Page 19 of A Court of Bones & Sorrow

Samara

I fixedmy features into a bemused, somewhat haughty expression as I entered the small dining hall several hours later. When it had become clear earlier that the Heirs wouldn’t be leaving any time soon, I’d excused myself and left Kieran and Alaric to deal with them while I’d arranged rooms for them to stay in.

Really, as the Heir, that wasn’t my responsibility—I should have asked Kieran to do that since he was a courtier of House Harker—but if I hadn’t left that room, I likely would have stabbed either Demetri or Draven.

Or both.

Once the rooms were ready, I’d returned and directed everyone to where they would be staying and threw out a time for when dinner would start. I was sure they’d been conspiring with each other after I’d left them to it, or maybe chatting with whatever spies they had in my House, but I was tired, and there wasn’t anything I could do about it at the moment.

Since then, I’d spent the remainder of the afternoon and early evening diving into all the paperwork that had piled up on my desk, enjoying the solitude and losing myself to themanagement of the House. Kieran had dropped off tea for me at one point but left me alone otherwise. I suspected he’d been busy speaking with Alaric, who had done his best to avoid looking at me.

I raised my eyebrow at Draven as I walked across the room. As the Moroi Prince, he should have chosen one of the seats at the head of the table, but instead, he’d chosen to sit to the right of it, with Alaric and Kieran sitting opposite. I’d invited Vail, but I wasn’t surprised to see he wasn’t here. He might have come if it had been just us and Draven, but once he’d learned the other Heirs would be joining us as well, he’d likely opted to stay away.

If only I had that option. I had no doubt this dinner was going to be a mixture of frustrating and awkward.

“Sorry, I’m late.” I took a seat at the head of the table. “I got caught up in some reports from the Riverfell outpost and lost track of time.” It wasn’t a lie. House Harker had almost half a dozen outposts that fell under our responsibility to protect, and I took that seriously.

“It’s fine. As you can see, the other Heirs are following the standard protocol of arriving at least ten minutes late to any social event,” Draven said smoothly. “This just gave me and your friends an opportunity to chat.”

“Oh?” I reached for a glass of wine. “Discuss anything interesting?”

“Just the standard topics that arise when running a House.” He cocked his head, his eyes never leaving mine. “Did you get up to anything interesting this afternoon? Was yourrestsufficient before the Heirs arrived?”

Both Kieran and Alaric snapped their gazes to the prince, but he just smiled.

“Would it kill you two to be less obvious?” I muttered.

Draven chuckled. “It seems when it comes to you, Kieran struggles to be subtle.” His eyes flitted briefly to Alaric. “And itappears he has similar issues. The three of you should be aware of that. It’s a weakness just waiting to be exploited, and you must know the other Heirs will jump at the chance.”

The muscles hardened along Alaric’s jawline as he swung to look back at me. I didn’t need to have the ability to read minds, because I knew his thought was,See? I told you this was a bad idea.

“How kind of you to warn us. We’ll make a note to practice our acting in the future.” I turned to face Draven and held my wine glass up in salute. “After werestof course. Very. Thoroughly. Rest.”

“You’re always a delight to play with.” Draven grinned. “I can’t wait to marry you.”

“She’s no—” Kieran started, but I cut him off with a glare, and his mouth clicked shut.

“As I said earlier, I’m considering your proposal, but you’re going to have to convince me. Something you’re not doing a very good job of at the moment.”

“I’d let you keep them.” Draven shrugged. His casual expression was betrayed by the way he carefully glanced at Kieran, who was currently looking at me. “Whatever makes you happy.”

Kieran stiffened, as if he knew who those words were really directed at. Just as I opened my mouth to tell Draven where he could shove his offer, the other Heirs flowed into the room and took their seats at the table. Only Demetri slowed at seeing Draven sitting next to me instead of at one of the head seats. His eyes hardened as he sat next to Alaric. The other two Heirs sat across from him, with Aniella next to Draven and Ary next to her.

“Did you see the report from the Riverfell outpost, Ary?” I asked. Even though the outpost was in Harker territory, I knew the Tepes Heir liked to keep track of all monster attacks in the Moroi realm. A door swung open before he could answer,several members of the staff carrying in plates, setting them in front of us, and then leaving without a word. Though a dark-haired young girl caught my eye on the way out, arching an eyebrow before scurrying after the others.

I hid my grin. Olena. She absolutely loved to gossip and had probably been delighted to be working tonight. I’d need to find her tomorrow morning and see if there were any interesting rumors circulating about the prince’s or Heirs’ visits here.

“Fish.” Draven sighed happily. “You coastal houses have it so lucky.”

Alaric frowned at the slap of white fish meat on his plate. “You get sick of it after a while.”

“No, you don’t,” Kieran and I said at the same time. Then we grinned at each other as Alaric rolled his eyes.

“I agree with Draven.” Aniella shoved in a mouthful and closed her eyes as she thoughtfully chewed. “We never get fish so far inland. It’s all root vegetables or questionable meat I choose not to think about. Maybe some fresh fruit in the summer months.”

“To answer your previous question, Samara,” Ary said, “I did see the report. I’m not sure if you’ve had a chance to review the history of that particular outpost, but?—”

“They had similar incidents last year,” I interrupted, “which means this problem isn’t going to just go away.”

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