“Yes.” I handed her a glass. “He’s a friend of mine.”
“Is he?” Emmeline tilted her head. “Are you going to rescue him then?”
Caelwaslooking increasingly uncomfortable. One woman ran her hand over his bicep before a guard intervened.
I took back the glass before Emmeline could drink. “Sorry. I’ll get you another.”
I made my way toward Cael, excusing myself as I slipped through the dense press of bodies.
“—looking forward to the light display, of course,” Cael was saying. “We’re graced with perfect weather for it.”
“Yes! Weather!” Felina cried. “I also enjoy weather tremendously.”
Florina kicked her.
“I couldn’t possibly focus on the lights with you here,” purred another woman. “Your eyes look like emeralds tonight—”
“Sapphires.” Yet another woman elbowed her way forward. “They’re blue, obviously. And they’re dazzling.”
Cael took a step backward. “Well—”
“Your Highness!” I held up the glasses. “What are you doing without a drink? You can’t enjoy the festivities sober.”
“Sir Valen.” Relief filled his words. “How good to see you. It’s been too long.”
“Hasn’t it?” I pushed ever so politely past his admirers and handed him a drink. “You haven’t even met Emmeline yet.”
Cael downed half the glass. “You haven’t introduced her. A mistake I hope you’re going to fix?”
I led him through the throng, feeling like I was rescuing a soldier from enemy territory. A few women shot me dirty looks, but none could object. Cael’s posture relaxed once some spaceopened around him, and we reached Emmeline without anyone trying to waylay us.
I made the introductions, and Cael kissed her hand just as respectfully as he had Symphorosa’s. It spurred a few whispers among the onlookers, though I don’t know why they’d expected the prince to discriminate against a human when he’d taken a human lover himself.
“And thank you for the rescue, Valen,” he said. “I don’t know how you managed that so smoothly.”
Emmeline smiled wryly. “He’s had plenty of practice fleeing from crowds of women smitten with him.”
“I don’t think ‘fleeing’ is the right word,” I protested, though I couldn’t help but smile back.
“Remind me how we met again?”
“At a party—”
“Where you were hiding in the bushes to escape the women flirting with you. I think I compared you to a frightened rabbit.”
“Which should have warned me about the constant ridicule I’d suffer if I courted you.” I clutched my chest as if pained. “Alas, I was beguiled by your beauty and charm, and now it’s too late for me.”
Cael stared at us with a faint, crooked smile.
“Did he ever mention the time he tumbled into a fountain while trying to escape a drunken councilwoman’s kiss?” he asked Emmeline.
“No.” She laughed as I groaned. “Tell me everything.”
Cael launched into the story and followed up with two more embarrassing anecdotes over the next several minutes.
“I could make fun of Valen all night.” He glanced around, causing people to look away and pretend they hadn’t been staring. “But I’d be remiss if I didn’t do the rounds.”
He bid us farewell, deftly avoided a simpering admirer, and started conversing with an elderly magistrate who wouldn’t be comparing his eyes to gemstones.
