Page 5 of Vicious Fates and Vast Futures
Adi merely smiles sweetly and blanks the mirror.
Chapter Two
Bryn
The next morning, Adi asks me to accompany her on an errand. After a quick shower, we head out of our rooms. I can’t tell if she truly needs me for whatever she has planned or if she just wants to give Nairna and Ossy some alone time, but either way, I don’t mind following my devious little mate. Just the swaying of her long caramel curls over the back of her emerald dress is enough to make me hard. I’m afraid I’m quite addicted to her. And what a lovely addiction to have.
She leads me down a hallway in the royal wing. However, instead of stopping at the queen’s rooms, as I had expected, she knocks at a different door. Given that her one aunt is dead—by Adi’s own hand—and the other is MIA somewhere in Alaska, it can only be her inept father’s rooms.
Sure enough, a disheveled-looking Aidan answers the door on Adi’s third knock. Adi says nothing, simply slips inside his room through the small crack he’s not blocking with his body.
“Father,” she casually tosses over her shoulder.
He blinks, surprised, but quickly recovers his court manners. “Please, come in, Priestess. Bryn. Sit. Make yourselves comfortable.” He steps back so I can enter without shouldering past him.
Prince Aidan’s reception room is set up more like a living room, with large couches in a semicircle around a low coffeetable. A small wood stove stands on a stone hearth. I wonder if his rooms as a whole are small for his reception to be set up as such.
Aidan walks to a curio and pulls out three glasses and a decanter of bourbon. He brings them over and sets them on the coffee table.
Adi has plopped herself on one of the couches and tucked her feet up under her. I sit next to her and lean back, ankle on my knee. Theoretically, we can trust her father. I’ve never heard even a whisper of him being involved in any plotting or schemes. However, he’s cold as hell and never spends time with Adi. Obviously, I don’t care for him based on that alone. I would certainly never treatmychild that way.
He pours the bourbon and offers us both a glass. I swirl the rich amber liquid before taking a sip. Grabbing his own glass, Aidan settles on the couch across from us.
He takes a large drink, his eyes flicking around the room, refusing to settle on either of us. Eventually, he says slowly, “Adelaide. And what can I do for you?”
She raises a brow. “You’ve heard of what happened at the unseelie court?”
“Indeed.” A pause and he adds hastily, “I am thankful to hear of your recovery and that guard’s survival.”
There was quite a bit more to it than that, and my eyes narrow at his dismissive tone.
“Before my, and Bryn’s, magical imprisonment, King Barclay pulled me aside and told me a bit of gossip,” she says smoothly, letting her words sink in. “Do you have any idea what that might be,Father?”
I see sweat start to bead on his brow.
“No, Adelaide, I have no idea. As you well know, I generally stay out of court machinations.” His hands fiddle on his lap before he grabs his glass and downs the liquor.
I offhandedly wonder how much of a whipping boy he has been for his royal sisters. Doesn’t matter, really. He should have protected his daughter. And his wife. My disgust for the weak male grows.
Adi smiles easily and takes a sip of bourbon. She waits for her father to refill his cup and take a drink before she continues speaking.
“Barclay informed me that his wife murdered my mother.”
Aidan spits his drink all over the table as Adi and I quickly lean back. He coughs, trying to recover.
