Page 50 of Crown of Darkness
“Your Highness?” asks the blond, offering to continue.
“Thank you.” I don’t bother with a smile. “But I think I’m going to get some wine.”
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Chapter Nine
“They make a stunning couple,” says a voice from behind me. “A ray of light gleaming beneath the stars, and a dark lord garbed in strict black. One can almost imagine a painting done thusly.”
I almost slosh my wine over my hand.Curse it. “Prince Corvin, do you dabble with paints?”
Corvin settles at my side, his eyes upon his sister and my husband. “No. Though I have an appreciation for beauty.”
Eris appears out of nowhere. “That’s just you looking in the mirror, Corvin.”
“Ah, the sweet Eris.” Corvin leans his shoulder against the arch we’re standing beneath. “As diplomatic as ever.”
“You want to fight? Then I’ll go get my blade,” she says. “You want to fuck? Then just say it plainly. I need a good laugh. And I don’t pretend to be anything other than what I am.”
Their eyes meet.
And Corvin smiles. “I forget how refreshing you are. It’s like a glass of icy water dashed into one’s face.”
“And you’re as smooth as Finn’s ass. You lie through your teeth, flirt with one woman even while your eyes are watching another, and can’t be trusted an inch.”
“And yet, I’m not the one who betrayed his oath.” Corvin surveys the dance floor as he sips his wine. “It’s rather bold of Thiago to stroll back in here with a wife on one arm as if nothing ever happened.”
I straighten. “Excuse me?”
“She speaks,” he taunts.
But it’s Eris he should be watching, because she’s glaring murder at him. “Don’t listen to a word he says.”
Corvin holds his hands up in innocence. “It’s not as though I’m lying, am I?”
Eris shuts her mouth.
What, by the Erlking’s cock, is he talking about? “Perhaps youshouldexplain.”
“Didn’t you know there was once talk my sister would marry your husband?” He smiles pleasantly and tips the wine to his lips as he gestures to the dance floor. “Negotiations had begun, and it had been arranged for the two of them to meet at the Queensmoot almost… oh, thirteen years ago, wasn’t it? Except when my sweet sister Lucere arrived at the Queensmoot, he was already dancing with another and he couldn’t tear his eyes from the woman in his arms.”
Me.
“Lucere shouldn’t have presumed the deal was done,” Eris growls. “They were only to meet. Thiago never agreed to anything more.”
It’s real?
“She’s hated you ever since, did you know?” Corvin says quite pleasantly. “She thinks you stole him from her.” Leaning closer, he whispers in my ear, “So I wouldn’t drink anything Lucere gives you tonight, my sweet. Just in case.”
I don’t drink anything that isn’t poured in front of me, courtesy of the drugged wine my mother would give me before she cursed me. “I wasn’t planning to.”
His smile seems a little satisfied. Eris is right. This bastard likes to play games.
But we need his alliance. “I’m sorry for your great-grandmother’s death. My mother betrayed us all.”
“Oh, I’m not.” He tosses a coin in one hand, and I have no idea where he got it from. “Nor is anyone else here in Ravenal. The old bitch starved us for years, and now we can finally feast. She deserved to die.”
I can see the look on Lucidia’s face as the bane sprang upon her from behind, his jaws clamping over the back of her head as he crushed her skull. “Not like that, she didn’t.”
