Chapter 52
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The air inside the drawing room had turned suffocating by the time Adi made her way back. There was no question that Duke Woodpecker was the source of the tension. Yuls sat in a dark, brooding silence, his temper clearly frayed. Noticing his foul state of mind, she leaned toward Roy and whispered a quick question.
“Did something occur while I was gone?”
The response didn’t come from the man she had addressed.
“If there is something you wish to know, ask me to my face instead of muttering in corners.”
“…….”
Adi found herself at a loss for words. She had nothing to report to the Duke, and she certainly lacked the standing to cross-examine the very man responsible for the sour mood. As she stood there in awkward silence, Yuls ran a hand through his hair. He was struggling to reconcile his own internal state.
Or was he?
“Adrian.”
“I am here, Your Excellency.”
The truth was that he understood perfectly. He was well aware that his tangled emotions were surfacing in an increasingly volatile manner. He had never intended to feel this way, nor did he ever anticipate such a development, but the knight had become a constant, nagging presence in his mind. It had reached the point where simply seeing him interact with another man sparked a sharp flare of resentment.
Yuls was a man of keen self-awareness. Even if these feelings were entirely foreign to him, he was not so blind that he couldn’t identify them. Yet, recognition did not bring clarity.
He is a man, after all.
Sir Adrian Grimaldi might be playing the part of a subservient attendant now, but he was still a son of House Grimaldi, a man once mocked as a mere dog within the halls of Pallesa Palace. It didn’t matter if he possessed hair as soft as honey, a delicate flush to his skin, or eyes that shimmered like precious gems. A pretty face did not change the reality of his gender.
In the context of breaking a curse, his sex was irrelevant, but it wasn’t as if Yuls could keep him by his side indefinitely.
And yet.
“I have a debt to collect for the day.”
The mere thought of Adrian belonging to anyone else sat like a stone in his gut.
“Do you mean this instant?”
Adi’s voice wavered with confusion. While Yuls insisted on a kiss every day, the sun was still high in the sky. The room was filled with senior chamberlains and members of the Escort Knight Division, and they were expected to depart shortly to welcome the Crown. Was he truly suggesting such an intimacy here and now?
It felt entirely too scandalous to perform in front of an audience. Even if some of the staff had grown accustomed to their arrangement, the timing was egregious.
As Adi stood frozen in hesitation, Yuls’s gaze sharpened.
“Come with me.”
When the Duke turned to leave, his entire retinue of knights and attendants prepared to follow.
“Only Adi.”
The command brought the group to a dead halt. Adi stopped as well, her expression shifting as she weighed her options. Realizing she had no real choice in the matter, she eventually followed him into the private room.
Yuls watched her as she entered and pulled the door shut behind her.
She looked utterly bewildered. He knew that if she viewed this as nothing more than the demands of a mad Duke obsessed with lifting a curse, he had no right to complain. On the surface, that was exactly what it was.
But the underlying reality had shifted. Adrian remained the same, yet Yuls had been fundamentally altered. While a good servant was expected to read their master’s silent moods, it was too much to ask of someone in a temporary, forced position like Adi.
Besides, was he truly content with being nothing more than her lord?
“Adi.”
The answer was a resounding no. If he were satisfied with a simple hierarchy, he wouldn’t be plagued by this relentless curiosity. He wouldn’t have shadowed the knight’s meeting with another man, nor would he be burning with irritation over the many secrets Adrian still kept from him.
He had read about such passions in literature, but experiencing the weight of them firsthand was something else entirely.
“You mentioned that Count Grimaldi intended to take your life.”
Yuls was becoming obsessed with every detail of Adrian’s existence.
“And just now, you were seen speaking with Lev Zid.”
Once he acknowledged his feelings, even the smallest trifles became points of obsession. He found himself wondering about something as mundane as what the knight had eaten for lunch—likely nothing more than the meager fare provided in the mess hall.
“How did you find out about…”
“What was the subject of your discussion?”
“It was nothing of importance.”
“If it was so trivial, then you should have no issue sharing it with me.”
Yuls reached out, seizing Adi’s hand and lifting it. Though she was smaller than him, her hands felt particularly delicate. Perhaps it was only because he was so much larger, but they didn’t feel like a woman’s hands. They were the hands of a warrior—calloused and marked by the constant grip of a sword hilt.
They were beautiful.
He held her hand in a heavy silence, studying it before pulling her closer and pressing his lips to the skin. Having grown used to the Duke’s physical demands, Adi didn’t pull away, though her thick lashes trembled. If one ignored her stature and frame, she could easily be mistaken for a woman.
Indeed, it was only the masculine attire that maintained the illusion; in a gown, her beauty would be undeniable. The more he looked at her, the more captivating she became. Perhaps his initial distaste for her personality had blinded him to it before.
