Page 125 of A Reign of Roses
“Poor Red.” Ryder hummed. “Too brainy and cute. The boys had no idea what to do with themselves.”
I fought the urge to roll my eyes. I had no doubt Ryder and Halden would have aided the little creeps in filling Mari’s lunch pail with snails.
“If I’d been there,” Ryder continued, “I bet we could have taken them.”
Griffin wasn’t smiling. “If I’d been there, they’d have been butchered.”
Mari’s eyes went wide as she peered up at him. Ironically, outside of his armor Griffin looked a little stiff. Like a lion in a dress suit, attempting to sip from a chalice without crushing it.
Barney’s eyes might have gone even wider. “These were six-year-olds.”
“I said what I said,” Griffin replied.
“Is that how you first met?” I asked Dagan. “When you found her under there?”
Dagan nodded, sipping his wine. “Quite the first impression.”
“Dagan asked me to dance with him when we first met,” Briar said from across the table. “Do you remember? You looked very handsome in that velvet jacket.”
Dagan loosed a wry smile as he chewed. But there was something a little somber wending through his eyes at the memory, too.
I shot a sidelong glance at Kane, who only listened gently, as if he’d heard the story before.
“At the Lumerian Solstice.” Briar smiled. “He’d been the seventh man to ask, but the first one I said yes to.”
I couldn’t help myself. “You werecourtingBriar?”
“No,” Dagan said around a bite of meat. “I was foolishly trying to make someone jealous.”
“Who?” Mari asked, her russet eyes lighting. Nothing—truly,nothing—would ever curb Mari’s ravenous curiosity.
Dagan took another sip of wine. “My wife.”
The air left my lungs in one single breath. Kane entwined his hand in mine.
“Of course,” Dagan said down to his dinner, “she wasn’t my wife at the time. I’d only hoped.”
Dagan never spoke of his wife or infant daughter, both of whom had been killed by Lazarus. The memory sent my dinner crawling back up my throat and I reached for a glass of cool water.
Briar saved us all the same train of thought by adding, “I might’ve fallen in love had you not been a little young for me.” Her violet eyes twinkled.
I breathed out a quiet laugh as Ryder and Barney both leaned imperceptibly toward her. Briar tucked a pitch-black slice of hair behind her ear demurely.
“And yet,” Kane drawled, questioning eyes on the sorceress, “you apparentlydancedquite a bit with the young rebel king, Hart Renwick.”
Despite her dry laugh, I knew my cheeks had gone red. I wasn’t even sure why. Briar didn’t strike me as a woman who had been embarrassed once in her life.
“He’s only fifty years younger than you two.” She motioned to Kane and Griffin. “And very charming.”
Hart’s dazzling smile popped into my mind. “He seems a bit of a…”
“Whore?” Kane offered.
“I was going to sayfree spirit.”
“He is,” Briar agreed. “Both. I wonder how he’ll take his impending nuptials.”
“He’s betrothed?” I asked. “To who?”
