Page 17 of Flameborne: Fury
I blinked. Apparently, I hadn’t been as inscrutable as I thought. “I apologize if I’ve cooled the air, Your Majesty. But perhaps it is because the King has unexpectedly pulled me awayfrom my very real duties to babysit royals and nobles? It’s hardly my domain.”
She only smiled at that, which was suspicious. I frowned down at her and waited for her to meet my eyes—then skitter away again.
“What is it?” I growled.
“What?”
“What aren’t you telling me? Why did he insist I be here for this?”
The dance demanded that I pull her into a turn then, so she waited until we’d slowed before answering. “Donavyn, you’re here to beimpressive,of course,” she said with a playful wink.
“Don’t do that,” I muttered.
“Do what?”
“Simper at me like I’m one of your geldings. Tell me the truth.”
Diaan turned her head slowly to one side, then the other, as if it were part of the dance, but I knew she scanned to see how close the other couples were.
“You’re our Battle Commander, Donavyn,” she said quietly. “Alexi wanted you here to remind these fuckers who they’re dealing with.” All playful, jolly brightness had faded from her tone. She returned to the cunning, predatory smile. But there was a low tone of warning underneath it as well.
“Is there something I should know?” I asked carefully. “Is that why Alexi practically thrust you into my arms?”
I regretted the phrasing immediately when her eyebrows shot up and her lips curled suggestively. I grunted, but thankfully she didn’t voice the thought she had. Instead, she cleared her throat and casually looked off to the side to scan the dance floor as we turned.
“Diann, speak. Are you playing messenger tonight?” The King and Queen, despite their disregard for the sanctity ofmarriage, were a tightly-knit team. No one penetrated their loyalty to each other’s power—and any enemy who thought to would learn they’d been foolish.
“When there’s something to know, Alexi will make certain you’re aware.”
I knew it. All those mismatched and conflicting intelligence reports swam to my mind. “If there’s a threat I haven’t been warned about, we should be preparing on thechance—”
“You’re fully informed, Donavyn. This isn’t about known threats. This is about the dance.”
I frowned. “What dance?”
“Oh, don’t tell me you don’t understand the dance, Donavyn. You’re incredibly light on your feet. It’s just one more of your impressive traits.”
I had to twirl her again, teeth clenched to hide my scowl until she’d returned to the circle of my arms—and leaned in far to close.
I increased my steps and stiffened my arms to widen the space between us.
Diaan sighed. “Don’t get stern, Donavyn. You’re doing exactly as you should. Alexi is a strategist. There’s no known threat, but you and I both know that fog shrouds the landscape. So, he’s gathered all these established trees in the same spot to try and shake something out of their branches. You’re here to remind them what will befall them if they cling too tightly to the secrets hidden in their leaves.”
I grunted, but danced on. I’d known Alexi was up to something the moment he announced he’d planned this summit. Usually these events were planned a year in advance. Not mere days.
“How is the female Furyknight progressing?” Diaan asked casually.
An image of Bren, grabbing for me, pulling me into that kiss, bloomed in my head and I was struck with the dual bolts of desire and self-loathing. I cleared my throat and my mind.
“She’ll face the third Trial very soon,” I murmured. “She’s almost there. Much closer than she thinks.”
Diaan brightened. “Oh good! You’ve done well with her.”
“She’s done well. I’ve merely made sure she had what she needed to fulfill her purpose,” I muttered.
Diaan looked at me intently, long enough that I couldn’t ignore it and was forced to drop my chin and meet her eyes. “What?”
“You have no idea how unique it is that you even think of such things, do you?”
