ELVEN | K.TH

9

The moment I sign my agreement, she turns the corner. And then she heads straight for the guards, the sapphire fabric of her dress billowing behind her.

I notice something around her ankle.

A strip of cloth? I'd heard of anklets among elven ladies, but never an uneven strip of fabric wrapped around an ankle like that.

The guards stop talking the moment they see her.

"I'm sorry to interrupt," She says, her hands folding over her front. "But please. Could I just have a little bit of help, gentlemen?"

The eyes of all four guards instantly focus on Arlen. Her voice is silky— almost hypnotizing as she presses her lips together in a faked distress.

"I can help you, my lady." One of the guards pipe up. But then the Captain Guard narrows his eyes at him, stepping before her and bowing his head slightly.

"I will assist you. What do you need help with?"

"My scarf. I lost it in the wind outside and can't seem to find it." She says. And then I catch her brush a secret fingertip against the arm of another guard.

He instantly turns his head up to her, before looking back and forth between the Captain Guard and his other two companions.

But while she'd grazed her hand on him, she'd given the fourth guard a seductive, meaningful look.

"Damn." Jimin whispers next to me.

"She's good. Like, really good."

"You mean dangerous." I murmur back as she easily leads all four men out from their post. And the moment they disappear around the corner, I slip into my father's garden.

Rows and rows of arlen line the small chamber. There's so much of it that it takes me aback, and I quickly pick a few flowers off their stems to tuck into my cloak.

So this is what she needed.

Would she smile once I gave these to her?

There's a soft tap against the door.

Jimin, telling me that the guards were coming back.

And with the flowers nestled into the folds of my cloak, I slip back out of the room. I hear the heavy footfalls of the guards as they return, their voices filling the halls.

"She left, just like that."

"Who found her the scarf?"

"I think she found it herself. What a fool she's made out of all of us."

But I can recognize the hidden hopes under all their voices. Lady Arlen was one of the most beautiful noble ladies in the Elven Palace, and she had charmed all of them tonight with a single light touch, a single glance full of meaning.

And the way she had bargained with me for a favor.

I look down at the flower clasped between my fingertips.