Page 47 of The Nymph King

Imani opened the door harder than necessary. “He acts as if proximity gives him authority.”

Esa followed her inside without invitation, closing the door behind them. “And yet he backed off when you claimed your own space.”

Imani reeled on her.

Esa had already wandered toward the settee, apparently far too comfortable in a room that was not hers.

“He did not back off,” Imani argued, pushing loose strands of hair off her face.

“He stopped directing where you stood.”

“That is an exceptionally low standard.”

“I didn’t say otherwise.”

Imani narrowed her eyes, but Esa’s grin only widened.

“I do not know why you are enjoying this,” Imani muttered.

“Because you’re making it very easy.”

“Making what easy?”

“Watching you argue with yourself.”

Imani crossed the room and dropped into the chair beside the window. Below, Vathis spread in uneven layers of lantern light, its streets busier than when she first arrived. The news from the sea had clearly traveled faster than the returning column.

In her mind, she could still picture Ellisar beside her with his long stride. The breadth of his shoulders cutting through the crowd. The irritating ease with which he had made space for her once she claimed it.

She pressed her lips together. “I don’t like being managed,” she said after a moment.

Esa’s smile fell, and she lowered herself onto the edge of the settee. “What self-respecting queen does?”

“And I especially don’t like that he thinks protection gives him the right to decide things for me.”

“It doesn’t, if that makes you feel better.”

Imani shrugged and looked down at her hands, turning one of her rings around her finger.

“But?”

Esa waited, her expression blank.

Imani glanced up and shook her head. “Do not make that face.”

“What face?”

“That patient one.”

“I’m sitting here.”

Imani threw up her hands. “You’re judging me while sitting there.”

“That sounds like something you’ve invented.”

Imani pinched the bridge of her nose. “But he stopped trying to put me behind him,” she admitted, without removing her hands.

Esa merely sighed.