The Cursed Kingdom

SEVEN

~ PERFUME BOTTLES ~

"My mom was a human, my father Mage. That's all I really know about them other than the fact they had sex because..." Jerium gestured to himself with a funny face that had me smiling. I couldn't recall exactly how we got on the topic of Jerium's past but I didn't mind. It felt relieving to not think about my own for once so I let him rant while I feasted, gnawing idly on whatever my fork landed on. "My mom died in childbirth after my father ran back to whatever place in hell he crawled out from. Her family didn't want me, so I was left to be raised in an orphanage run by priestesses. They all hated me because I'm a hybrid." He paused to take a large bite of his salad with a vinaigrette and gave an audible swallow. "They kicked me out when I turned twelve an' I nearly starved at fourteen. But then Henrik came and found me hiding under a bridge. He spared me and brought me here and made sure I was educated."

I had been surprised at first when Jerium told me he wasn't Lycan, the official word for the species that inhabited the Cursed Kingdom that I learned after Henrik got tired of me using the phrase 'his people'. But as I thought more about it, the more it made sense. Although he'd explained to me earlier that his abilities were limited, I could still feel that indescribable buzzing of magic just beneath the surface of his skin, a sensation that only a person of Mage or Fae descent could produce—or so I'd been told.

"Would you like anything else, Madam?"

I turned my head to face the owner of the soft voice, a young female dressed in a simple black dress and white apron finished with a bonnet on top of her curly hair. Her brown eyes had a tint of gold to them, the only feature that gave away what she truly was.

"No, thank you," I replied, giving her a soft smile. I took my napkin from my lap, patted the corners of my mouth in a manner that I hoped reflected a proper lady, and placed it beside my plate.

She nodded and did a small curtsy before walking back to her position against the wall, her heels clicking underneath her dress as she did so.

My eyes swept back to the large plate that had been placed in front of me about an hour prior. At the beginning of Jerium and I's lunch, it had been filled to the brim with all kinds of meats—pork, rabbit, and elk being a few I could identify—and two bowls of green vegetables to accompany it. I had eaten about a quarter of it all and still every plate looked barely touched.

In Amaryllus, I had grown accustomed to eating only one meal a day, a meal that would take everything I earned from doing house chores, such as laundry, patching up torn clothes, and shining shoes, for Julius, who was always generous to throw in an extra silver coin.

In just a couple hours of being in Henrik's castle, I had eaten a typical week's worth of food for me—maybe even two.

Now the consequences of eating too much too fast was finally catching up to me and my stomach churned just at the thought of stuffing anymore inside it, my lungs physically hurting because there was so much food inside me.

I met Jerium's eyes from across the small, round table and found him smiling while glancing at my hardly touched plate of meat, his eyes full of unspoken thoughts. My hope was that he wasn't guessing I disliked it. The food itself was scrumptious, everything having been cooked perfectly where the meat almost seemed to melt in my mouth. But it was just way too much, especially for a short and fully grown woman such as myself.

Noticing he had eaten all of his salad, whose bowl was the smallest dish on the entire table, I asked, "Do you want anything?" I waved my hand over the elk steaks and pork ribs. "I hate being wasteful."

"No, no, no," Jerium chuckled, shaking his head and causing me to frown. I didn't see what was funny. "That is all yours, Madam."

I nodded, my hands fumbling with the tie of my robe under the white table cloth. Not wanting to argue or make him feel pressured to eat my scraps, I sighed through my nose and grabbed my glass of cold water.