Yuls pressed several kisses to the back of her hand. The rhythmic sound of the contact was almost embarrassing, yet he remained undeterred. However, when he felt the sudden, soft brush of his tongue against her skin, Adi jerked her hand back in shock.
“What is it?”
That was definitely his tongue…
Adi rubbed her hand, her face burning with flustered energy. Yuls, conversely, remained perfectly composed. He took a seat on the sofa, tilting his chin up with an air of authority.
“Relate your conversation with Lev Zid to me.”
“…It concerned Grimaldi.”
“I can’t hear you from over there. Come closer.”
Adi stepped toward the sofa. Immediately, Yuls caught her hand again. Distracted by the contact, she looked down at their joined fingers before speaking in a hushed tone.
“I informed him that I would be going back to Grimaldi.”
“Returning?”
“Yes.”
“I thought you said there had been no mention of such a thing.”
She hadn’t had the opportunity to bring it up. She hadn’t anticipated the Count making such a decision, either. Whatever had been discussed with the Crown Prince, it was clear that once the Duke departed and her task was finished, her return would be mandatory—unless a different path opened up.
There was one potential alternative: the Crown Prince. If he remained at Pallesa Palace instead of returning to the capital, and if she could secure a place by his side, she might avoid her father’s reach. But was that even a realistic hope?
She needed to speak with the Prince to gauge the situation, but the chance had not yet presented itself. She couldn’t simply barge into his presence.
However, the opportunity was coming. With the nobility gathering to greet the Crown today, she might find a moment to act.
“Does the Count’s threat to kill the Guard apply to your return to the estate?”
Yuls asked the question with an uncharacteristic note of concern. Adi met his gaze, searching his face.
“You have no desire to go back to Grimaldi, do you?”
“Answer me.”
“No, I do not wish to return.”
A bright, genuine smile broke across Yuls’s face at her admission.
“I see.”
The reaction baffled her. Why would he look so pleased by her predicament? When he followed up by asking if staying away was her “wish,” Adi could only manage a dry, hollow laugh.
“It is not.”
The smile vanished instantly. A heavy, oppressive aura flooded the room, mirroring the tension from the drawing room earlier. It was a rare and intimidating trait—the ability to shift the very atmosphere of a space through sheer force of will.
“Then you intend to go?”
“I will find a way to prevent it.”
“And how do you plan to do that?” Yuls pressed. “Do you have another benefactor in mind?”
Her silence was her confirmation. She was looking for help elsewhere—someone who wasn’t him.
The thought of who it could be gnawed at him.
“Sir Adrian Grimaldi.”
And yet, he couldn’t let anyone else near him.
“I cannot afford to waste a wish on this when the future is so uncertain,” Adi stated. Yuls narrowed his eyes. He had asked if it was her wish, but he hadn’t intended for her to use her limited leverage for it.
“It is my final safety net.”
In that moment, Yuls realized why she hadn’t come to him.
“So, the issue is that you don’t have enough wishes?”
“Precisely. They are too valuable.”
“Then the solution is simple. I shall provide you with more.”
Yuls reached out, grabbing her arm and pulling her toward him. Caught off balance, Adi tumbled into his lap, her hands instinctively pushing against his chest to steady herself. His frame was broader and more muscular than she had realized. As she tried to scramble up with a hurried “Your Excellency,” he caught her by the chin.
“A wish for every kiss.”
Their mouths met, and their breaths mingled in the narrow space between them. The contact sent a jolt of electricity through her. Overwhelmed by the unfamiliar sensation, Adi gripped his cravat, pulling until the silk came undone. Yuls’s hand slid into her hair, his fingers pressing against her scalp and the sensitive skin of her neck. She felt the air leave her lungs.
Finally, unable to catch her breath, she began to thump against his shoulder. Understanding the signal, Yuls pulled back. Adi leaned away, gasping for air.
Yuls was breathing heavily himself, his face flushed with an uncharacteristic heat.
“Well?”
She wasn’t sure what he was asking—if he wanted to know her reaction or her thoughts on the bargain.
“Shall I provide your escape from Grimaldi?”
Adi’s eyes widened as the weight of his words sank in.
“If that is what you want, I will make it happen.”
He used his thumb to brush a stray trace of moisture from her lip before continuing.
“We can go to the Woodpecker lands. No one can touch you there. Not the Grimaldis, and not even the Royals.”
She struggled to process the offer.
“Give it some serious thought.”
Adi sensed the deeper meaning behind his words, yet she found it impossible to believe.
“Because no one requires your presence as much as I do.”
It couldn’t be possible that the Duke had actually developed feelings for her, could it?
