Page 64 of The Twisted Throne

He made a noncommittal noise, ignoring the grins of the regulars as she led him toward the stairs. They were too narrow to walkup side by side, and Elsie slipped behind him, fingers toying with his belt as they climbed. As they reached the top, she slid around him and then pushed him against the wall, full breasts pressing against his chest. “Miss me, Jamie?”

She stretched up on her tiptoes to kiss him, and James turned his head so that her lips landed on his jaw. “Is he back?”

She was silent for a long moment. “You’re not to meet for another week.”

“Can’t wait.”

“And here I thought you’d come to your senses and abandoned all that nonsense about not mixing business and pleasure.”

“It was never just pleasure for you, Elsie,” he said. “It’s always been business.”

She’d been his lover for almost a year before he’d learned she was also an agent of his uncle, and he’d never forgiven the deception despite understanding the necessity.

Sighing, Elsie said, “True. But I miss your fingers almost as much as I miss your cock, Jamie. Not yet found anyone who quite measures up.”

“My condolences. Now, is he here or not?”

She huffed out a breath. “Yeah.”

Twisting away, Elsie led him down the hallway, and then used the key in her skirt pocket to unlock the usual door. Closing and locking it behind them, she edged past the bed to a door that led to the neighboring room, knocking her knuckles against it. “He’s a week early, Cormac.”

A lock flipped on the far side, the door swinging open. Elsie flopped backward onto the bed, glaring at James as he walked through the door, shutting it behind himself.

Only to find a knife blade pressed against his throat. “It’s me, Uncle.”

Amber eyes framed by deep crow’s-feet bored into his for a long moment before his uncle lowered the blade. “We make plans for a reason, boy. There are a good number of people in this kingdom who’d be happy to see me dead.”

“I think you know why it couldn’t wait.”

His uncle grunted, moving across the room to the pair of chairs where he held court with his network of agents and spies. He was as big as James was himself, though age had stooped his shoulders and grayed his hair.

“It’s about the woman, I assume.”

“Was it you?”

Cormac sat in his chair, legs stretched out in front of him. “Yes.”

Fury raged through him, his suspicions confirmed, and James balled his hands into fists as he struggled to keep from lashing out. “I said I’d take care of it.”

“Aye.” His uncle toyed with an amulet of the family constellation around his neck, the only nod to astromancy that he kept on his person while in Harendell. Even wearingonewas bold. Cardiffians had been burned at the stake for less, albeit usually women. “But you haven’t, have you? You got complacent in the years when it seemed Ithicana wouldn’t give their princess up. All words of certainty that your father wanted this alliance as much as we do, that good King Eddie would break the betrothal if it came to it, but you were wrong. Quick like a fox, he sent you to retrieve the princess, and it was all,Uncle, I’ll deal with it. The marriage won’t happen.Yet lo and behold, who arrives in that carriage with you but those long legs I saw in Sableton.”

“And you thought that gave you license to send assassins into my family home to kill her?” James was shaking, every part of him demanding violence, unable to forget the image of Ahnna lying limp in his arms.

His uncle shrugged. “Thought I was doing you a favor.”

“By assassinating Aren Kertell’s twin sister beneath our roof? Do you have any idea the fallout that would come from her death?”

“What fallout? Ithicana thinks Katarina has murder in her heart, and with the pretty picture we painted, they’d have believed the third time was the charm. But word is that it was you who fucked it all up. Makes me wonder if you are getting cold feet, boy. Makes me wonder if you’re turning your back on your mother’s blood in favor of the snake charmers to the south.”

James’s anger burned hotter. “Fuck you, Uncle. I’ve dedicated my life to making things right between Cardiff and Harendell. To seeing my mother’s dream made reality.”

“Aye, and there was a time when Eddie took these meetings with me, insisting that his life’s work would be to see Siobhan’s dream made reality, yet it seems time heals even shattered hearts. Your father appears content to play both sides, promising the same thing to two different kings.”

James growled, “He’s promised Ithicana nothing but a marriage. And it won’t happen. William isn’t going to marry her. He can’t stand her, and you know Alexandra’s views on the matter.”

“Thenwhyis the princess here? Why is Eddie claiming a marriage is imminent?”

“Because he’s concerned that if we send her back, Aren will use her to make an alliance with Katarina. Wed her to the crown prince.”

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