Page 47 of Marked

“Fictional?”

“Exactly,” I said. “Much more enjoyable than reality.”

He held the door open for me. “There’s something wrong with you.”

“Is there?” I slipped past him and let the fresh air wash over me. How dare he critique my choice of reading? “Come on, girl.”

Nala yipped and followed me out the door.

As we left town, I spotted Blake walking past Maria’s place. A sweet aroma wafted from the bakery and my stomach rumbled with thoughts of Maria’s cinnamon buns. But other thoughts quickly spoiled the temptation of pastries. Was Blake involved with the thefts or was finding his scarf near the looted barrel an unfortunate coincidence? My heart skipped a beat as I watched the queen’s messenger disappear around the corner.

“Wait here,” I quickly instructed Ace before spinning around to catch up with the messenger. Nala trotted alongside me, her face turned up, her brown gaze watching me intently for a command. I had none.

“Blake!” I called out, my voice cutting through the quiet of the street. He stopped and turned to face me, a smile fading from his lips as his gaze slid to my right.

I groaned inwardly, knowing that Ace must be close behind me, obviously ignoring my order. Now wasn’t the time to scold him, though, I needed to talk to Blake.

“Hey,” I said breathlessly, only now realizing I hadn’t planned what to say once I reached him. I wanted to ask about his red scarf, but now that I was in front of him, I wasn’t sure how to bring it up without the conversation sounding like an interrogation. “I just wanted to check if there were any messages for me?”

Blake’s eyes flickered with surprise as he looked at me, his expression guarded. “Not today, sorry,” he replied. His gaze kept shifting over my shoulder, and I knew Ace had caught up to us.

I sighed inwardly, realizing my attempt at privacy and subtlety had failed miserably. “Right,” I muttered, feeling a flush creep up my cheeks. Nala leaned into my legs, and I reached down and ruffled her fur. “Any gossip from town?”

He peered at me as if I were a puzzle he was trying to solve only to realize I was missing a few pieces.

“Not much,” he said. “The queen is spending more time out of the castle while the king is rarely seen in public. People are speculating there’s trouble in paradise.”

“Is there?”

“I’m just a messenger, Emi. They look as equally unimpressed with each other as they usually do,” Blake said.

Huh. That sounded about right. The king and queen weren’t known for showing affection toward each other.

“Anything else?” I asked. He hadn’t mentioned news of Dita, which was odd.

He paused, tapping his chin. “The vendors of Wast are excited about the upcoming visit from Vitor, but that’s nothing new.”

The monarchs from the two major cities on the mainland were meeting to amicably discuss trade. I’d only been to Vitor a few times and disliked it almost as much as I did Wast. It didn’t help that my only knowledge of the city beforehand was that Old Man O’Reilly and his asshole nephew both came from Vitor. That was enough to taint my first impression and to this day, whenever I thought of Vitor, I imagined a whole city of O’Reillys—male, female, young, old, small, and big—grumbling and sneering as they milled around town.

I shuddered at the involuntary image. “Okay. Well, thanks.”

He nodded and made a move to leave, but before he could make his escape, I reached out to stop him. My grip on his arm was gentle yet firm. “Wait,” I said. “I need to ask you something else.”

His expression turned serious as he looked down at my hand gripping his arm. “Okay.”

I let go of his arm. “I remember you used to always wear a red scarf.”

A faint smile tugged at the corners of his lips as he shifted his weight back. “You wanted to ask me about a scarf?”

I nodded, my cheeks now burning with embarrassment with what I planned to say next. This was going to get awkward, but I was willing to let my ego take a hit to get more information for the investigation. “Yeah, I really liked it and wanted...I wanted to get one for someone else.”

Ugh, I was terrible at this.

Thankfully, Nala didn’t whine to give away my discomfort.

Blake’s eyes flicked to Ace standing behind me and his lips curved up. “Is that so?”

I cleared my throat and pulled at the neckline of my shirt. “Yeah, where did you buy it?”