could think of was Declan. The words he has spoken. His touch. The hard line of his jaw beneath her palm. The tender kiss he had pressed to her skin. The way his scruff scraped against her wrist. And she'd been too shocked, too overwhelmed to let him touch her any more than that. How had a simple kiss completely destroyed her barriers and pummeled her nerves?

Not only that, but his hands on her wrists, clutching almost to the point of paint. Yet not quite. Not quite enough to her or to make her fear him. Only enough to... To what? To make her feel safe? Protected?

Things he had said made her want to take his advice. She wouldn't confuse a dark past with a virtuous present. Nadia had seen plenty of broken souls, too many to lie to herself. Declan was no good man. But he was all she had here, and he was tied to her by blood. Blood, and perhaps something else.

He had defended her in his own twisted way from King Leonard. His dislike for the man was clear: a tyrannical, capricious ruler was he, both things Nadia loathed. But what would she do--spend the rest of her life being either a walking curse or a freak?

By the time that dawn peered through the slits of her drapes, Nadia was wide-eyed, jittery, and resolved to never let her guard down around Declan Lockwood. Just as she had spoken aloud the words, "I shall trust no one here," while staring into the mirror, and knocks sounded at the door.

"Who is it?" she called, wrapping a rope around her body. Outside, the early morning fog was beginning to dissipate, showing the spires of buildings and a few gondolas drifting lazily through the canals.

"Rowena," came a muffled response. "May I enter? This is Nadia Sancta's room, isn't it?"

"Yes, yes, please enter," she said, amused by her friend. The door flew open a moment later. Rowena held it open for Nadia's maid, Lavinia, who carried a pitcher and a basin, setting them on the vanity.

"I'll leave the two of you alone now, miss."

When the door was closed behind her, Rowena skipped into the room. "How has the court been? Did you meet the king yet? Your room is quite beautiful, by the way."

Rowena said all of this in such a quick breath that Nadia feared the girl might hyperventilate, so she pulled out a chair for her.

"Thank you," she said, tying back the curtains to hide the peeling wallpaper. "And yes, I have met the king, the what I have to say about him could get me beheaded, so I'll keep my opinions to myself on the subject of Declan's family."

"His sisters are quite nice, though," said Rowena, before blanching as though she had said something wrong.

"How do you know that?" Nadia said. "I thought Declan said they were all married off to foreign countries."

"One of them is friends with my cousin," Rowena said. The Duchess, she thought. "I spoke a few words to Diana, on occasion."

"How well-connected you are," she remarked dryly. "And to respond to your other question... I have yet to explore much of the court. I was instead taken on a tour of the prisons, which seems rather like a threat."

"Oh, that sounds awful." Rowena squeezed her hand, the younger girl's eyes widening. "I only came here with a duchess. Would you like to meet her?"

Nadia had never rubbed shoulders with more members of the nobility in her entire life than she had in the span of the past two days. The experience was rather like being transplanted like a fish out of water onto a bed of ice for serving. "I would quite like that."