Willow’s arms crossed over her chest. “I did. Multiple times.”
“And?” Aydra asked expectantly as she pulled her robe around her body.
Willow straightened up. “The Blackhands are coming up through the streets as we speak. They will be on our doorstep within the hour.”
Aydra’s stomach knotted. “Fucking curses of Durab,” she muttered.
Draven fell backwards in to the bed. “Should have known they’d be early.”
“Thank you, Willow,” Aydra told her. “If you’ll go and wake Lex, I would appreciate it.”
Willow nodded, but didn’t respond. She gave Aydra a low bow and then turned out of the room, closing the door behind her.
Aydra quickly grabbed a day dress from her closet and changed, throwing her hair up and allowing a few stray curls to fall from her thick updo over her face and ears. She shoved her day crown on her head just as Lex burst into the room.
“My Queen—”
“I’m ready.” Aydra started out the door, but paused to watch Draven leisurely pack his morning pipe by the window. “Are you not coming?”
Draven shrugged. “Not my kingdom,” he replied. “If they want to see me, they can wait on me to go through my morning routine.”
The memory of the night before invaded her mind at the sight of the shadows beneath his eyes. He did a double-take at the look on her face, and she heard him sigh heavily. “I’m fine, Aydra,” he muttered.
“Liar,” she accused.
A small smile slipped onto his lips, and he struck the match against the wall. “Get out of here, my Queen,” he said in a rasp. “I’ll meet you in the Great Hall soon.”
Rhaif was pacing in front of the great doors when she arrived, and there was a sleepy Dorian coming down the adjacent hall when she turned. She paused in front of Dorian to straighten his crown and the shirt he’d obviously grabbed off the floor to put on.
She was wiping a stain off his jaw and cursing at him for not bathing properly when she suddenly felt Rhaif standing over her shoulder. Aydra tensed at his annoyed energy.
“Something you’d like to say, brother dear?” she miffed.
Rhaif’s huff hit her neck, but he didn’t have time to utter a word as Nyssa came running up behind them then.
“I’m sorry!” she exclaimed, holding her crown on her head. “I’m sorry. Willow, she—”
Aydra brushed Dorian’s shoulders and then turned to Nyssa to finish fixing her. “How long before they’re here?” she asked Rhaif.
“Minutes,” he replied.
“And have you heard how many they are bringing with them?” she asked.
Rhaif’s jaw tightened. “Thirty total.” He did a double-take at her as she finally turned and joined him at the top of the steps by his side. “Perhaps if you’d come to my study last night once I’d received word—”
“What, so you could burn me again?” she spat.
“—and not gone off galavanting with the Venari King, you would know more about the nature and number of our guests.”
Her eyes met his, and for a moment she felt the agony of his words fill her. But she pushed it to the back of her mind before it tore through the surface, and she turned and held her chin high in the air.
“I don’t know what you mean,” she affirmed.
He leaned closer, breath on her shoulder as he hissed in her ear. “You think I haven’t noticed the pair of you? Heard the pair of you? Moans and screams echoing in our halls as though you areanimals?”
“Sounds like you’re jealous.”
“I am not—”
