30
While Camille slept, everyone in the cave bided their time, with a lot of tension filling the room. And this time it wasn’t merely physical sparring.
Keen and Jas glared at each other from across the firepit Garrin had constructed. Only they weren’t saying anything. “What’s going on?” Lex asked. “Why do they look angry?”
Garrin had finished his escape strategizing with the others, which mostly involved survival skills for the Land of Ice, and now lay beside her next to the fire.
He hitched his weight on one elbow. “Keen is reading Jasper’s thoughts.”
“They can talk to each other?”
“Not exactly. Most telepaths cannot send messages. Keen doesn’t seem to like what Jasper is thinking.”
Lex blinked. “But they came together. Aren’t they friends?”
Garrin snorted. “Keen is from Old Kingdom and Jasper is from Dark Kingdom. There will be no friendship.”
She shook her head slowly. “That is ridiculous.”
“It is our way in Tirnan.”
“Elena and Keen are friends, and they rule different kingdoms,” Lex pointed out.
Garrin scratched his jaw. “That is peculiar. I assume Keen feels no competition with the Halven.”
“Excuse me,” Elena said from across the cave, where she was practicing roundhouse kicks. She put her hands on her hips and said, “I’m plenty powerful,” punctuating it with a lightning strike that scorched the cave wall.
Smoke filled the air, and Lex’s ears rang.
“That’s my girl,” Derek said, before returning to his conversation with Zirel.
Lex huddled closer to Garrin. “You better watch what you say.”
Garrin grinned, seemingly comfortable in the cave filled with magic and mayhem.
Across the fire, Em appeared only mildly surprised by the indoor lightning strike. Amund murmured something to her, and she turned her shoulder away, frowning.
“What about them? Em isn’t Halven and they’re both originally from Dark Kingdom. Why don’t they get along?”
Garrin waved his hand over the fire, causing the blaze to pulse. “That is simpler in nature. Amund wants my courtier.”
“You meanmycourtier. Em is a part of my nonexistent noble court now.”
He chuckled. “I stand corrected.”
Em had been a part of Garrin’s harem… “Does it bother you that another man wants Em?”
Garrin frowned and blinked several times. “It does not bother me in the way you suggest. I’m not certain Em wishes to have Amund.”
Lex studied the two. “She’s ignoring him, but I don’t know; there’s something there. I’ve never seen Em angry, and Amund really brings it out in her.”
Garrin nodded. “I agree. There is lust involved.”
Lex laughed, and Em’s gaze shot to them. “I wouldn’t have put it that bluntly,” Lex said, “but yes, that’s my sense as well. It’s weird, though, right? To like someone, but to fight it?”
Garrin shrugged. “Fae women are strong. He might have offended her in some way, and now she won’t give in to the attraction. Who can say?”
Em crossed her arms. “Stop talking about me,” she said, seemingly forgetting she was speaking to her prince.
