To heal a Rogue

EDELINA

I’d gone shopping first, telling myself it was strategy rather than vanity, though the truth sat somewhere between the two. Now I wore a black dress, fitted neatly through the waist, and red heels sharp enough to draw blood if I happened to step on someone the right way. I needed to feel like myself again after everything the infirmary had stripped from me, needle by needle, day by day and week by miserable week.

I’d considered a hotel first, somewhere quiet where I could plan my next several moves without prying eyes or inconvenient questions. Then, halfway through the drive, I looked at the back of my driver’s head and changed my mind.

”You know what. I am no longer going to the hotel.. You will take me somewhere else instead,” I said.

”Where would that be?” He demanded.

”Wraithmoor Close.” I replied.

”That’ll cost considerably more, ma’am.”

”It is no problem. I can pay.”

He drove without further argument, and I settled back into the seat, spending most of the journey rehearsing everything I intended to say. I ran through every possible version of the conversation waiting for me, considering which questions might be asked and how I would answer them without giving away more than necessary.

Going back to the castle grounds tonight and so soon after what I’d helped to do to that wretched spy, struck me as the smarter move. Bradley would never suspect a woman bold enough to return home the same night she’d allegedly been at a club for some shady business. If anything, my return would make whatever the spy would have shared seem less useful to work with. I even allowed myself a short nap in the back of the car, closing my eyes only after I’d exhausted every possible scenario.

I woke to the sound of the driver’s voice.

”We’ve reached there, ma’am.”

I blinked myself awake and looked out through the window.

He was right. We had now reached the boundary where the human roads simply stopped making sense to anyone who wasn’t born to this world.

He wouldn’t know that though.

After this, the familiar human roads would disappear somewhere behind us, powered by some powerful magic and be replaced by the strange, shifting landscape that marked the edge of our world. Beyond this point, the roads simply stopped making sense to anyone who wasn’t born to it.

I handed my card forward. The driver swiped it, returned it without comment, and I stepped out. I watched the car disappear down the road before turning toward the path ahead.

The route that followed was one no human eye could ever hold onto, no matter how long they wandered through it or how desperately they tried. The landscape seemed to resist being remembered to them, twisting just enough to make itself impossible to follow. I’d never had that problem. I knew the way as instinctively as I knew the curves of my own body.

I walked until I reached the first checkpoint.

It was there red dots bloomed across my chest and shoulders almost instantly.

I stopped.

A voice barked from somewhere in the darkness, sharp and authoritative, demanding that I identify myself.

I raised both hands slowly, keeping my movements deliberate.

”I am Edelina. Your queen.”

A flashlight swung up into my face. For a moment, the beam blinded me, and then the red dots vanished as quickly as they’d appeared.

One of the sentinels rushed forward and dropped into a bow.

”Our apologies, Your Majesty.”

”It’s simply what you’re trained to do,” I said, lowering my hands. ”I hold no ill will.”

The sentinel remained bowed as I passed, and I continued toward the grounds without looking back.

A car appeared moments later, and another sentinel offered to drive me the rest of the way himself. I climbed in without another word, and he took the wheel, guiding us slowly toward the main estate grounds.

I wondered, watching the buildings grow larger through the windshield, how long it would take before Bradley caught wind of my return. I gave it good odds that he’d be the very first face I saw upon arrival.

I was right, of course.

He stood waiting the moment I stepped out of the car, bowing low as he approached.

”This is such a surprise,” he said.

”Is it?” I said. ”That infirmary was a hellhole, Bradley. I started missing home terribly. I don’t know if you kept tabs on me while I was there, but I imagine those sweet healers are worried sick that their patient simply walked out on them tonight. I did use my title to force the issue.”

He smiled at that. That told me he knew already.

”Do call them,” I continued. ”Clear the air, so no one worries unnecessarily.”

”Of course.” He said as he studied my face. ”I’m sorry for your loss, by the way, Your Majesty.”

”Oh... Thank you. I wanted to be there by the way. My health simply wouldn’t allow it. One of the reasons Conny sent me to that place in the first place was to keep my condition quiet. If I had shown up earlier, it would have been a whole thing.”

Something flickered across his expression, brief and calculating.

”What?” I coughed out like I didn’t know what I was pushing at. ”Did he tell you something different?”

”No,” he quickly fixed his face. ”His Majesty, goddess rest his soul, told me nothing at all on the matter.”

We continued inside, passing servants who froze mid-step at the sight of me before dropping into hurried bows.

”You should know a great deal has changed since you were last here,” Bradley said.

”I’ve heard,” I said. ”A little birdie told me that Lysander is regent now. His own mother, if she were still alive, would be proud.”

”I imagine this feels insulting to you,” Bradley began.

”It doesn’t feel insulting,” I said, cutting him off cleanly. ”It is insulting. I’m certain the whole estate is busy inventing reasons why my husband decided against letting our son inherit what belongs to him.”

”From what I understand,” Bradley said, careful now, ”His Majesty simply didn’t believe the prince was fit to rule.”

I stopped walking and turned to face him directly.

”We both know that’s a load of nonsense.”

”Perhaps,” he said. ”But it’s kinder than the alternative explanation.”

He paused there, and I watched him choose his next words with visible caution.

”I won’t let cruel words leave my mouth on the matter,” he said.

”What words?” I pushed.

”You’d know better than I would.” He held my gaze. ”Do you believe Prince Johann deserves that seat, given the blood running through his veins?”