Lexi Monarch Page 20

  “It’s okay,” Clodi soothed, patting Lexi’s shoulder briskly. “He’s in the dungeon now. Do you want to go back to the room?”

  Lexi shook her head and started to pull away. “I need to talk to Tiger,” she said, wiping the tears from her face in embarrassment.

  Clodi released her and they both looked around. Tiger was gone.

  “Oh no,” Lexi moaned. “Stay here!” she commanded Clodi as she leapt into the air, beating her wings as fast as they would go. She flew towards the dungeon, always expecting to catch Tiger around the next turn in the stairs. When she reached the gate, the guard was holding it open for him to pass through.

  “No!” she yelled. “Guard, I command you to stop him!”

  A guard she didn’t recognize looked up, startled, as Tiger hurried through.

  “Stop him!” she repeated as he stood inert. She flew past the dazed guard as Tiger rounded the corner. “Tiger, no!” Lexi cringed as the heavy smell of heated sulphur filled her throat and lungs. Tiger had slowed his pace, his head snapping back and forth as he passed the cells. There wasn’t room to fly beside him, so Lexi reached between his wings on the offbeat and grabbed his shirt, giving it a heavy tug. Tiger jerked and landed, turning on her with a look of fury.

  “Let me do this,” he hissed.

  “No! You can’t settle anything!” Lexi insisted in a harsh whisper, glancing at the waking inmates in this unfamiliar part of the dungeon. “All you can do is have a very public argument that will expose me to ridicule! Think about it!”

  Tiger hesitated, the hard lines of his face softening slightly with uncertainty.

  Seeing it, Lexi touched his arm. “You’re angry he touched me?” she asked softly. “Fine, I am, too. But letting him sit alone in this hole is the best punishment we can give him. If you try for more, you punish me, and probably yourself as well.”

  “I’ll make it quick,” Tiger promised, turning away.

  Lexi gripped his arm. “And what do you think he’s going to say back to you–loudly, with an audience? You can’t fix anything, Tiger! You can only make it worse,” Lexi whispered urgently, her face pinched in worry and strain.

  “I can’t let it go,” Tiger hissed through his teeth. “Don’t ask me to.”

  “I know what he’s going to say,” Lexi admitted, panicked. “I’ll tell you what he already said, just please get away from him before you make things worse!”

  A little muscle in Tiger’s jaw began to jump in time with his pulse. “I’m not promising I won’t come right back.”

  Lexi sighed and pulled on his arm. “You won’t. Let’s get out of here,” she whispered, hurrying him past an older inmate who was standing at his bars with a disturbing smile.

  It was a long, sullen walk back, broken only by an argument as to whose room they would talk in. Lexi insisted that her guards not see her until she was more composed, and that Clodi was sure to interrupt them if they went to her room. But standing on the threshold of Tiger’s room, her stomach knotted with nausea.

  “I don’t want to talk here either,” she murmured.

  Tiger stood in the middle of the room inhaling. “I can imagine. This whole room reeks of you and Wes.” He marched angrily to the balcony doors and threw them open.

  Lexi’s face crumpled. “Please try not to be so angry with me. I’m out of danger. Can’t you just try to make me feel better?”

  Tiger picked up Wes’ pillow and flung it off the balcony. “No! No, I can’t! You put yourself in this spot, Lex! I did everything I could to protect you, and you still ended up alone with him! I told you what he was like! Why weren’t you more careful?!” Tiger turned away as his eyes filled with tears.

  Brushing away her own tears, Lexi stepped into the room and slowly shut the door behind her.

  Tiger stood facing the balcony, one hand gripping his forehead with the other clenched in a fist. “Do you think Cam will marry you?”

  “What?” Lexi asked, taken aback by the question. “Why do you ask?”

  Tiger laughed bitterly as he turned to look at her. “Because Lex, you need to get married quick.”

  “Why? I just got here.”

  “Lex, you’re probably going to lose your ability to fly soon. You need to get married and down the mountain before you get stuck here,” Tiger explained patiently, his eyes on the floor.

  Lexi shook her head. “It hasn’t been a week yet. I should have a little time.”

