“Skadinia,” Cara chided under her breath.
Arion returned a look of annoyance. “Be reasonable. It has been long enough, and it is time for bygones to be bygones.”
The door creaked. “I would be careful what demands you give my wife, you son of a bitch.”
My heart jumped. Jonas, eyes dark as fear, leaned one shoulder against the frame of the door.
His breaths were coming too swiftly, his skin too flushed. No.No. I tried to get him to break his darkened stare and look to me. His mesmer was growing too strong.
Arion sniffed, holding Jonas’s gaze. “You made a poor move by interloping on a long-held betrothal, alver.”
“Oh, I made a perfect move.” Jonas stepped in front of Arion, nearly a full head taller than the Ljosalfar prince. “Best move I’ve ever taken. The way I see it, little one”—Jonas chuckled at his own name for the prince—“you are the one who destroyed everything when you thought you could threaten the fae folk and my wife.”
Arion puffed his chest. “Enjoy calling her yours. I imagine you’ve just come from the council of kings and have learned it is only a matter of time before she’s nothing but a memory.”
What the hells did that mean? I looked over Arion’s shoulder, holding Jonas’s mesmer-filled gaze.
“Leave us.” Jonas said, voice a dark threat.
“I wasn’t finished speaking to Skadinia.”
“You are. You’ve bothered my wife and I don’t take kindly to that.”
“You can’t touch me.” Arion butted his chest against Jonas.
Jonas lowered his voice, grinning. “Would you like to see the damage I can do without touching you?”
For the first time Arion hesitated.
“My Lady’s husband has asked for their privacy.” Cara waved her hands, as though shooing the prince and Cian away.
Arion tugged on his blue doublet, mouth tight. “We’re not finished with this, Skadinia.”
“You are.” Jonas stepped between us. “You look like you want to run me through. Go ahead and try. I might not touch you, but there is nothing stating Skadi can’t. In fact, she deserves to swallow you up.”
Something had gone horribly wrong. Jonas was not a man to shy away from following through on a threat. He was not a man who would merely take an attack against him.
There was a reason he had not drawn his blade.
I straightened my shoulders, summoning the icy damp across my palms.
Arion’s eyes widened when the mists coiled between my fingers like diaphanous ribbons. The mists followed my hand when I slid my palm over Jonas’s shoulder and tucked close into his side.
Disdain flashed in Arion’s eyes, a bit of his true character, and in a flurry he turned and strode from the corridor.
When Cian strode past, he leaned in, the heat of his breath against my ear at a sly angle I wasn’t even certain Jonas realized drew him so near. “You smell as perfect as I remember.”
Jonas turned and yanked me behind his back. “I will offer one final warning—speak to my wife, touch my wife, come near my wife, and you will not wake the next morning. No contract will stop me.”
Cian sneered. “Ah. With a husband like you, I expect to see our princess returned soon enough.”
The end of a spear clapped on the floorboards. “Cian. Tend to your royal charge and step back from mine.” Dorsan’s knuckles stretched white when he tightened his grip on his spear.
“I was just leaving.” Cian sauntered down the hall, utterly at ease, and I didn’t know why.
Without another word, Jonas demanded Cara leave and Dorsan remain in the corridor, then slammed the door behind us. In the next instant, he clutched me against his chest, his arms choking the breath from my lungs in his embrace.
My fingernails dug into his back, like he might be torn from my arms any moment. “What’s happened?”
