Page 93 of The Twisted Throne

“She’s fine,” Aren retorted. “And you overstep.”

“It’s you who oversteps.” James angled his blade, forcing the other man’s chin up. “You are a foreign king on Harendell’s soil without permission from the crown, which is grounds enough for me to take action. Made far worse by your choice to threaten a lady of Harendell’s court.”

“She’s my goddamned sister, and I didn’t threaten her.”

So he said, yet Ahnna’s distress was obvious, the reason not something either of them appeared willing to admit.

“While in Harendell, Ahnna ismineto protect,” James said, voice low and dangerous. “You will not approach her without an appointment and approval from the crown, which you do not have, Your Grace.”

Aren’s eyes narrowed, but before he could answer, Ahnna said, “Enough. Both of you.” Her hand closed on James’s arm, moving his blade away from her brother’s throat. “It was just a conversation. It was nothing important.”

James didn’t believe that for a heartbeat.

“Go,” he said to Ithicana’s king. “Get out of my city and back to Ithicana, or we will have a problem.”

“I think we already do,” Aren replied, then his eyes flicked to Ahnna. “Get your head on straight.”

When she didn’t answer, he gave an angry shake of his head, then strode out of the hallway.

James waited for the sound of his boots to disappear into the din, then sheathed his sword and stepped close to Ahnna. “Are you all right?”

The light was dim, but he could see she was pale, eyes swollen from crying. “I’m fine. You shouldn’t have done that.”

James didn’t agree. “He upset you.”

“Yes.” Her throat moved as she swallowed. “But maybe I deserved it.”

“What did he want?”

She only shook her head. Keeping Aren’s secrets. Ithicana’s secrets. Her own secrets. He could see her regaining control, her breathing steadying as she smoothed her hair and straightened her skirts. Then she asked, “Who is Elsie?”

Shock radiated through him, and without stopping to think, he demanded, “Who told you about Elsie? William?”

“It’s common knowledge, apparently.”

Which was exactly how he’d intended it to be. For no one to ever question his regular visits to Thistleford because men like him were supposed to have women like Elsie. But faced with Ahnna believing he had a mistress, James found himself feeling sick to his stomach over how that would change things between them.

But not so sick that he lost reason, for the last thing he needed was anyone questioning his absences.

“A woman I used to take up with. Now she’s just a friend.” James grimaced. “I need to be away from court sometimes. To be around normal folk who have some decency to them.”

“You can do what you like,” she said. “You aren’t betrothed to anyone. I only wondered why you’d never mentioned her.”

“Mistresses are not appropriate conversation topics,” he said, though the answer in his heart was,There is no one who will ever measure up to you.

Ahnna gave a soft laugh, but there was no humor in her eyes. “When did it end? Before or after?”

He needed no clarification of what she meant. “Does it matter?”

“Yes.” She stepped closer, looking up at him. “Because it tells me what sort of man you are.”

Lie,logic screamed at him. But James said, “It ran its course before I left for Northwatch.”

And from the moment Ahnna had knocked him off the deck of theDefiant,his heart had known no one but her. Part of him wondered if it ever would.

Ahnna’s shoulders sagged. “I’m sorry. It’s not my business. You should do as you like. It’s better if you do.”

For reasons James couldn’t articulate, her words were a punch to the stomach, and he uttered the first thing he could think of to keep her from pulling away. “Your horse is sound, so you can ride him again. It will make the tedium of the Sky Palace more bearable.”

---