Saving Verakko: The Clecanian Series Book 3 Victoria Aveline (best book club books .TXT) 📖

She’d chosen not to wear a mokti. Instead, shimmering, deep golden paint coated her neck, bright near her chin, then fading until it blended in with her natural skin near her delicate collar bones. He stepped toward her, every bit of him feeling undeserving of the vision before him. His throat remained tight, so he just stared at her.

“I advised against the dress, thinking it too simple,” Ziri chimed in, reminding him she was still there. “But I’m glad to say I was wrong.”

Lily smiled at him with painted lips.

Ziri cleared her throat. “I need to be getting back to the Queen.” She turned to Lily, who smiled warmly at her. “It was wonderful to spend the day with you. I hope we’ll see each other again very soon.”

Lily wrapped her arms around a perplexed Ziritha. “Thank you so much for everything.”

Ziri furrowed her brows at Verakko, not used to receiving hugs from near strangers. He shrugged in response. She smiled and patted Lily awkwardly on the back.

After Ziri left, Verakko had to shake himself out of his daze. “You look… I don’t know if there’s a word strong enough to do you justice.”

Lily lowered her chin and grinned, a pretty pink tinting her cheeks.

“Did you have a good time?”

She gave an unsure smile. “It was…enlightening.”

He studied her face, trying to see whether “enlightening” was a bad thing or a good thing and decided from the lack of worry in her gaze that Ziritha must’ve helped him. He released a low breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. “Are you ready for your present?”

Lily tried to contain a wide grin and failed. “Yes.” She peered around him, clearly thinking it was here.

“I actually have two gifts for you.”

Her brows lifted in surprise. “Two?”

Verakko’s chest expanded in anticipation. “My mother called. Alex has been found.”

Her relaxed grin faded for a moment, and she searched his eyes, seeming dazed. “Really?” she said on a breath.

“Yes. She’s safe.”

Lily’s face broke into a glorious smile, and then she let out a soft sob, all of her anxiety seeming to go with it. Her eyes turned glassy. “She’s okay. Can we go see her? I need to talk to her.”

“She’s waiting for your call.” Verakko lifted his communicator.

Lily soundlessly held out her hands. Verakko connected the call and spoke to the male on the other end, then handed the communicator over to Lily when the male left to retrieve Alex.

Lily clutched the communicator and silently ran an apologetic hand down Verakko’s arm before dashing upstairs.

He gazed after her for long moments, his skin tingling from where she’d touched him and his heart full.

***

Lily vaulted onto the bed and held her breath, straining to listen. Come on, Alex.

“Hey there, Lilypad!” came Alex’s smooth voice.

“Al—” Lily began crying from happiness, her words strangled and incomprehensible.

“Oh, hey, don’t cry. I’m good.”

“What happened to you?” Lily choked out.

Alex let out a whistle. “Oh, dude, so much. You really need to get over here, or I need to get over there. I’m in Sauven right now, but I’m supposed to go to some other city pretty soon. Trema…Tremeada…I can’t remember what it’s called. I don’t even know where to start. I woke up on the shore of that river with a major headache. Pretty sure I had a concussion, and I spent I don’t know how many days just vomiting and sleeping. But that’s not the craziest thing that’s happened.”

“Tell me about it.” Lily chuckled, reminded of her current predicament with Verakko. “What else happened?”

“Lilypad…” Alex paused dramatically. “I’m freaking getting married!”

“What? When?” Lily was shocked, both at the news as well as the stab of envy she felt. But then a simmering anger set in. “Wait, are you being forced into a marriage?”

“Well…”

“Tell. Me. Everything.”

***

“Where are we going?” Lily asked for the third time.

He grinned down at her. The exuberant smile on her face had been immovable ever since she’d come downstairs. And it was contagious. “You’ll see.”

They walked down the hall to the restricted service elevator, and Verakko called it up, circumventing the alarm this time. It’d taken careful planning to make sure he’d be the only person able to access the one-hundredth floor, but a simple rescheduling of personnel in the buildings system would be enough to grant him a few hours without anyone being the wiser.

They stood waiting. Verakko felt a mixture of trepidation and hope at the furtive glances Lily kept leveling on him. His chest expanded at the thought that she may be coming around. A darker part of his mind reeled to think she may even let him touch her again today.

Her nostrils flared, and she turned toward him. “I missed that smell.”

“Am I doing it again?”

Lily only smiled. She moved in closer and lifted on her toes, then buried her face in the crook of his neck and inhaled. Verakko’s heart thundered, stomach growing tight and hands fisting at his sides to keep from pulling her to him. He should push her away until they were out of sight and in the elevator, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

She sighed on an exhale. “That house smells like super-strong flowers all the time. I don’t like it.”

He began to explain that it’d been Ziritha’s scent preference, when the faint sound of footsteps hit his ears. Lily gasped as he quickly pushed her away and urged her to walk down the hall, but it may have been too late.

A short female with long braided hair and a formal gown paused in the middle of the hallway, staring at them.

Lily stiffened, her intelligent eyes taking in the scene, and wisely put more space between them as they walked. The female began walking down