Beyond The Veil

Chapter 3: The Tavern

This chapter was supposed to be Avery's but I just couldn't get this scene out of my head until I finally finished writing it down. So here is another Greyson chapter.

Greyson II

Having appeased Mother with finishing the last of the fittings for my new party attire, I change into my more dressed down clothes has Lucian and I head out to one of the local taverns. One of the better ways to find out who the people of the kingdom are feeling. Nothing like a drunk man to scream out the truth for all to hear, as long as the right questions are asked.

“Your Highness, again I do not think this is a good idea. Your mother would have my head on a pike if she knew that you were doing this.” Lucian once again pleads as I casually make my way down the dimly lit streets and making sure that my hood is securely covering my all to noticeable violet eyes. “Please my friend. What more can you learn that you haven’t already from the last five trips to this same tavern? Or is it not information that you seek but instead the attention of a female?”

“This is one of the most diversely travelled taverns in Anadarel. One can learn more by spending a few minutes here than they can listening to the Petitioner’s Court for a week. You out of everyone should know the masks people wear when speaking with my father.” My explanation swift and ignoring his question about a female being the thing that draws my attention to the tavern every night these past few days. A frown mars my face as I am unable to comprehend why I feel drawn to this specific tavern. Almost as if a part of me knows if I keep showing up something will happen. That I might find that key bit of information that will help me succeed in my endeavors.

Shaking my head from the melancholy thoughts I stride into the tavern and breath in that scent which you only find in places such as these. The smell of alcohol, sweat, and s*x permeates everything here as Lucian and I move to our normal booth near the back where others would pay us no mind. We are hardly settled before Missy comes up to us with pints of ale and warm bread, straight from the oven by the smell and heat radiating off it.

“Thank you my fair maiden for being so attentive to our needs,” Lucian smoothly says with a hint of an innuendo at the end as he takes the girl’s hand and brings it up to his lips. Missy lets out an unlady like snort as she wretches her hand from him.

“Listen here you scoundrel,” her thick Grimori accent makes the words sound harsh and she places one hand on her hip and the other, the one Lucian had just been hold, was rubbing against her apron as his to rid herself of him. “Best no’ be thinkin’ you can get me into yer bed tonight! I’mma lady and I won’t be havin’ you ruinin’ my reputation as you seem like to.”

“Excuse my friend here mistress,” I give her my most charming smile. “He appears to have forgotten his manners.” A visible blush plays up her cheeks as he gives me a shy smile and Lucian a sharp glare before asking. “And is there anythin’ else I might be able to get for you today young master?” Lucian grumbles under his breath about the unfairness of princes as his eyes scan over the crowd a few times before landing on something, or more likely someone, that seems to have caught his interest.

Following his gaze my eyes land on a young girl standing with her back to us at the bar counter that is dressed rather strangely, though that is not what I notice about her first. No my eyes are stuck on her hair and how it looks like molten fire coming out of her head and my heart skips a beat followed by a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach. Missy follows both of our gazes and rolls her eyes before stepping in front of our view of the girl. “Now young masters, listen here and listen good. You best be leavin’ that girl alone. She ain’t got nothing for you and what you would take from her would cost too much.” The ferocity in her words startles me into looking back at her.

“Would you at least tell me her name so that I might best avoid any situation with her, lest I fortunately attract your ire?” my voice comes out as a whisper as I try to catch just one more glance of the girl. Sighing and pinching the bridge of her nose as if this is a question she has been asked all night and her internally asking the Moon Goddess ‘why her?’, Missy looks at me as responds. “Says her name is Avery. Strange name to be sure, almost asked if her ma and pa hated her by giving her a lad’s name.”

‘Avery…’ I roll the name around in my tongue as I catch another glimpse of her, this time as she is carrying tankards of ale to the table closest to us and I am able to get a better look at her. ‘She is definitely very pretty, I would almost go as far as to say she is beautiful. Though there is something about her that unnerves me. She seems different… thought I am not sure how.’