  Tiger’s head snapped up with a bemused expression. “Lex, pregnancy ends your season. You know that.”

  Lexi blinked several times, finally seeing Tiger’s reaction in its true light. “Wes didn’t rape me.”

  Tiger’s mouth fell open and he turned back around, running one hand slowly through his thick, sandy locks. “Oh.”

  Lexi fidgeted in the silence. “You thought I got raped, and then went dancing?”

  “I don’t know!” Tiger blurted, turning around, but still avoiding her eyes. “You cried! You said he wouldn’t let go of you.”

  “He wouldn’t! I kicked him until he let go!”

  Tiger looked at her, a hint of a smile on his strained face before it quickly faded. “Then why are you so afraid of what he’s going to say?”

  Lexi blushed scarlet. “Because,” she sighed, her eyes dropping to the floor, “he thought I was sneaking into your room in the middle of the night, in my nightgown...to...offer myself to you.” The last was nearly inaudible, and Tiger stepped closer to hear her.

  “What?”

  Lexi put her hot face in her hands. “I’m not repeating it,” she groaned. “He accused me of teasing him. Even with the pheromones, I was so frightened. He wouldn't let me leave and he wouldn’t stop touching me. I nearly told him who I was just to get him to stop. And when I got away from him, he laughed at me and said he hadn’t done anything to deserve the dungeon, especially since I came to him. So I said I would just tell the guards that he had kidnaped me from my room and dragged me to his.” Lexi winced at her own words, still unable to face him. “He got mad and caught me again,” she whispered. “He said he might as well enjoy himself if he was going to get punished for it.”

  Tiger placed a comforting hand on Lexi's shoulder, but she startled at the unexpected contact. “I screamed for Clodi, and kicked my balcony door to wake her up. She and the guards came running, and Wes flew away.” Lexi turned towards him, wiping a few stray tears. “End of story.”

  “Sorry I yelled,” Tiger apologized, pulling her into a hug. “Promise not to let him out again?”

  Lexi let out a weak laugh. “Promise.”

  “Promise to quit running around without your guards?” he asked, caressing her hair as he held her.

  Lexi’s face scrunched up in a grimace and she poked Tiger in the ribs.

  “Hey!” Tiger protested, jumping away. “It’s a reasonable request!”

  “No, it isn’t! I’ve spent my whole life confined to a palace with guards watching over me. I want a little freedom!”

  Tiger leaned forward until his forehead touched hers. “No. No freedom for you.”

  Slow grins grew on both their faces before Lexi shoved him away and they both laughed, then stood staring at each other.

  “You look terrible,” Lexi observed. “Did you stay up all night?”

  Tiger drew his lips into a grim smile and sat down on a stool with a groan. “Yep.”

  “Not because of me?”

  “Nope. Thought you were safely sleeping.”

  Lexi smirked as she shivered in the early morning breeze. “Fooled you.”

  “Ha. Nice outfit by the way,” he said, kicking at her boot.

  Lexi grinned. “Mother designed it for me. It’s the latest style among the nobility.”

  “I’ll bet. Keep bragging about it and I might take it back.”

  Lexi snorted. “I’d like to see you fit into these.”

  “Are you saying I’ve gotten fat?” Tiger teased, standing.

  Lexi pinched his side, find
ing only lean muscle. “I think you might be too fat to catch me."

  Tiger sat back onto the stool with another groan. “Nah, too tired.”

  Lexi gave him a pitying smile and patted him on the head as she passed by to close the balcony doors. “I’ll let you sleep, then. And I will run amok all day with or without my guards, as I please,” she announced.

  Tiger caught her hand and held it tight. “No,” he said emphatically.

  “Go to sleep, grumpy,” she teased, and impulsively kissed the top of his head. Tiger tensed, releasing her hand, and Lexi stepped back.

  “Sorry. Forgot about the smell thing. Are you going to barf?” Lexi winced apologetically. “I’ll just go,” she said, hurrying to the door.

  “Straight to your guards,” he insisted, wearily getting up from his stool to follow her.

  “I’ll think about it.” Lexi smirked at his scowl. She fairly skipped from the room, impishly leaving the door open. She resisted looking back until she heard it shut.

