Chapter 24 #2
He sighed. “I’ll send you something detailing our most important relationships with foreign courts, but the main point of interest is that Queen Briar sent letters to both me and Hector today.
She’s decided to pledge her troops to our cause regardless of who leads our joint army.
The soldiers are already on the march—they’ll be here by the end of the month.
” He eyed me. “Is that what you wanted to hear?”
I was glad to know this would no longer be a proxy war for Elsmere, but there was also a dismayed tumbling in my stomach.
If Briar had only promised to support Hector, the decision would have been made for me.
“That’s a good thing,” I said, hoping he didn’t see the conflict on my face. “And Grimveld’s troops?”
“Also on the move, if Gweneira is correct. They must have spies in Briar’s court.”
Two armies marching towards us, five houses at odds and one abstaining…and only twenty days left. I needed to make my decision soon so our side could unite under one leader. “And Earth House?” I asked, trying not to panic. “I’ve noticed you spending more time with Rhiannon since Hector’s party.”
He tipped his head, making the golden powder dusting his copper hair glitter in the candlelight. The too-familiar scent of cinnamon and smoke wafted towards me. “Rhiannon is…receptive to my arguments.”
That sounded like a euphemism. “Your arguments or your seduction?”
“Jealous?” he purred.
“Judgmental.”
Again, my answer made his smile slip. “You sound like—” He shook his head, and his grin returned. “Rhiannon would rather shove me off a cliff than be seduced by me. At least in the sense that you mean it.”
“And how do I mean it?”
He rolled his shoulders, sending more of that spicy scent my way.
I despised the memories that rose with it—of hot skin and strong hands, of a curtain of fire and the soaring joy that had briefly made me believe in happy endings.
“You imagine me constantly stripping off my clothes to achieve my ends, when that’s the least part of it,” he said.
“Most of those I bring to our cause are seduced by other desires. Rhiannon wants Earth House to use its voice, and she wants vengeance for those she’s lost, and she wants whatever power she can grab, because she imagines—rightly, in my opinion—that she’ll wield it better than most.”
Most of those I bring to our cause are seduced by other desires.
Was there a path to his aims where I hadn’t fallen for him?
Or had he sensed the vulnerability in me immediately, the desperate desire to be cared for?
“Do you think to entice her away from Hector’s side?
” I asked, feeling that split emotion again—the allure of his honesty, the pain of not liking the truth.
“A faerie like Rhiannon does not need to be enticed,” he said. “Like Dallaida, she has specific goals to accomplish. It matters little who helps her accomplish them.”
Dallaida, who had demanded Blood House as a prize—and I had to trust that Drustan would keep his word and never offer it to her. “Do you still have the Queen of the Nasties on a leash? She’ll turn on you eventually.”
“She’ll turn on someone else first.” He leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees, eyes roving restlessly over the dance floor like he was imagining being in the spin of it.
“Imogen has been making overtures to the Nasties because she’s clever, but she isn’t truly willing to give them free rein, and Dallaida knows it. I’m taking advantage of that.”
Of course Imogen was trying to bribe the Nasties, too. She and Drustan were quite the pair, competing to seduce their way into the strongest position for the butchery to follow. “I doubt Dallaida believes you’ll give the Nasties complete freedom, either.”
Drustan returned his attention to me. “The goal isn’t for me to fulfill all of Dallaida’s dreams. It’s to be her least objectionable ally—and therefore the last one standing. The best use of one enemy is to set them at another.”
Like Kallen, it was intimidating how many schemes he was juggling at once.
Drustan had a plan for Dallaida, for Briar, for Rhiannon, for everyone who might give him power, and those plans were flexible, depending on his needs and the shifting situation.
No matter what, Drustan intended to come out on top.
“Well, you seem to have the situation in hand,” I said, standing and shaking out my skirts. “I’ll look for your next message.”
He rose, too, and gave me a roguish smile. “Can I tempt you into one dance?”
He seemed relaxed, happy to have confided his scheming in someone. Pleased to be near me, even. Drustan was terrifyingly clever behind that carefree facade, though, and his ultimate goal was the crown.
He might want something else from me, I realized with an uncomfortable twist of my stomach as his gaze dropped to my lips and I registered the still-smoldering heat in his eyes.
Maybe this flirtation wasn’t just an act to win me to his side and shore up his reputation as a charmer.
