“And have you ever considered having any of your own?” he asks casually.
I fiddle with the fluorite on my ring, replying with a small smile, “if the option ever presented itself, I would be honored to one day become a mother.”
Lord Daniel’s smile is wide as we both tilt our heads up the sky, watching as the water branches out into tiny butterflies. The summoning could be absolutely beautiful… if I didn’t know the man behind it that was creating such delicate creatures.
I bring my gaze down to Keane standing up front with the delegation as well. His mother is talking and pointing at the night sky above them, but Keane’s brown eyes are set intensely on mine and not the show. It occurs to me, then, that he’s been listening to mine and Daniel’s conversation from the moment he approached me, his brown eyes so fixated that once again I have to look away.
“How long do you anticipate staying in Bardot, Lord Daniel?”
His hand darts up to his beard, stroking it in thought, “I suppose I’m on the Leviathans’ schedule. I’ll need to escort them out of Disce when they make the trip back.”
I nod and look over at our guests. They look so friendly and casual here, like they’re enjoying the general ambiance of the spring night. But even still, there’s something different about Edam, perhaps the way he continues to manipulate the water with a dangerous glint in his eyes.
That look reminds me that these are no friends.
Edam and the Prince’s older brother tried taking me and Storm.
Taking us.
I’m still dumbfounded at how they’re allowed to be here now in open welcome.
“I recognize him,” I say quietly.
“Yes,” Daniel tilts his head, taking a deep swig of ale as he watches the Leviathan with me.
“I’m sure we’re the only two here not properly fawning over them.”
“Politics, Lady Alexis,” Lord Daniel grimaces, “an area I am glad to rarely participate in. If it were up to me, the man would’ve lost his way in our woods upon first arriving.”
I nod at Lord Daniel in agreement, his statement a proper fitting for the Leviathan who attempted to take his life.
“What do you make of the Prince?” I ask, turning my gaze to the smiling younger brother.
He’s handsome, his features softer than his older brother’s and graced with lines around his eyes and mouth, proof that he’s used both and with passion. His braids are thicker than what I remember of his brother’s, with only three rows gracing the top before they fall heavier behind his back. They’re cuffed at the bottoms by large white, tan and blue beads fastened at the ends.
“A talker,” Lord Daniel says plainly, “a listener. A good conversationist.”
“Has he summoned?” I wonder aloud, my eyes narrowing on the three thick braids. The Prince’s shoulder is angled to us so that one is visible from afar, his hair swaying with his head as he talks to Troy and watches the water in the air. I frown when that braid definitely twitches under my gaze, but the Prince grabs it and flings it to his back, his eyes narrowed down as if in small warning.
No.
I’m envisioning that.
“Not yet,” Lord Daniel grimaces, eyes still trained on Edam. Edam’s water butterflies have now transformed into small birds that fly over the crowd.
I move my focus back on Prince Isham’s shoulder, to the braid that’s found its way back to his front. The beads are resting just under his collarbone, and when I look at the end where the tuft of hair points downwards, the black starts to take the shape of a small arrowhead.
I blink hard.
Then again.
My heart stills in my chest as two black eyes materialize at the bottom of that braid, those beady orbs blinking back at me in return.
Fuck.
There’s no envisioning it now. The snake in the Prince’s hair is looking directly at me.
My breathing turns shallow as I watch a set of fingers wrap themselves over the beads and throw them behind his back. I glance up to Prince Isham too quickly, noticing his hazel eyes landing directly on mine. A cool smile forms at his lips before I avert his gaze and look up to Edam’s birds in the sky. They dart above the crowd before morphing into a single large beast, the crowd gasping in awe and turning in my direction as the large water bird starts flying straight towards Daniel and I.