  “You knew I’d follow you,” Tiger accused, shuffling after her.

  Lexi stopped to wait for him. “Maybe. Wasn’t sure how strong your stomach is.”

  “I’ll vomit when I get back to my room,” he said easily, laughing as she shoved him.

  Walking side by side, she smiled at him sadly. “Sorry I can’t turn it off. You men are lucky. I don’t even know what you smell like.”

  “And you’re not going to,” Tiger said with a maddening grin.

  Lexi scrunched up her nose irritably. “Why not? I won’t take it as a sign of intent or anything...just satisfy my curiosity.”

  “So you can gag, and liken my scent to skunk musk?”

  Lexi laughed. “I wouldn’t do that. Dead skunk rotting in the heat maybe.”

  Tiger made a noise of disgust as he gave her a light shove. “All you women are so vindictive.”

  “I am not! I’m very forgiving. I even let Wes out of the dungeon,” she added, immediately regretting her example as soon as the words had left her mouth.

  “Stupidity is not the same as forgiving.”

  Lexi gave him a heavy shove, but he only laughed at her show of temper. “I knew it was dangerous; I let him out because it wasn’t just.”

  “Because he had only taken advantage of you once?” Tiger asked, his tone suddenly exasperated.

  Lexi frowned at him and stopped walking. “He’s in the dungeon. I won’t let him out again. Let’s not talk about it anymore.”

  “You brought it up.”

  “I know I did,” Lexi snapped, “but I didn’t mean to; let it go.”

  Tiger put a finger over the puckered skin between her brows and rubbed. “You’re making wrinkles.”

  “I am too young to have wrinkles,” she declared, knocking his hand away.

  Tiger released a heavy breath. “We’re fighting again.”

  “This isn’t a fight,” Lexi argued weakly, looking up at the growing amusement on his face. “You,” Lexi hesitated, struggling for the right words, “don’t approve of me anymore.”

  “What?” Tiger protested, his amusement turning to surprise.

  Lexi shook her head slightly, and shut her eyes at the inadequacy of her words. “Back home, you called me ‘gutsy’ for the way I rode Raven, ‘clever’ for sneaking around my Mother, and a ‘good person’ for the way I treated the servants. But since I came here, you keep telling me I’m stupid, incapable, and now vindictive. I don’t know why, but I don’t think you really like me anymore.” She dropped her gaze to his chest and tried to swallow back the lump of emotion that strangled her throat.

  “I like you,” Tiger said solemnly.

  Lexi shook her head. “You don’t like having me here.” She frowned as she looked at the floor. “I thought you would be excited for me: breaking away from my mother, from Talan, having a chance at a normal life; but you just want me to go home, don’t you?” Her turquoise eyes were brimming with tears as she fixed them on his.

  Tiger grimaced. “It’s...harder having you here.”

  Lexi turned away quickly, her rapid steps changing into flight.

  “Lex, your guards are back this way! Where are you going?” he called after her.

  She flew faster instead of answering him, knowing he would probably guess where she was going, and she desperately needed a few minutes alone before he caught up to her. She didn’t knock at Cam’s door when she reached it; she just threw it open, leapt inside, and shut it quickly behind her. The room’s lantern was off, the room in inky darkness but for the sliver of hallway light that showed beneath the door.

  “Lexi?” Cam asked in a sleep-slurred voice.

  “Yes, shhh.”

  Cam put out a searching hand that bumped against her thigh before finding her hand. “You okay?”

  Lexi cursed the involuntary sniffle that betrayed her crying, a much louder one following the first.

  “What happened? I thought you were sleeping.” Cam drew up to his knees and wrapped his arms around her. “Tell me,” he coaxed.

  Lexi held her breath, her hands trembling against Cam’s bare chest as she waited for Tiger to burst in and demand she come out. But he didn’t come, and dizziness forced her to breathe.

  Cam began wiping her tears, his pheromone scent heavy in the air with his face close to hers. “Tell me,” he coaxed again, and she did. When she told him about Wes, his grip on her tightened, and she laid her head on his shoulder, feeling his sinewy muscles flex in agitation. Respecting her mother’s secret, she left out her cousin Ryp, but everything else came tumbling out in a tearful jumble. She sighed as she finished, the skin beneath her eyes pulled tight by her dried tears.