Maybe having me again was a secondary goal.
I wasn’t willing to be anyone’s second choice. But he was right: there were other ways to collect power than by baring my teeth at everyone, and desire was a powerful thing.
I pressed my hands to his shoulders and rose slightly on my toes. His eyes flared before his hands settled at my waist. When I licked my lips and leaned in, Drustan made a soft noise, grip tightening.
Oh, yes, he still wanted this.
Feeling a rush of power at the knowledge, I changed direction at the last moment, pressing my mouth near his ear instead. “No,” I breathed. Then I backed away. “Enjoy the dancing, Prince Drustan.”
I suppressed a smile at the sound of protest he made behind me.
I found Kallen lurking in a corner beside a glass sculpture of a unicorn. His arms were crossed, and he was brooding even more than usual. The silver chain glinted on his right hand, and his belt held a dagger tied in place with a ceremonial peace knot, rather than his usual sword.
When he saw me coming, his eyes narrowed. “Playing with fire?” he asked.
So he’d seen my display with Drustan. My face grew warm. “Not really. I was just—”
“Toying with him because he still wants you.”
The blunt interruption took me aback. I hadn’t believed Drustan’s desire was genuine until tonight, but Kallen had apparently known all along. I thought over my reply carefully, not wanting to give the wrong impression. “He deserves to want something he can’t have.”
His midnight gaze was inscrutable. “You’re punishing him.”
“Yes,” I admitted. “But it’s not just that. He’s used to being the seducer, the one pulling all the strings. If he’s not controlling the situation, that gives me power over him.” I shook my head. “I need any power I can get.”
Any advantage that might keep me alive was good. If Drustan wanted me—if I was a goal to be pursued—it might make a difference later, even after my usefulness in declaring our faction’s leader was over.
Kallen still hadn’t uncrossed his arms. His jaw was tense. “How far will you let it go?”
Did he truly think I might fall into Drustan’s bed again? “No further than what you saw. He’s not getting a second chance.” I scowled. “Do you really think I would let him touch me after everything he’s done?”
Kallen looked away sharply. His throat bobbed. “It has never ceased to amaze me what Drustan can acquire merely by the act of wanting it.”
He sounded almost…jealous. My pulse thumped too hard, and the floor felt like it was tilting. Nonsense, I told myself, struggling for breath. I was imagining stories that weren’t true again. “Can you not have what you want?”
His mouth twisted in a sneer. “I don’t deserve to have what I want.” He looked back at me, and the hostility faded from his expression. “I apologize for sounding accusatory. I…mislike how he treated you.”
I was still caught off guard by those words— I don’t deserve to have what I want —and the vicious look that had accompanied them. “I don’t like it, either,” I murmured. “And I deserve better than to always come second to someone’s lust for power.”
His arms finally dropped to his sides. “You do.”
I was watching his expression closely. “We all deserve that.”
There it was—the clench of his jaw and the tightening of the muscles beside his eyes. What I’d said bothered him. “You needn’t worry about my lonely heart, if that’s what you’re aiming at,” he said, voice growing cold. “I have purpose enough.”
He was putting on the persona of the King’s Vengeance again. It crept over him, frosting his expression and making his posture even more rigid. Kallen was protecting himself. From me or from the implication that he deserved to be cared for?
From both?
“Did Drustan tell you anything of note?” Kallen asked, widening his stance and linking his hands behind his back like a soldier awaiting inspection. He was all sharp angles now, closed off.
It felt wrong to see him like this. He’d been relaxing around me this past week, letting me in.
Smiling sometimes, even laughing when I startled him.
I hadn’t gotten to the core of Kallen yet, but I’d gotten further than most people ever had, and I didn’t want to lose that progress.
“Nothing you probably don’t already know,” I said, stomach starting to hurt.
“Briar is our ally regardless of leader, Rhiannon has aspirations towards power, and Imogen is trying and failing to win the Nasties to her side.”
Kallen nodded crisply. “I did know most of that, though I hadn’t realized Imogen was actively trying to recruit the Nasties. It reeks of desperation, which is good for us.”
“Drustan is hoping Dallaida will take care of Imogen for him. ‘The enemy of my enemy’ and all that.” I couldn’t focus on the issue of Dallaida, though. I was still thinking about Kallen’s newly applied armor and how I could claw my way back beneath it.