A Court of Bastards [ACOTAR]

Chapter 9

The next morning the sun streamed onto an empty bed in the townhouse attic room. Fiona had risen at the crack of dawn, neatly folding the duvet and stepping as lightly as she could over the old wooden floorboards, trying not to wake anyone. In the rickety wardrobe she found a chiffon dress in a deep navy and slipped it on before tip-toeing out the door beneath a pale lilac sky.

Fiona had been right - Velaris at night was breathtaking, but in the daytime it was something else. The colours that leapt from the shopfronts and rooftops, the flowers hung in baskets outside bakeries all filled her with a winsome sense of hope. The smell of citrus and sea breeze was so intoxicating, beauty and promise beckoning around every corner of the city. The Forest House, with its underground passages and dark, twisting corridors, couldn't hold a candle to the alleys and palaces of Valeris. 

Though it was the sea she really loved. There was something about the endlessness of it, the glittering expanse of bright blue stretching into the distance forever and ever...it smelled of salt and unending possibility.

Fiona stopped on a cobbled bridge with towering brass lampposts, staring at the glimmering waves as the morning ships came in to dock. Hours passed as surely as the tide. She was more than content to watch the Sidra flow beneath her all day, listening to the sounds of the city rousing. When she'd arrived the bridge was deserted, but by the time Xander found her it was bustling with early morning commuters.

"Do they know who you are?" asked Fiona, sensing rather than hearing him arrive.

Xander smiled as he padded slowly up to her. With some difficulty she turned her attention from the shore, watching Valerians step around him on their way to work. "If you don't mind my saying, it seems rather disrespectful."

He gave her a thoughtful look. "That's not really how we do things here."

"So I'm told." Fiona smiled pleasantly.

He took a spot beside her, gazing out at the turquoise tide. "Is that how Eris runs his court?" he asked. "Do his people bow and scrape as his carriage rolls by?"

The hint of malice in his tone took her by surprise. Being snide about the High Lord of the Autumn Court to one of his nieces seemed careless for someone as calculated as Xander. But then again, after last night's performance at the palace, perhaps he knew he had nothing to fear from her. She didn't answer.

"Is that how Aidan will run his court?" 

He chanced a glance at her, probing. It occurred to Fiona for a wild moment that all his acts of kindness, all of Bella's warmth and Gabriel's smiles might actually just be in service of plying her for information.

Though her stomach lurched at the thought, she shrugged. "Who knows who will take the crown? Eris has many years left to give, and besides, his first born is Cillian, not Aidan."

"I don't see this Cillian standing beside his father's throne."

Fiona resisted the urge to glare. She didn't understand what he was trying to do. The morning had brought a temporary sense of safety and serenity before she had to go back to those mongrels. Where had the smirking male from last night gone? What was he really asking her?

Only the Prince could spoil such a perfect morning, she thought, keeping her eyes fixed on the sun's path above the sea. And I thought Nyx was the schemer.

"Cillian is at home, acting as lord in his father's absence." she answered, a little stiffly. "It's a far higher honour than attending the summit."

Xander's chuckle pricked at her skin. "You're starting to sound like one of them. Careful, or I might have to take you back."