Chapter 93 Chapter 93

Chapter 93 Chapter 93
LENORE
Killian’s eyes were still glowing by the time we’d settled in his house which, by the way, was… something. He’d made it sound like it was a simple two-storey building, but it was anything but.
The house had a long driveway winding through sprawling gardens and trees that made the city feel miles away, and it stretched wide across the property, with stone walls, and broad verandas that wrapped around the front. It looked like a country cottage, only grander—it had six bedrooms—and everything about it felt warm.
I’d asked Killian if we could live here, but unfortunately, it couldn’t be as protected as his mother’s palace, so no. The house had also been his mother’s.
“Drope… Drope—Dropellet…?” Cameron turned to Calley with furrowed brows, and she shrugged as she drank from her glass. “...That’s not a word.”
“Says who?”
“Says the world’s most trusted dictionary,” I said, holding up the bulky book in my hand which, unfortunately for her, had no such word, and she shifted her gaze to me, then to the book.
“It says fourth edition.”
It was my turn to furrow my brows now. “Yeah?”
“Maybe they cut it out. Maybe it’s in the fifth edition.” She shrugged again, raising her shoulders even higher. “I don’t know.”
Aurora clicked her tongue, disappointment written all over her face as she shook her head, and I couldn’t stop the laugh that escaped me. “Give her zero points, Lenore,” she said and Calley instantly narrowed her eyes at me when I picked up the pen to do so.
“Remember I’m the one in charge of your well-being.”
What the fuck? I paused, then glanced around the table—Aurora had a brow raised while Cameron looked baffled. “It’s just scrabble though…”
“Is it?”
“It literally says so on the board,” Cameron shot back, frowning, before telling me, “Give her zero points. In fact, minus ten.”
“Told you she’d be like this,” Aurora muttered at the same time Calley said to Cameron, “I hate you.”
He didn’t look fazed by that. “You hoped I’d die,” he replied monotonously, and Calley’s brows snapped together.
“What the—When?”
“You hoped Gizmo would win our fight,” he added, reminding me she’d truly said that right before hell broke loose in the banquet last night.
It also reminded me that something had happened while I was asleep and Killian wasn’t back—he’d stepped out of the living room to take a call about ten minutes ago, but his prolonged absence made me feel like he wanted to avoid the conversation. After all, when we got here, he’d said he would tell me what happened after breakfast—to be fair, I’d been starving—and breakfast ended five minutes before Aurora brought out the scrabble board and he received a call.
I could have asked anyone at the table at any moment since he left, but I wanted to hear it from him. It was clear he was reluctant to tell me because he didn’t want to put another death in my head, but I needed him to understand he didn’t need to shield me from everything. I wasn’t glass.
“Oh…” Calley pressed her lips together before letting out a harsh breath. “That doesn’t necessarily translate to you dying. You’re so dramatic.”
“Get a room,” Aurora sighed while I shook my head, giving Calley the points she deserved. When I lifted my gaze from the score sheet, Calley and Cameron were staring at Aurora, and they both looked irked.
“Someone had to say it,” Aurora added while I asked, “Pass or exchange, Calley?”
I knew she was just teasing them—Cameron had only been in the city for seven days and he and Calley had only interacted for six hours—but for a moment, I couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like if they ended up being mates. A snort escaped me.
Calley sneered at me, most likely thinking the snort was directed at her, before pouting as she moved the ELLET letters, replacing them with an S.
DROPS.
“...That’s kinda sad,” Cameron muttered and laughter bubbled out of me, instantly coming to a stop when someone walked past one of the living room’s open doors. It wasn’t Killian though—it was one of the housekeepers—and my shoulders sagged. I should go find him.
“Give me a moment, guys.” I got to my feet, dropping the pen and dictionary, and Calley glanced at the score sheet before I headed for a door.
“Minus fifty?!”
“Penalty for threatening the score keeper,” I called over my shoulder and she replied with another threat that earned her another minus fifty which I’d deliver when I came back. A couple of steps down the hallway, I came across a housekeeper who told me Killian was on the veranda at the back of the house and I made a beeline for it after she gave me the directions.
Killian’s gaze was already fixed on the doorway, a smile on his face, before I even stepped into his line of sight and the corners of my mouth twitched while his smile widened at my presence. Had he been listening in on me all this while? My gaze drifted to his phone which was on the coffee table as I walked over to the couch he was sitting on and when I got to him, I leaned backward over the arm, letting myself drop onto his lap, my legs still draped over the arm.
“Calley threatened me,” I said as his arms instinctively wrapped around me, his lips brushing my jaw.
“I’ll maim her.”
My smile widened a fraction before Fabien’s voice came from beside the other arm of the couch.
“Yeah, I’d rather you didn’t.”
I blurted out an oh as I jerked my head over my shoulder to find him sitting on the ground, his back resting against the couch’s side with a tablet displaying a picture of a blonde woman in his hands. “Hi, Fabien,” I said while he turned off the tablet’s screen and turned his head to look at me, giving me a small smile.
“Hey, Lenore,” he replied as he got to his feet. Then he gave Killian a nod before heading into the house, leaving the veranda to us.
I settled more comfortably against Killian, still keeping my legs hanging over the couch’s arm. “I thought you were avoiding me,” I muttered and a line appeared between his brows.
“Never.”
A pleasant warmth spread through my chest, and I batted away the smile threatening to break across my face. “...You haven’t told me what happened last night.”
Killian instantly opened his mouth to say something, but paused just as quickly, his eyes scanning my face. When I tipped my head to the side, he blew out a harsh breath and tightened his hold on me before finally saying, “Some people broke into the palace to attack me.”