“Ah… Cliffs, usually. Not sure exactly where, though. Lex knows. You’ll have to ask her,” Dorian replied.
“Get out of here,” Nyssa interjected then.
Draven turned, eyes narrowed as he held her gaze. But Nyssa merely gave him a smile and gestured toward the door with her chin. “Balandria is in better hands learning from us than she is hearing it from you. We will take care of her.” She slipped her arm into Bala’s and gave him another nod to the door. “Go. Be with her.”
“I didn’t think you approved,” Draven said.
Nyssa’s smile widened as she tucked her bang behind her ear. “I didn’t, but… I’ve never seen my sister with such happiness.Truehappiness. She loves you. I cannot stand in the way of that.”
Draven’s shoulders caved, looking like he no longer knew how to breathe at the words Nyssa had just said.
And Nyssa realized Aydra had not told him how she felt.
“She what?” Draven asked, voice sticking in his throat.
Nyssa nearly puked. Panic filled her insides. “Oh, shit.”
Shit. Shit. Shit.
“Oh, fucking curses,” Nyssa muttered, and Bala’s grip on her tightened as though she were holding her up. “She hasn’t told you,” Nyssa choked.
“She hasn’t, no,” Draven replied.
Dorian’s chuckle filled the hall, and he clapped Draven’s shoulder once more. “Go get her.”
Draven looked between them again, still in a bit of shock from the news, before his gaze landed on Bala. “Are you okay with that?” he asked her.
Bala patted her hand atop Nyssa’s as Nyssa continued to try and recover herself from revealing her sister’s secret. “Yeah,” Bala answered. “I think I can handle them.”
Draven looked to Dorian, arms crossing, and then to Bala once more. “Right…” He began backing down the hall, and with a final nod to Bala, he turned on his heel.
Dorian rounded on Bala and Nyssa as Draven disappeared up the staircase, a grin slowly filling his face.
“That is perhaps the most terrifying smile I’ve ever seen,” Bala said.
“So now that Daddy is gone—” Dorian remarked, brow quirking at Nyssa and making her snort, “—what bit of trouble do you think we should get into with our new friend?”
“You’re not showing me the castle?” Bala frowned.
“Oh, you’ll see the castle,” Dorian said, draping his arm around her shoulders. “From the flat of your back after I drop you in the sand.”
Before Nyssa could move, Bala had grabbed onto Dorian’s arm around her shoulders and bent, yanking him forward. Dorian’s body flailed, whipping in a rotation over her shoulder. His back slammed into the carpeted floor.
Nyssa nearly lost it.
As Bala stood over him, Dorian groaned from the ground, a smug smile plastered on her lips.
“Fucking—“
“That sounded like a challenge, Prince,” Bala said.
Dorian grunted again, cracked his neck, and then pushed up to his elbows, his pain seeming to ease as he lit up in Nyssa’s direction. “Look at that, sis,” he said, blue eyes sliding to Bala. “We’ve a worthy opponent.”
Nyssa hugged her arms around her chest, swaying slightly as she practically felt her gaze dancing. “To the stadium then?”
Lightning and thunder cracked outside, and Dorian shook his head. “To the beach.” Bala offered him a hand to help him from the ground. “You ready for the spar of your life, Second?”
Bala laughed. “Prince, I spar with my King at least once a week,” she said as he rose to his feet. “What makes you think you are anywhere near his strength?”
