"It's home," Nadir replied simply. "Perhaps I can show you more of it tomorrow afternoon."
The first genuine smile she'd felt since arriving, as small as it may have been, rose on her lips when he locked eyes with her. "I'd like that," she managed.
Nadir reached over, took her hand in his, and brought it to his lips. Her stomach fluttered at the feeling of his mouth against her skin again. It sent her mind back to Magnice, reminding her of how they'd walked around the room together. He’d held firmly onto her arm so she did not waver with the remaining bit of wine in her.
They'd stopped walking when the music picked up, and Nyssa wrapped her arms around her chest as she leaned against the stone. She had watched the dancing, noticing Aydra’s head thrown back at whatever it was Draven had just whispered in her ear, the unfamiliar blush on her sister's cheeks. Nyssa turned her attention to Dorian dancing with one of the Scindo twins, sure that he would take both of them back to his room, but the look Councilwoman Ebonrath was giving him across the room made her snort into her cup.
“What’s so funny?” Nadir had asked.
Nyssa leaned over and pointed at her brother. “The girl my brother is dancing with is one of his favorites. He usually takes her and her sister back to bed with him, but if you look by the buffet, you’ll see another one of his favorites looking as though she would give anything to be in his arms.”
A low whistle emitted from his lips upon seeing the Councilwoman’s stare. “If looks could kill,” he muttered.
Nyssa continued and pointed back to Corbin. “You see Corbin standing in the shadows by the pillar? He’s only just been named Dorian’s Second, the Fire Second. I love watching the disapproval on his face when Dorian is doing something stupid or 'un-prince-like,' as Corbin calls it. He always gets a little twitch in his nose. His hands grip either the hilt of his sword or his cup. Look at him—” she almost laughed at the twinge in Corbin’s gaze “—Dorian is trying to break Corbin's facade, but he’s failing miserably. Oh, and there, Councilwoman Reid has been sleeping with Ash since he left my sister’s bed. She thinks no one has noticed, but I caught them making eyes at the last meeting and then in the Chambers all this week during meetings with my older. You can always tell with Reid when she gets nervous. She starts fumbling with her bracelets. She—” Nyssa paused, having to look twice up at Nadir, who was staring at her with squinted eyes.
“What?” she asked.
“How do you know all of this?” he asked.
“I’m skilled at reading people,” she admitted. “Perks of being the smallest and quietest in the room.”
“Who lied and told you you were the quietest?” he teased.
She almost laughed but instead nudged him in his side. “Shut up,” she muttered. She tucked her hair behind her ear and smiled down at the cup in her hands.
“I’m sorry,” she managed. “I’m sure you don’t want to hear any of this.”
“Why would you think that?”
“We’ve only just met,” she said. “You were probably looking for some woman to simply charm back into your bed... Quietly, at that. Not someone to talk to you about gossip and reading people’s ticks.”
“I actually love gossip,” he informed her. “Tell me all their secrets, Princess.”
“All of them?” she repeated. “That might take a while. We could get caught.”
Nadir’s gaze flickered to Aydra and Draven, and he gave an upwards nod in their direction. “Look at them and tell me if they notice anything else going on in this room.”
Nyssa knew he was right. “Okay, Commander. I’ll tell you all their secrets, but first, I want to know what this dance we didn’t get to have would have been like.”
Nadir chuckled at her under his breath. “Of course you do,” he joked. He sighed and leaned back against the wall again, letting his head sink onto the stone. “All right, Princess. What do you want to know?”
“I want to know what it would have been like. As if I’d been any other woman you would have liked to take in your bed.”
“What like if I’d been wooing one of the Dreamers or Blackhands?” he asked.
“Yes.”
The smile on his lips made her heart flutter. “First, I would have introduced myself as the greatest Commander the Honest army has ever had—”
Nyssa snorted. "The greatest Comman— I'm sorry, you were speaking," she mocked. "Please continue," she said, tears rising from holding in the laughter.
His eyes narrowed playfully, but he continued anyway. “I would have boasted about the last battle we fought, knowing you knew little of the war but hoping you would be impressed by my bravery. Eventually, I'd have complimented your beauty, telling you how your eyes glowed in the fires, how it reminded me of the Eyes festivals we have back at the Umber where we have these huge bonfires on the beach, and we dance all night beneath the bright twin moons. You would have eaten another pastry after I insisted you needed something sweet to match the delicacy of your aura—”
Nyssa snorted again.
That brow elevated, and she muttered a quick "Sorry" to him as he shifted his weight.
Something changed in his energy then, and she felt it... The seriousness rising in his shoulders, his tongue darting out over his lips. He was hovering so close over her then that she had to swallow the dryness in her suddenly parched mouth.
