“Minutes,” he replied shortly.
“And have you heard how many they are bringing with them?” Aydra asked as she looked over Nyssa a final time. She gave her chin a quick tug and winked playfully before turning around and joining Rhaif at the top of the steps.
Whatever Rhaif and Aydra were saying between each other sounded heated, but she couldn’t hear them. Dorian caught Nyssa’s eye, and together they gave each other a ‘yikes’ glare about the heated argument, and then they took their places on either side of their olders.
“—using you,” she heard Rhaif hiss, his voice getting louder. “Do you not remember all the times past Venari Kings have tried to take over our kingdom? How Duarb tried to seduce our mother—“
Nyssa’s eyes widened as she realized they were arguing over Draven and that Rhaif had found out about them and had chosen to confront Aydra about it. Nyssa leaned back to look at Dorian, whose fist tightened at his side with anger at hearing it.
“—You areweak, my sister,” Rhaif continued. “He has manipulated and seduced you—“
“Do you think you two could put aside your bickering long enough for us to meet our guests?” Dorian managed, leaning around them.
The great gate opened, and Nyssa saw Aydra’s chin raise, her hands clasp in front.
“We’ll talk about this when they’ve left,” Rhaif said quietly.
“There is nothing to discuss,” Aydra said, though she kept her face blank.
“There is,” Rhaif snapped. “There is the fact that you have betrayed your kingdom for the taste of a foreign fuck.”
“I am not discussing this with you here,” Aydra whispered.
Nyssa could feel her sister’s anger radiating off her.
Heard the birds beginning to circle overhead as her rage grew.
“—Do you think he will stand by and allow our kingdom to go on without punishing it?”
“I love him,” Aydra snapped.
The words seemed to hover in the unmoving air. As though the declaration had cracked their castle into two pieces and crumbled the pearly white stone beneath their abrupt power.
It only took three words to shatter their kingdom.
Rhaif straightened his cloak and started fumbling aggressively with the sleeves. “We will talk about this in two days.”
Dorian leaned around to catch Aydra’s eye, and Nyssa reached for her hand.
Aydra was trembling.
But she squeezed Nyssa’s hand back, and a sharp, audible breath filled her as hooves and carriage wheels sounded as echoes on the stones.
The carriages rolled to a stop, and when the people began to exit, all memory of the previous conversation when amiss. Laughter filled the air with grunts of hunger and jokes about their asses hurting from the long journeys. A few of them stripped their warm coats or shawls, revealing gruff, muscled bodies beneath all that clothing. Nyssa shifted as the men began looking their way, and her cheeks began to heat at their charismatic leers.
One, in particular, did not lose his gaze from her even as he pulled his riding cloak off. A tall one with floppy brown curls, a narrow jaw, bold brows, and indented chin. He removed his gloves from his fingers one by one, and Nyssa forced her eyes away from him to find another looking between her and her sister. A gruff-looking man, he looked like she would have gotten dirt all over her had she taken a tumble in bed with him.
That was intriguing.
She heard Aydra clear her throat beside her and saw her straighten her dress. Nyssa’s eyes latched with the tall one again, and she felt her sister lean closer to her.
“Choose one,” Aydra whispered.
Nyssa couldn’t help herself. She smirked coyly at the man, and then her lashes lifted to Aydra’s. “What happened to a Queen taking multiple pleasures in her bed whenever she likes?” she asked.
Aydra’s eyes danced, and she wrapped an arm around Nyssa’s shoulders. “Nyssari Eaglefyre,” she cooed mockingly. “What have you done with my little sister?”
One of the men approached them then—one who had been standing beside the tall man she’d been practically eye fucking for the last five minutes—and he introduced himself as the Elder from the Blackhand town of Monsburne. His tawny braids fell over his shoulder as he bowed to the pair, but his blue gaze lingered on Nyssa.
