Page 39 of A Court So Dark
Varamede sneered, and for a moment, I thought he would refuse, but in the end, he gave the person to his right a nasty glare—though not nastier than the one he threw my way. The male jumped to his feet and vacated the seat in an instant, not a sign of hostility or embarrassment in his manner. Honestly, he simply looked relieved to escape.
Great!Now I had to sit between the two assholes, the same ones that others were glad to abandon in a hurry.
I did my best to look pleased and plastered a smile on my face, as the hip gyration continued, and I tried to convince myself I really wasn’t possessed by someone—maybe Shakira?— though I was starting to have my doubts. I figured I would know for sure if I broke into a full belly dance.
“I’m afraid oafish manners are contagious,” Cardian said as I sat down and static electricity zapped my arm from Varamede’s side.
My small hairs stood on end, but my expression revealed no discomfort. I had to give it to Dark Dani, she was kickass.
“Is that so?” I made a show of dusting myself off whatever cooties Varamede might have infected me with.
Cardian smiled, amused by my antics. “Yes,” he replied, “I forgot to send you a dinner invitation. Unforgivable.”
“Truly.”
“You are amusing, Ylannea. I like that.”
Crap, if I didn’t want the crown jester post, I needed to watch myself.
“Delighted to please,” I said, despite my reservations at being expected to entertain him with jokes.
He brandished a hand around, carelessly pointing toward my veil. “Why this again?”
I had been expecting the question, but when I leaned closer to whisper an answer, it wasn’t the one I’d discussed with Larina. “I wouldn’t want justanyoneto see my face.”
He narrowed his eyes distrustfully. “You allowed Kalyll’s goons to see it.”
Petty, petty, weren’t we?
I shrugged. “As of this morning, they were important. Not anymore.”
My answer seemed to satisfy him because there was a glint in his eyes as he let it sink in. No doubt, he was growing more confident by the second that I was a classic gold digger.
“So, what do you think of my little gathering?” he asked.
I let my eyes wander around the room, crinkling them as if I were smiling when in reality my mouth was suppressed into a thin line.
From what I’d observed so far, the display that stretched in front of me could only be called banal. I imagined this was how a political party at the White House would feel, or the Oscars ceremony. Everyone acting self-important while at the same time trying to see whose favor they could win or whose back they could stab in order to move up the food chain. It was a den of hyenas, and I was sitting next to the biggest, fattest one of them.
And while the doglike creatures sniffed each other’s butts, those who could later serve as fodder did their best to amuse them, like a crazy-looking Fae with the turquoise mane, wildly swinging his arms in front of the musicians, acting like their conductor.
“It is everything I imagined,” I said, my words holding no lie.
I’d heard the others talk about Cardian’s debauchery, and I wasn’t disappointed in the least.
“I am extremely glad to hear that. How about a little food and wine?”
“No, thank you.”
The food looked delicious, but there was the veil and the fact that I couldn’t help but think of the poor people slaving away in the kitchens, hustling to feed a bunch of freeloaders. And nothing to say of the phenomenal waste.
The more I got to know Cardian and his tendencies, the more I understood why it was imperative for Kalyll to return. True, by their laws, he wasn’t the rightful king, but there was nothingrightabout replacing him with this loathsome male, not even if his blood went back hundreds of years in a line of many Adanorin kings.
When he was done eating, Cardian stood and offered me his hand. Doing my best not to look as if I was about to throw up the moment I took his hand, I rose to my feet. The struggle not to draw out every bit of his life force was real. There was skin-to-skin contact now. Nothing any of his guards or his precious Varamede could do to stop me from turning him into a wilted dick, but I couldn’t do that. Not until I found out where he was keeping Kalyll.
Parading around like some sort of peacock, he guided me around the edges of the rooms, stopping here and there to look at the performers who overexerted themselves to please him, and then exhaled in relief when we moved on.
I found it difficult to understand how such a weak-looking male could cause such fear. He was about my height and build, and had no magical powers. He also didn’t possess Kalyll’s commanding presence, and nothing about him inspired anything but a desire to give him a wide berth.
