Unfazed, Beatriz plopped back onto the bed. “Don’t ever call her Lily. Or tell anyone she’s called Lily. She’d probably kill you.” She smiled with extra teeth.
Elysia sat down next to her sister on the bed, throwing up her hands. “Fine, I won’t call your girlfriend by her name. But I highly suggest that you’re gone by the time Gage gets home, so if you would just tell me why it is you’re here...”
Beatriz tilted her head, looking at Elysia like she was dense. The look was unfortunately a familiar one between them. Blinking, she sat up abruptly, her posture suddenly perfect and imposing.
“Mother is ready to send out the guards to bring you home. Your cute little note about traveling didn’t land well with mommy and daddy dearest.” Her gaze became shrewd, and her voice icy. “You made yourself indispensable and now you’re paying for it. It’s almost as if you should have left the fucking kingdom like everyone who cares about you advised in the first place.”
A rumbling chuckle filled the room, causing both women to whip their heads in unison. “So, this is the famous Beatriz.”
Gage took up the whole damn doorway, his hands grasping the top of the frame as he leaned in heavily. He lingered there with one brow raised as if he hadn’t snuck up on both of them like a lethal animal trapped in a man’s body.
Beatriz blatantly ran her eyes over Gage, not bothering to be polite. “Do you fuck people on the side then, or is that body just for killing?” She turned to address Elysia seriously. “Lily could use someone like him. She only has pretty boys. Needs someone more like that.”
Mortified, Elysia choked and failed to respond.
Immune to her sister’s discomfort, Beatriz continued giving her entirely unsolicited opinion, inspecting Gage like he was forsale. “You know, the wholeI could kill you as easily as I fuck youthing really does it for some people.”
“Beatriz! You can’t justsaythings like that.”
Frowning, her sister looked at her with pinched brows. “I just did.”
Elysia grabbed a pillow, smacking her sister in the face hard enough to send her backward onto the bed. She held the pillow there and smiled. “Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.”
She released her hold on the pillow and Beatriz shot up, her silver hair a mess and eyes narrowed. Elysia’s chest quivered with silent laughter.
“He’s like family, Triz. Don’t be so gross.”
Gage froze for half a breath only to start laughing so hard that the entire door frame shook, his shirt straining as his arms and chest flexed.
Beatriz gestured again. “See?That right there. Money maker.”
Elysia shut her eyes. “Please stop.”
“Don’t be such a prude, Lys. We all know what you and the prince get up to.”
“I’m a grown woman, you can’t make fun of me for having sex.”
“I mean, I can when it was with Topp Blatz.”
Gage cleared his throat, pausing their squabble. “Your sister is right, Elysia.”
She floundered. “Excuse you! I don’t comment onyoursexual partners, and after being here for a month, I certainly could!”
Beatriz’s eyes lit. “Oh, do tell. What’s his type? I bet he likes the ones that’ll burn your house down. I can sense these things.” She glanced at Gage cursorily and nodded as if he had confirmed her suspicions.
Gage stared up at the ceiling, looking pained, and rubbed his face. “I meant about leaving Kava and your parents.”
“Oh, that.” Elysia looked down at her feet. “Right.”
An emotion that Elysia couldn’t place crossed his face. “The Raven Ball will be here before you know it, and you’ve been gone for almost two months, when you’ve never been given permission for more than a few days in the past. The prince has been lying for you, but it’s not working anymore.”
Frustration laced her words. “Why would he do that? I don’t understand that man. Yes, he tried to talk to me about my magic, and I avoided his attempts to communicate because I wasterrified.But then he followed me! And got people killed, proving me right all along. I wish I could just have a conversation with him, which I know is insane, but I don’t understand what he’s doing.”
“But you haven’t spoken with him,” Gage prompted her.
Her voice went hard. “No, I haven’t. Before that night—I worked the market like usual. Topp showed up and he promised me I could trust him. My magic could feel it wasn’t true. Even if he wanted it to be the truth, it wasn’t. Between that and him leaving me to die while a bunch of innocent people got rounded up for slaughter, I don’t think there’s anything he could say to prove himself. Any conversation between us would just be sating my pointless curiosity.”
Beatriz got to her feet, hands grabbing her sister by the face. “Who cares, Elysia, who fucking cares? Never mind that lying carcass of a man and his motivations—just leave. Leave and save your own damn life.” She took a giant inhale, nowhere near done. “Forget about him. Forget about Mother and our blackmailing excuse of a father, and for the first time in your twenty-four years get yourowndamn life. A life that has absolutely nothing to do with secrets or politics or death. Gogrow your flowers somewhere that actually has sun and soil that grows.”
