Page 45 of Crown of Darkness
“Later,” she promises with a nod toward our audience.
“Welcome to our friends from Evernight,” Lucere calls. She gestures to her retainers, who leap forward to take our horses. “Please come. We have refreshments prepared. And Prince Kyrian is already arrived. He will be joining us shortly.”
Thiago makes a great show of moving to lift me down.
“I can do it myself, you know?”
His hands come to rest upon my waist, and there’s a twinkle in his eyes. “Maybe I just enjoy touching you?”
He lifts me down easily, and as the toes of my slippers touch the ground, I rest my hands on his shoulders.
“I think you’re going out of your way to play the gallant.”
He tucks my hand through the curve of his arm as he turns to face the prince and princess of Ravenal. “Maybe I’m merely enjoying the fact I no longer have to hide my affection for you when we’re in public.”
Nobody’s fooling anybody.
He’d said Ravenal would be a snake pit, so I let him play the surly, protective overlord. “Would you like me to simper at you?”
He laughs under his breath. “What’s that going to cost me?”
“Everything.”
“You already have everything I own. My lands. My heart. My soul.”
Very smooth.
“Prince Thiago,” Prince Corvin greets, though he waits for us the climb the stairs—like supplicants. “I see you’ve made good time through the Hallow. They’re so unpredictable these days.”
“Corvin,” Thiago replies with the tilt of his head. “My condolences on the loss of your great-grandmother.”
The Prince of Ravens’s smile thins. “She is with Kato now. His judgement shall allow her to pass onto the Bright Lands. Or not.”
“And the Princess of Asturia,” Corvin says, his dark eyes glittering as he takes my hand from Thiago’s arm and lifts it to his lips. “Beautiful enough to bring two countries to war and an entire Alliance to the brink of shattering.”
I tug my fingers from his hand with the faintest arch of my brow. “If you knew my mother at all, you would understand I was merely the pawn she used to give herself an excuse to march.”
“And she is the Princess of Evernight now,” Thiago corrects with a dangerous edge to his voice as he replaces my hand on his forearm. “You would do well to remember that.”
“Either way, my beloved great-grandmother is dead, and Ravenal stands without its queen. Wedoremember that, Prince Thiago.”
His sister, Lucere, claps her hands as if she wishes to draw attention to herself. “Ah, but Corvin…. Great-grandmother would have chided your manners. These are our guests, and we have given them poor welcome.”
Stepping forward, she rests her hands on Thiago’s shoulders and reaches up to brush a kiss to his cheek that manages to completely pretend I don’t exist. “It’s been too long, Thiago. You are most welcome here. And you always will be.”
I look at Eris.
Did she just—?
Eris rubs her mouth and then turns the gesture into a finger drawn sharply across her throat. She, at least, agrees.
“Thank you,” he says, lifting my hand. “Iskvien and I are most thrilled to partake of your hospitality.”
He turns to me, and now I have to pretend the bitch didn’t just practically invite him into her chambers.
“Princess Lucere.” I smile and nod, but I don’t bow.
She’s not a queen yet.
