Night's Templar: A Vampire Queen Novel (Vampire Queen Series Book 13) by Joey W. Hill Page B

tomorrow.”
    When Uthe turned away, he pivoted into Keldwyn, standing beside him. Uthe brought himself up just short of putting a hand on his chest to stop his forward momentum. It disturbed him that he hadn’t noted the Fae’s proximity. Keldwyn sketched an oddly formal bow, considering their earlier interaction on the stairwell. “Queen Rhoswen wishes to speak with you. She is in the gardens. I will take you.”
    “All right.”
    Keldwyn lifted a brow. “You look relieved, Lord Uthe. Afraid I was going to ask you to dance?”
    “If you do, you need to be wearing something other than those.” Uthe glanced down at the Fae’s soft-skinned boots. “I can do a passable waltz, but nothing else without breaking toes.”
    “I shall teach you some of the dances we do in the Fae world. It’s more like fighting than dancing.” Keldwyn gestured toward the gardens. “The Queen does not like to be kept waiting.”
    “None of them do.” Uthe pushed down the sudden trepidation, recalling how it felt to take her hand. If he did it again, what else would he see or discover? Would she allow it?
    He was preoccupied with his thoughts and the walk was short. Keldwyn, either respecting that or lost in his own musings, didn’t disturb him with conversation, but Uthe was aware of how closely he walked at Uthe’s side, their arms occasionally brushing as they navigated the narrow walkways to where the Queen was.
    A low hedge and artfully arranged layers of fall mums made a circle around a cluster of stone benches, a rose bush the center feature. The ground beneath it was dotted with decorative stepping stones, stamped with Celtic knot designs. Sitting on one of the benches, Rhoswen looked like the moon come to rest. An ethereal light bathed everything around her in a silver glow. While Keldwyn was a creature of autumn and earth, his Queen was winter and water. Uthe remembered Lyssa explaining that the Queen was wont to express herself through the combination of the two, and he saw that now. There was a limning of frost on the hedges nearest her, and a dusting of snow along the silver-grey concrete of the bench.
    He was relieved to see she’d restrained herself enough to spare the leaves of the rose bush, since Lyssa was protective of her roses. In winter, during the occasional frosts, they were covered with light blankets during the night. Viewed from inside the house, they looked like old people hunched against the cold.
    Cayden stood a few feet back from his Queen, watching over her, though Uthe wondered what the man thought a few vampires could do to a woman who put out a power signature like a nuclear explosion. 
    “My lord Uthe.” Her pale eyes fastened on him as he approached and bowed. She didn’t offer her hand this time, though she did gesture to him to take the bench across from her. Keldwyn drifted away, though not far. He meandered along the garden path that spiraled around the low hedge circling this area, studying it as if he were planning a career in landscape design.
    A brief flash of irritation crossed Rhoswen’s face as she glanced his way. “He never sits or stands in attendance on me. His way of making it clear he owes no one any allegiance.”
    “Allegiance is earned day by day, Your Majesty,” Keldwyn said absently, bending to examine a plant. “I have not yet stopped serving your well-being, so I’d say that is its own answer, is it not?”
    Rhoswen’s face was as cool as the ice on the hedges. “He does prove useful enough that freezing him into a permanent ice sculpture isn’t an intelligent option,” she said. “Though I keep warning him the day may come when I am not feeling quite so intelligent.”
    “I’ve seen you on those days, my lady, and your acuity is still ten times sharper than most.”
    Cayden shifted behind her. Uthe saw him and Keldwyn exchange a look. Cayden’s contained an admonishment, an easy-to-read suggestion that Keldwyn try not to be such a pain in the ass.