Page 104 of Rise of the Vicious Princess

“Charis?” Vahn stood beside her.

She straightened. “Shall we have lunch?”

“Not yet.” He placed a hand on her arm, and then removed it when she seared him with a look. “I’ve heard so much about you. I almost feel like I know you already, but I can assure you our spies’ reports failed to do you justice.”

“Did they, now?”

“It’s almost as though they wanted me to be less interested in you than you deserve.”

“That makes no sense.”

He smiled, and the knowing look in his eyes sent a thrill of unease up the back of her spine. “This betrothal was your idea, wasn’t it?”

“It was.”

“And you aren’t the kind of person who backs out of her agreements, are you?” He said it as though he was certain of her answer.

She lifted her chin. “I am not.”

He looked from her to Tal, his smile sharpening. Charis didn’t dare follow his gaze. If she looked at Tal’s face knowing the Penbyrns expected her to say her vows this afternoon, she would break. Shatter right there in front of her enemy. There would be no coming back from that. No way to regain the upper hand in their relationship; and so she kept her eyes firmly on Vahn.

“Then let me do something for you, because I am assured that you are nothing if not loyal to your duty and your word.” He looked at her again, a cruel light of mischief in his eyes. “We’ll call it a wedding gift.”

“I want nothing from you.”

“Oh, you want this.” He leaned closer. “You see, I am also a man of honor. I keep my word.”

Her eyes narrowed as she waited for him to continue.

“You don’t want to get married today, do you?” He looked at Tal again. “That came as quite a shock to you both.”

It was unnerving how easily he seemed to read Tal. Worse, how easily he read her. He’d mentioned spies. Did he have someone in the palace? Someone who’d observed how close she’d become with Tal?

“I’m waiting for an answer, Your Highness.” There was a faint sheen of mockery to his words, and Charis took her turn baring her teeth in a venom-tipped smile of her own. He thought he was going to negotiate their wedding date and hold that over her head, did he? She’d rip that leverage away from him in one fell swoop.

“No, I don’t want to get married today. I don’t have my wedding dress yet. And in Calera, we have a series of important traditions that must take place before a royal wedding. If you expect to be acknowledged as my true husband, and therefore as a true king in Calera, those traditions cannot be skipped.” She shrugged delicately. “Of course, if you don’t care about being seen as anything more than a consort, we can marry this afternoon. I will ascend to Calera’s throne either way. I’m simply offering you the benefit of true power rather than a lifetime spent in its shadow.”

His smile slipped. “Is that true?”

“Would I lie to you? You seem to know so much about me. I’m sure the topic of my truthfulness and honor must have come up.”

He looked at the floor as if thinking, and then met her eyes again, his unnerving smile back in place. “We’ll postpone it to the spring, then. But understand this.” He leaned closer, his tone dripping with courtesy. “When we marry, you are mine in every sense of the word. I don’t share.”

His gaze slid to Tal and then back to her. “I take what’s mine, and I punish those who step out of line.”

“How lovely,” Charis said with as much icy enthusiasm as she could pack into the words. “I keep what’s mine, and those who cross me find their heads removed from their bodies.”

He laughed. “You do delight me, Charis. This will be no dull union. Let’s retire to the luncheon, your faithful bodyguard in tow—how do you train them to be so silent? It’s refreshing—and we can upset my father’s digestion by telling him our plans to wait until spring so that I can be a true king of Calera and you can . . . prepare to be mine alone.”

He placed his hand against her back and ushered her toward the door. She stepped to the side to break his hold on her, and his smile widened. As she passed Tal, she risked a quick glance at him.

Tal’s eyes burned with fury, and pain flashed across his face when their gazes locked. She let her own pain show for an instant, and then as she turned away, she let rage fill the ache within her, burning through her fear and her loneliness until all that remained was her duty to Calera and her refusal to let Vahn and Alaric see her break.

Thirty-Eight

SHE’D DONE IT.

Three outfit changes with flawless hairstyles from a subdued, miserable Tal, who did his best to give her the strength it took to face the Penbyrns again and again. A luncheon, an afternoon horseback ride, a formal dinner with a few hand-selected noble families, and a dance that had nearly been Charis’s breaking point.

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