Page 377 of Kingdoms of Night

Viridi shook his head. “I haven’t even seen another dryad beyond our tribe and this lot we’re spending time with tonight. I need to travel to the other tribes again soon.”

But of course, he couldn’t. This was all fanciful dreaming. Flexing his dangerous fingers, he swallowed the bitter taste on his tongue.

Felix gripped his upper arm, concern flashing through his gaze. “You can still hope for love, Viridi. Don’t stop hoping.”

Dew dropped out of a tree and both of them gasped. Hanging by her legs, her leaf-tunic rumpling, she laughed.

“How do you travel through the trees like that?” Viridi was very glad she’d interrupted the conversation. “I feel like I should know how.”

“It’s not just princes and kings who make the trees sing,” Dew said in her melodic voice. “This is where I leave you. Have a mug of something spicy for me!”

In a shuffle of leaves, she was gone.

“I wish she’d feast with us. Just once. I bet she’d enjoy it.” Felix studied a cut on his palm, evidence of the growing work they’d been doing in the east. It was a difficult magic by itself and when one combined that with manual labor, it was surprising Felix was even up to enjoying tonight’s festivities.

“I’ve tried to talk her into it, but it’s no good,” Viridi said, a heaviness settling over his chest. It made sense that Dew wanted nothing to do with being in Father’s presence, but that fact alienated her.

In three circles around the feasting area, dryad fires flickered a bright green. Rom had his lyre out and was spilling music into the night, his fingers so incredibly fast. Wearing their finest pine branch coronets, the women danced in pairs. They wove through a ring of men with oaken circlets. It was the summer binding dance, a tradition that helped the tribe bond. Members of the Longleaves tribe had joined in due to the growing project on the eastern shore. The two tribes, both sworn to Prince Viridi and his father the king, had been working hard to repair damage to the island due to the torrential rains they’d had last moon.

Father strode into the green glow of the dryad fires. “Ah. Our star-blessed prince arrives.”

Viridi sighed. “Father, greetings.” He bowed his head submissively.

Father embraced him roughly, then gave Felix a tight smile. Viridi knew Father was envious of the closeness between Viridi and Felix. “I have a gift for you, my son. A gift worthy of the Thorned One.”

The others gathered around, their voices going quiet and their eyes on Viridi as unease spread over his body like a winter’s chill.

Father’s surprises were never pleasant and always public.

Extending a hand, Father raised his voice. “We have a new arrival to our lands here on the western coast.”

A young woman with amethyst eyes walked out of the shadows. She moved gracefully, the dryad power in her obvious from the way the leaves shuffled at her passing.

“I think Helena would make a wonderful companion for you this night, Prince Viridi,” Father said.

Viridi’s chest tightened, but it had nothing to do with the young girl. She was hardly more than a youngling, and the thought of what Father might have said to her about Viridi’s need for a mate summoned a roaring anger inside him. She and her family would have expectations now, expectations he would have to shatter.

But he didn’t want to scare or further embarrass the girl, so he bowed respectfully and gave her a smile. She curtseyed, sending a shimmer of emerald magic toward him in a strong display of fealty. He took her arm, and before Father could make even more of a spectacle, escorted her away from the crowd and toward the farthest dryad fire circle.

“I am pleased to spend this feasting time with you,” he said, giving her a cup of whatever the servants were handing out on trays. “But I must be honest right away to spare us both from further pain. I do not feel a mating bond with you or anyone here. I never have. I apologize for my father and his … misplaced enthusiasm.”

She drank her mug down and looked around nervously. “I am sorry for any trouble, My Prince.”

“It’s not your fault, and it’s no trouble anyway. Would you like to dance?”

She grinned prettily, and the anger toward his father flared again as he took her hand and led her through the simple steps of the Moon Dance, a tradition they all learned as younglings.

Felix trotted over and joined in with a group of three others, lightening the mood nicely.

Across the flickering light of the fires, Father watched them very closely.

Tension bunched the muscles around Viridi’s shoulders. He tore his gaze away to focus on his friends. He couldn’t control Father. The king reigned in full. But as Viridi’s power grew, he would be able to sway Father. Hopefully, he would know what to do when the time came and fate rapped hard on his door.

CHAPTERTHREE

ISA

Isa hoisted the water bucket higher onto her arm and passed Seigneur and Dame Brune as they talked at the helm.

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