  “I must have slept much longer than I thought,” Cam joked as he kissed her cheek, then stepped off the bed to turn on the solar lantern. “Are you hungry?”

  Lexi nodded numbly as he led her to the stool and set out his remaining food before her. When she began to pick at it, he smiled, then retrieved a shirt and sniffed it before putting it on. Returning to her side, he began to comb out her tangled hair while she ate.

  Lexi let out an embarrassed laugh. “You don’t have to do that.”

  “But I like to,” he insisted, leaning down between her wings to kiss the top of her head. “Does Cretin number one get out of the dungeon this morning?”

  “Probably,” Lexi said, enjoying the sensation of his hands in her hair and the gentle tugging of the comb.

  “Can I stay with you today, then?”

  Lexi tipped back her head to look at his hopeful expression. “You don’t have to ask my permission.” The words had barely left her lips before she realized they weren't true. She quickly dropped her gaze.

  “Good,” he said, happily working through a snarl.

  “Five thirty, testing time! Ladies report to the infirmary!” A booming voice hollered from the hallway. “What are you doing here?”

  Lexi stood up as she listened to a murmured response. Was that Tiger? Her guards? She threw her shoulders back as she crossed to the door and pulled it open.

  “Testing?” Cam asked from behind her.

  “Pregnancy tests,” a white-winged old woman barked and shook her wizened head in disgust. “Good thing we test you little tramps,” she spat, grabbing Lexi’s arm between her gnarled fingers and yanking her from the doorway. “Get to the infirmary,” she commanded, then bent over in a fit of coughing after releasing Lexi’s arm.

  Lexi glanced back at the guards outside Cam’s door, taking in the mortified expressions on their faces.

  “She’s not a tramp,” Cam countered, stepping up behind Lexi, his eyes dark with anger.

  The white-winged woman straightened with a last feeble cough to glare at him. “Is she your wife?”

  “No,” Cam said, his face reddening.

  “Then she’s a tramp,” she snapped, giving Lexi a shove as she continued down the hall. “Five thirty, testing time!”

  “Phidia’s not well,” the white-winged guard apologized.


  Lexi nodded, her face blank as she drew up into princess posture and walked alongside the muttering Phidia.

  “The Governor has excused you from the testing,” the white-winged guard protested as he followed them.

  "What are you talking about?" Phidia snapped. "No one is excused from testing!" She stopped to pound on a door. "Five thirty, testing time!"

  Lexi’s jaw only tightened as she replied in clipped tones. “My absence will only excite suspicion.”

  “Miss Fritillary,” the white-winged guard implored, his blue eyes squinting in distress. “Standing in line outside the infirmary with two guards will excite suspicion, too.”

  Lexi nodded. “Then you’ll wait outside my room.”

  “I’ll wait there, too,” Cam said, his words more of a question.

  Lexi turned back to him in surprise. She hadn't realized he had been trailing behind their odd procession. “That’s fine,” she allowed, her blank expression unaltered.

  “Okay, then,” Cam said with forced cheerfulness as Lexi walked away.

  Chapter Ten

  “Oh good!” Clodi called out with relief from the front of the line. “I was so worried about you when you ran after Tiger and didn’t come back!” Clodi joined Lexi at the end of the line, smiling at the glaring Phidia as she passed. “Did you find him?”

  Lexi nodded coolly, her face still a blank mask as Phidia shook her head and walked away muttering.

  “Why did he leave? And where did he go? I didn’t even hear him move,” Clodi continued.

  Lexi hid a flicker of irritation, and turned to Clodi with a polite smile. “He was just around the corner waiting for us to finish talking.”

  “Oh. Did you tell him about Wes?”

  Lexi met the gaze of several girls who had turned around to stare. “We can talk about it later.”

  Clodi shrugged. “Okay.” They shuffled forward in silence for a few minutes. “I think Damus and Everes like you; do you like their radish smell?” Clodi asked, her perfectly-formed nose scrunching up in distaste.

  Lexi smiled. “I like radishes.”

  Clodi grinned. “You do? Which one do you like better?”