The sound of bell like laughter pulls me from my thoughts as I look back and see she is laughing at something one of the men said. A traitorous thought crosses my mind as all I can think is how I wish I was the one that had caused her to laugh like that and I am oddly jealous that someone else managed to get her to laugh before me. Shaking my head I internally scold myself for feeling like an infatuated youth towards a girl I didn’t even know.

“It’s still really busy Missy, I would be more than happy to keep working so that you aren’t by yourself.” It seems my mind is determined to wander away from me tonight as the young girl I have been almost fantasizing about has come up to our table. Hearing her speak my eyebrows pull together as I am not able to place her accent, and I pride myself on knowing the dialect and accent of all parts of the kingdom. Missy gives the girl a friendly smile as she places a hand on Avery’s.

“No my dear, you have already earned yer room and board and it would be unkind of me to force ye to keep on working.” Avery frowns as she looks around the room and I follow her gaze to see almost every table and booth is occupied and the bar itself is at max occupancy.

“You can always sit with us my lady if you are want for some company,” Lucian offers as he leans back in his chair as if to fully look the girl over. An uncomfortable feeling in my chest begins to take hold as I watch his display. The girl just looks at him before looking back at Missy as if to say “please give me any work so I do not need to subject myself to this one’s company”. Missy covers her mouth as she lets out a short laugh and gives a nod as if in consent for her to keep working. Taking this as her queue to leave Avery hurries back over to the bar with hardly a goodbye spared.

Lucian grumbles at this as he crosses his arms and complains about the cold hearts of women and how they enjoy to leave a man bereft of company for the night. Lazily I look over at him and inform him. “If you are that bereft for a nightly companion you should know that if you go to the next street over there is a row of brothels that you can choose from.” He shoots me a glare as he downs the rest of his ale and stalks away looking for more appealing entertainment. Rolling my eyes at him I too get up from the booth but instead of heading for the crowd I go the opposite direction and head toward the bar, toward Avery.

Standing next to hear I catch the sent of her skin and a shudder goes down my spin as I fully take in the light rose scent that causes my head to start reeling. ‘She smells just like the roses in mother’s garden… I wonder if she has deadly thorns as well.’ The thought unbiddenly crosses my mind as I clear my throat as if to summon her attention away from the bartender and towards myself.

“I do not believe we have met,” I say as way of greeting as she turns her gaze to me and the mirth that was there cools to a polite mask. “My name is Greyson, but my friends call me Grey, you can too if you wish.” I hit her with my most charming and endearing smile, the one my mother and Ivy both agree would make any woman swoon, as my eyes almost beg for her to drop the mask and show me a true smile. One that is meant just for me. Though the mask never falls, in fact it seems to reinforce itself, like a castle preparing for an all out siege.

“In order for me to call you by any sort of nickname we would have to be in fact friends and unfortunately we do not hold that title with each other,” she replies with a sickly sweetness to her voice, one that says this is a game she has had to play before and no doubt won. My smile eases into a smirk as I prop myself up at the bar and look out into the crowd.

“It would be a great honour to be your friend my lady,” my response is soft as I look back at her and take in the blue of her eyes as the knowledge that if I let myself I could easily lose myself in those endless depths, and I would be just fine with that. Avery’s mask falls as a look of distrust crosses her face at my words. “How exactly would it be a ‘great honour’ to be my friend?” she asks as she makes quotation marks with her fingers around “great honour”. “You know nothing about me, so how can you claim to know what kind of ‘honour’ it would be to be my friend?” I almost cringe at the venom in her words as turns from me back to the bar just in time for the bartender to hand her a few more tankards of ale to be brought to a table in the opposite corner of the room.

Following after her and trying to weave through the crowds with as little jostling of other patrons as I can I respond. “Well my lady, I see that Missy is fond of you and if you have gained her fondness you must be something extraordinary as that is a feat not commonly achieved. So one must assume that if you managed to do that you are someone worth knowing and making friends with.” Ignoring me, she carefully sets the tankards down on the table and gives the men a sweet smile causing me to grit my teeth as that uncomfortable feeling rises up again within me. Though that feeling quickly changes when Avery turns around to head back to the bar and one of the men, the one in the nearest seat, looks over and lecherously gazes at her backside before bringing his hand up and smacking her there so loud it echos.

