“Not a big deal the way your magic is not a big deal, or mine,” she muttered. He hit another sore spot and she bit her lips to hold back a yelp. She added, “wandering hands,” and laughed.
“Sorry!” He says apologetically, “I didn’t mean it.”
“Didn’t mean what?” Summer had to brace her elbows on her knees to keep from toppling over, so relaxed was she now. Vaguely she wished he would massage less and caress more.
Summer blinked, and a tear splashed on the tabletop. “Mordred … ” She managed a wavering smile, and started to work on the buckles to the vambraces. “I don’t know what I would do without you.”
Mordred shrugs, stepping forward to help her. “Have a normal life?” He suggests.
She spluttered into laughter. “Did you pay attention to my family at all? Normal? Without you, I should have been trapped here, at the mercy of whomever Edward decided to pawn me off on — likely some old man with no teeth and wandering hands.”
“Do you really want to deal with what my mother would have to say about that? Because I don’t.” She just stood there, trembling slightly. “Tell me something nice,” she whispered.
”You’re beautiful, and amazing,” he tells her without blinking.
Summer blinked, and a tear splashed on the tabletop. “Mordred … ” She managed a wavering smile, and started to work on the buckles to the vambraces. “I don’t know what I would do without you.”
“Things I don’t need to remember, things I don’t want to remember! Things like,” she stumbled on the words, “like how little I am liked here. How I am not wanted. Not — there’s nothing /here/ for me. And if there’s nothing here, how can there be anything anywhere else?” Summer pushed the door to the armory open and stepped inside, bracing her hands on the table with her head low.
”Summer —” he sighed, “we will leave as soon as we can? Okay?”
“Do you really want to deal with what my mother would have to say about that? Because I don’t.” She just stood there, trembling slightly. “Tell me something nice,” she whispered.
Sometime around midday, only a few days before the Yule celebrations, while the knights were taking a break from training in the cold to eat and try to warm their hands, a serving boy handed Mordred a note. The boy didn’t wait for an answer, only to see that the knight opened it before he ran off.
In a consciously elegant handwriting, it read, ‘I’ve a gift for you. Come to your rooms tonight after dinner, and try to let nothing keep you.’
Summer waited in the middle of the floor, head bowed, perfectly still. Her hands were clasped in front of her, wrists tied together by a pale satin ribbon. The green velvet corset accentuated the golden tone of her skin, highlighted by silver chains and swing clasps designed to be opened in a hurry. A silver silk-satin skirt fell in straight lines to the floor. Her abundance of hair was firmly braided and pinned up in a heavy swirl at the back of her neck, leaving throat and shoulders utterly bare.
*crawls off and cries about how adorable and sexy and cute and precious alex vlahos is*
