28
Alarie
It was my first day back at the High Court since my vacation with Jay at the Vitruvian estate in Breakpoint. Jay was already back at House Heroux, having spent too much time away from the King. But, most importantly, he had to tell the King about the revelation with his powers.
I already missed the estate, the beach, and the life I’d shared with Jay while we had been away. I missed the part of Jay who walked into the room and was greeted warmly by his surrogate family, Cress and Oliver, instead of the fearful silence that fell over any room he walked into at the High Court. I missed walking hand in hand with him in town and going to dinner together instead of wearing our facade of high lord and liaison any time we were in public at the High Court. I missed us. I hadn’t realized how much I was missing until our visit to Breakpoint. Our charade at the High Court, which was once exciting to me, now chafed.
Walking into Court, I could feel Cole’s eyes on me as I approached. When I reached Cole Tragon and his circle of sycophants, his eyes met mine, lingering on the gold that was interlaced with the green, and if possible, the disdain that permanently lived on his face intensified.
“Mutt, you’ve been gone a while,” Cole said as his usual way of greeting me, smugly looking away from me to his companions.
“How nice of you to notice,” I responded dryly. “And it’s even nicer of you to spare us the charade of you pretending like you are something other than the shit stuck to the bottom of my shoe that I had to throw out because that kind of stink just can’t be washed off,” I said.
My comments got more snickers from Cole’s friends than his own had.
“That’s oddly specific,” Lord Preston joked, barking out a laugh that he unconvincingly veiled as a cough.
I saw Luke turn his head from across the room in response to the laughter. He gave me one of his best smiles, a wide, toothy one that lit up his entire handsome face. He knew there was no need to come to me. I could handle a twat like Cole. But I almost gave up the interaction with Cole at the sight of Luke’s smile. I’d missed that smile.
I momentarily felt guilty about this thought before telling myself that I could love Jay and, at the same time, miss Luke every day I wasn’t with him. He was my closest friend here at Court. The two were completely unrelated.
Without waiting for any further bile to spew from Cole’s mouth, I turned toward Lord Preston.
“Grant, could I borrow you for a moment?” I said, lightly grabbing Lord Preston’s arm and playfully tugging him away from the group.
Tucking my arm in Grant’s elbow, I turned my back to Cole and began walking toward Luke.
“Always a pleasure, Cole. And do remember to take a breath. You’re turning purple,” I said over my shoulder. More laughter broke out among his friends.
Luke and Grant filled me in on what I’d missed while I’d been away at the Vitruvian manor in Breakpoint.
“So, I take it that we don’t have a princess yet?” I asked.
They were talking about the Prince’s Choosing, which occurred while I was away.
“Twenty years going strong and not a single twenty-four-year-old woman in Valencia is good enough for our dear Prince,” Luke said, disdainfully.
The Prince’s Choosing has happened once a year for the last twenty years. Every woman, high fae or lesser fae, in their twenty-fourth year was required to come to the High Court for the ceremony. Every twenty-four-year-old woman was lined up in the same room before the Prince for his choosing. No one had ever been good enough to be officially chosen by the Prince during the ceremony. Although those at the Court said that, after the ceremony, the Prince usually chose one or two of the women to visit his bedroom.
I wasn’t twenty-four yet, so I’d not been a part of the Choosing yet. I crinkled my nose, inwardly cringing at the thought of being chosen by the Prince and having to spend the rest of my life with someone I’d not chosen myself. Then I let my mind wander to more pleasant thoughts as Grant made a lascivious joke about the Prince’s good looks and wishing he was a twenty-four-year-old woman.
I recalled the conclusion of my lesson with Jay all those weeks ago on how to please him. I’d reveled in the protracted lesson after all that time of him focusing solely on me and not allowing me to touch him. Yes, my lessons were definitely a good part of my life at the High Court.
And, of course, there is Luke, I thought appreciatively, looking at Luke and realizing he was saying my name.
“Al, did you hear what Grant just said about Don Davante?” Luke stressed the name to get my attention.
We’d decided to keep my connections with Cass a closely held secret for the time being.
“No, what? What did Ca—he do, and who did he piss off this time?” I asked with a chuckle.
“Well…” Luke began, “it’s not really like the other stunts we’ve seen so far.”
I let out a small chuckle, thinking of the shit-truffle and the statue beheading. I’d been amused by the don’s antics before I knew that Cass was behind them, but now that I knew the don was Cass, I thought they were hilarious.
Luke gave me a tight-lipped expression showing that he did not think the latest incident was funny at all.
“It is pretty fucked up, actually. Lord Garaud had hosted a dinner that evening and some of the lesser fae actually showed up. Apparently, the night was going well; everyone was listening to music and getting along. Lord Garaud, his wife, son, and daughter all made their way to bed at some point, but the party continued on. But later that night, Lord Garaud and his family were chased out of their beds and nearly out of town by some lesser fae before members of House Tragon intervened.”
That sounded cruel, and not at all like Cass. No way the Cass I knew would have ever been involved with or let something like that happen, especially with women and children involved.
Reading the disgust on my face, he said, “I know. The word is that the King is up in arms and wants House Rein to start some coordinated efforts against the lesser fae front near the Rein manor up north.”
I groaned. Jay was probably hearing about the exact same thing over at House Heroux, and he was going to be pissed. I was going to have to talk to Jay about this. I just hoped it wasn’t already too late.