Page 27 of Court of Lies and Deceit

“What?” Lyra shrugs, a grin still on her mouth. “The guy’s dead. It’s not like he’s going to miss it.”

While Galen groans again and lets out a breath of amusement, Lyra winks and then disappears into the kitchen. The sound of clinking glasses drifts through the open doorway a few seconds later.

I turn to Alistair and arch an eyebrow. “I thought you blew up all the alcohol.”

“I didn’t blow it up,” Alistair says with a huff. Though there is slight embarrassment hiding underneath his scowl as he crosses his arms. “I just… accidentally set it on fire.”

“It was a pretty loud bang.” I raise my hands. “Just saying.”

He draws his eyebrows down farther. “Yeah, well, you try setting the fire next time, Soulstealer.”

“Alright,” Lyra announces before I can reply. “Victory drinks!”

She saunters back into the living room with two tall stacks of drinking glasses gripped in the palm of one hand and the bottle in her other. Galen sucks in a sharp breath between his teethand lurches up from the couch. Darting forward, he grabs the two stacks that were tilting precariously and rescues them before they can topple to the floor and fill the room with broken glass.

“Azaroth’s flame, Lyra,” Galen begins, sounding exasperated, as he sets the glasses down on the low table. “You do know that you don’t have to make every activity into an extreme sport, right?”

“Tsk.” She flashes him another grin. “My grandma always says that living on the edge is much more fun that living responsibly.”

“Yeah, well, your grandma is crazy.”

“How do you know? You haven’t even met her.”

“She’s related to you. That’s all the proof I need.”

I smile as they continue bickering while Lyra pours dark red wine into the water glasses that Galen has now position in front of everyone. Then my eyes slide to Draven, and a pang hits me right in the heart.

There is an awful mix of both hurt and desperate longing on his face as he watches the two of them. The sight of it makes my chest tighten. This kind of friendship and familial love is what he could’ve had. What heshould’vehad. But because the Icehearts trapped him with dragon steel and forced him to do their bidding, he lost two centuries of friendship. Two hundred years of being treated as a traitor by the people he was trying to protect. And now, none of them seem to know how to act around each other.

Draven starts slightly, and his gaze darts to me, as if he could feel me watching him. In a heartbeat, he wipes the forlorn expression off his features and instead gives me a smile. I force myself to smile back, as if nothing is wrong, because I know that he didn’t want anyone to see what he was really feeling. But inside, my heart aches for him.

“Now then,” Lyra says, setting the now empty wine bottle down on the table with a thud and raising her full glass. “To victory.”

Couches creak and clothes rustle as the rest of us quickly reach for the glasses on the table. Only Isera remains standing immobile by the wall. Her blue and silver eyes are as cool and sharp as always as she watches us lift the glasses.

“To victory!” Lyra repeats, even more forcefully.

“To victory,” we all echo with a smile while holding our glasses in the air. There is something infectious about Lyra’s joy.

I take a sip of wine, and almost cough it back up. Slapping a hand in front of my mouth, I forcibly swallow the mouthful of alcohol. A shudder rolls down my spine. The wine is incredibly dry and almost… bitter.

While checking to make sure that Lyra hasn’t noticed, I carefully set the glass back down on the table.

“Does anyone else feel like this was way too easy?” Galen suddenly asks while everyone else sets down their glasses too.

Lyra shoots him an incredulous look. “Dude, I literally just saidto victory. You couldn’t wait two more minutes or something before you start with the grumpy gloom and doom comments?”

He shoots her a half-offended look back. “What? Someone had to say it.”

“I agree with Galen,” Draven says before Lyra can reply. “It was a lot easier than I expected it to be.”

Both of them turn to him in surprise. I slide my gaze to him as well, but there is nothing left of the painful emotions on his face. Now, there is only an expression of calm authority on his features. Just like always. And now that I know about the dragon steel, I suddenly understand why he has trained himself to expertly block out emotions.

“But you know as well as I do,” he continues. “Unseelie fae always honor the bargains they make. They saved Selena, and now we have killed this Wolfstalker guy. Orion is expecting us to deliver this news at dawn. Once we have, our deal is done. We have what we came for, and Orion got what he wanted.”

Alistair sits up straighter. “And then we can leave.”

Draven slides his gaze to him. “Yes.”

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