It is irrational the anger that I feel when I see this but at this moment I do not care as I move to teach this lecher a lesson he won’t soon forget, but it looks like someone else has beat me to it. And that someone is Avery. She has the man with one arm at an unnatural angle behind his back and another hand is on his neck forcing his face into the table. Seeing this I become even more intrigued with her than I already was as she leans down and seems to be whispering something in his ear. Her voice though is too low even I can’t make out what she is saying, but the “yes ma’am” in the quivering voice of the lecher is like music to my ears.

Having finished whatever conversation that they were having, Avery lets him go and walks right past me to head back up to the bar. Like the lap dog this girl seems to have made me into I follow her back up, all the while assuring myself that it is just my princely duty to make sure that the lady is alright. Though deep down a part of me knows that isn’t true, I am attracted to this girl and feel oddly protective of her even though she can very clearly take care of herself.

“My lady?” I ask softly as I watch her drain one of the small tumblers with a liquid that smells exceedingly strong. Giving a sigh she turns and looks at me with a tired express. I move in to stand right next to her as I gently lay my hand on hers and am met with sparks that span across every point in which our skin touches. A soft laugh escapes my lips as everything is finally made clear to me and I look up into her eyes with unadulterated happiness. Though the look on her face is anything but, in fact it would seem more akin to confusion than the pure joy one normally feels when they find their mate.

She pulls her hand from mind and I instantly feel the lose of the connection and a coldness starts to take over. “Dude what is up with you? Did you run your feet across carpet of something? Also what’s up with your eyes, why are they all glowy and yellow…?” Her voice fades away at that last question before she gives herself a shake and a hardened look takes over. “Look I don’t know you and I don’t want to know you so why don’t you go back to whatever rich boy house you live in and leave me alone!” With that she hurries away from me and gets lost in the crowd of people.

Confusion though has me rooted to the bar as I try to figure out what just transpired and what would have caused her to have such a reaction. Could it be that she already has a lover that she is pledged to and doesn’t want to give up? Or could it be that the apparent differences in our social classes is holding her back? She seemed to be able to sense that I am of an upper class even with the way I am dressed. Perhaps the class difference is what is holding her back, that seemed to be the main concern of… whatever that outburst was.

Though her questioning my eyes is strange to say the least as everyone knows, or should know that high feelings of emotion can cause the beasts to come to the surface. First that man and how he defiled Avery only to find out moments later after touching her hand that she is my mate, if my eyes were their normal colour would be more worrisome.

I am pulled from my pondering by Lucian as he rushes up to me and grabs me by the arm. “We have to go. The guard is coming due to a fight that broke out down the street and I really don’t feel like explaining what the crown price and I are doing out at a seedy tavern in the middle of the night.” Giving him a nod I let him lead me away but not before catching one last glimpse of Avery. The fight seems to be a big one as Missy is pushing Avery toward the stairs and up to the rooms. My heart lightens at the sight, knowing that she has such a fierce friend in Missy.

The trip back to the keep is quiet as we both seem to have much on our minds. It’s only once we get through the secret entrance and back into my chambers that Lucian looks back at me with a raised eyebrow and an open question on his face. He definitely knows something is up. “So do I have to pry it from you or are you going to spare us both the pain and just say what has you so pensive?” A harsh laugh burst forth without my consent as I stab my fingers through my hair rather violently and begin to pace the room.

“That girl tonight, the new one that was helping Missy out,” I start as Lucian gives a nod. “Turns out that girl… she’s my mate” The last part comes out as a whisper as my lips pull up in a soft smile as I ruminate on the word. Mate. A girl with fire in her veins. One that I could see myself having tender feelings for should we get the chance.