The Queen's Line (Inheritance of Hunger #1) - Kathryn Moon Page 0,19

then the low collar of my gown before his head quickly lifted. "Just so, Your Highness. If it's any consolation, I've told him he's an idiot."

"We all have," Owen grunted, frowning and twisting awake, his head knocking against the roof of the carriage as he tried to sit up. "I may take a horse for some of the night myself. I feel wadded up in this little box."

My lips twitched as I watched Owen try to work out the kinks of sleeping without elbowing Wendell in the gut or kneeing Cosmo in the groin. I was tempted to offer to switch places with Wendell, but that little blooming feeling I'd discovered for Owen just a day ago had yet to abate and I wasn't sure what would happen if I were pressed up against him.

The carriage slowed as we reached the edge of a village, the sunset turning the mildewy browns and greens of the dilapidated buildings into a silky and jewel toned range of darkness. The inn we were waiting outside of was a low building with a peaked roof that sank in on one side. The windows of the inn were parted, letting the sounds and smells drift out to the street. Our carriage door opened, Owen jumping out, all too eager to stretch his long legs…and his broad back, and his muscular arms, and rolling his head on his dense shoulders. I swallowed and shook myself out of my staring, only to choke lightly on a whiff of the inn's stench. Sausage and stale ale and… My nose wrinkled. Was that the smell of piss?

The men emptied the carriage, and it was Aric who stepped up to the door, holding out a hand to help me out. No, not to help me, to stop me.

"I've charmed the carriage to avoid attracting attention, but I think we'd better do the same to you, if you don't object, princess," Aric said, quiet and low. He had a cloth bag in his hand and a few beads of sweat on his brow that hadn't been there when he'd spoken to us before.

My eyes widened, and I nodded before I'd even thought it through. Aric's hands raised to cup my face, the bag dangling from his wrist, and it was the first time he'd touched me since the night of my choosing. I held my breath at the prick of his magic dancing over my skin. For a brief moment, it was suffocating, like someone had pressed a pillow over my face, and then it gentled and sank in—a tight feeling, and a little itchy, but manageable. His fingers trailed down my throat to the collar of my dress, and my lips parted as his touch skimmed over my breast bone.

In books, a hero was always described with 'heat in his gaze,' but I couldn't tell if that was what was in Aric's eyes. It was certainly…focused, and it brought goosebumps out all over me and made my breasts feel both heavy and tight. And then my gown whispered and shifted from golden silk to a slightly rough texture and an earthy green.

"That should do," Aric said, words scratching against my ear, his breath short and rapid.

And then he was gone, leaving me gaping in my seat, and with no escort down from the carriage until Wendell appeared a moment later, gallant and golden. His eyebrows bounced as he took me in.

"He's made a joke of me, hasn't he?" I asked.

Wendell shook his head and then frowned. "You're just…well, you won't attract too much attention at least. I just didn't realize he had so much talent. Allow me," he said, and I took his hand as he helped me down.

Aric had tweaked Thao's own ornate outfit as well, although not as much as my own, and the prince had tied back his silky black hair. Cosmo and Owen were missing altogether.

"We'll sit in two different groups," Aric said, and he still sounded a little breathless. I wondered if his magic cost him to use. He was registered as a minor magician, but when I checked myself in the reflection of the carriage window, I jumped at the sight of a completely different woman. This wasn't minor magic at all.

I'd never given a great deal of consideration to my own looks, but one thing was painfully clear—Aric had made me plain. My hair was missing all its shine, my ears were larger, my eyes smaller. He was pale when I spun around