A Court of Song and Shadow

Chapter 32

The following morning I am waiting in the garden, where the gossiping maids just left me. They told me Tallisan was giving me a tour of the grounds today, but I had been waiting here for about an hour now and he still has yet to show up. I push away the soreness rising up from my feet from these stupid heeled shoes. I look at the bench right next to me and I debate whether or not to just sit down--but that would not be the polite thing for a lady to do.

"Good morning, Velaris." I turn around and find Tamlin standing behind me. With his hands placed behind his back and a bright smile plastered on his face.

"You would not happen to know where your brother is, would you?" I ask, and his lips thin as he points behind my back and I turn back around to see Tallisan sitting down--with my maids laughing at something he had just said.

"Of course." I plop down on the bench, and kick my heeled shoes off. Tamlin raises his eyebrows at me.

"Tallisan has asked me to give you a tour of the grounds." He gives me another smile--which I can tell is his way of trying to be my friend. I let out a sigh as I stand back up.

"Go ahead." I motion for him to lead the way. We begin walking next to one another as he takes me through the gardens. He begins pointing out all the different kinds of plants and flowers that have been planted here--which were a lot. I soon grow bored of him giving me trivia about some random flowers, but I do my best to keep paying attention.

"Wow, those are beautiful." I look to all the roses planted and smile at the beauty of them.

"They are a favorite of our gardens. My father gifted them to my mother as a mating gift." Tamlin smiles at the thought.

"That must be nice--the only gift my father gave my mother was not allowing her wings to be clipped." I snort and Tamlin looks at me as if I had just told him the world was ending, "Which is a very nice gift, just not anything like a whole garden."

"Do you not have gardens in the Night Court?" He asks.

"We do, just not as beautiful as the one's here. I must admit there is a certain beauty here that I was not expecting." I tell him and he lets out a light laugh.

"What were you expecting?"

"Nothing. I never thought I would ever be allowed to come here so I never allowed myself to think too much about what the other court's are like." I admit to him, and he nods his head as his eyebrows furrow. I can see him trying to think of what to say next. "How did you and my brother meet?"

"A good amount of years ago at a court function at the Summer Court, we both found ourselves standing alone and he approached me. We found that we had much in common." He smiles at the memory.

"Really?" I huff a laugh in surprise, "You two seem completely different to me."

"Well you do not know much of me yet."

"And how much of you is there is to know?" I ask with a smirk, and when his smile fades I realize he took it a different way than my original meaning, "I do not mean it like that, you pig."

Tamlin lets out a laugh, "Much more than I allow many to see."

"Because if they saw it, then they would think lowly of you?" I ask, and his eyes meet mine as I see a similar look in his eyes that I see in mine some days. "I know how it feels to be the overlooked sibling."

"I do not think I am overlooked." Tamlin looks down at the ground and I let out a short laugh.

"Do those pretty girls ever throw themselves at you as they do him?" I nod my head towards Tallisan and all the girls surrounding him. Tamlin does not answer and seems to find something interesting in a flower petal that he decides to observe instead of answering my question. "They are fools."