I locked my jaw to prevent myself from replying with something scathing, as Twyla cut her eyes to Cyrus with a playful smile.
“She’s not a plaything.” He huffed out a reply. “Nor am I bewitched.”
He walked over to the forest green velvet sofa and sat down before the mahogany coffee table. He looked up and patted the seat beside him, “Come Asteria, let’s see what brought my sister all the way to my wing, especially since I’ve never seen her bother before.”
He smirked up at Twyla who rolled her eyes. She seemed to wait for his invitation to sit as I took my place beside him, trying not to sit too close. It was useless as he pulled me closer the moment I sat down. I shifted uncomfortably, looking up to see his sister watching with a scrutinizing eye. Twyla smoothed herexpression quickly as she joined us, flopping onto the opposite sofa as she turned her glare on Cyrus. Cyrus merely raised a brow at her before he rolled his eyes, taking her in like one might a bratty child who is misbehaving.
“Well, Sister? The floor is yours.” He waved a hand dramatically to underline his point.
“Your slave doesn’t seem to want to sit next to you, Brother.” Twyla slowly looked between us, smirking slightly. “Why don’t you let her run along?”
“And you should remember your place.” Cyrus glared at her. “It’s not for you to tell me my business.”
“Always so touchy, Brother.” Twyla huffed. “You know, you’d have more allies around here if you stopped being such a possessive dick.”
I had to choke in my laughter. By the Old Gods, was she trying to get herself killed?
“And what,dear sister, do you know about that?” Cyrus smirked cruelly, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. “You’ve always stated you were above such—what was it now? ‘Petty squabbling for an ugly chair’, I believe you called it.”
Twyla seemed to sense the dangerous edge she was teetering on. As she straightened, she lowered her eyes to the floor. “You’re right. I’ve never much cared for it. But Shalim knows that you and Weylin are causing quite the stir. The defenses failing? Thatwasyou, wasn’t it?”
“Oh Twyla, I would never let our people be hurt just to prove my brother’s incompetence.” The lie dripped from his lips like poison as he confirmed my fear.
What a fucking bastard.I tried to push down my fury, reign in my need to shout in his face, and finally managed it when I dared to look at Twyla. She focused on her brother, but I caught the flinch in her expression. As I was turning away, her eyescaught mine briefly. I saw the knowledge there, the certainty and sadness. She knew as well as I did what Cyrus had done.
“What’s happened to you, Brother?” Twyla murmured sadly as she played with a ribbon on her dress, one that crisscrossed the front and was finished with a bow tied at the middle of her waist. She no longer made eye contact with Cyrus. Almost like she was too afraid to look and see the truth of who her brother was there.
“What do you mean, Twyla?” Cyrus’s head tilted to the side in question.
Twyla opened her mouth, but paused, unsure of speaking more. It felt as if her comment was blurted out without thought, not calculated at all on her part. A sister trying to understand who her brother had become. But I could have told her that the ground she was walking on was just as dangerous as a trapping pit filled with snakes.
Cyrus’s soft question contrasted harshly with his next words as he lost his patience, nearly shouting. “Meet my damn eyes!”
Twyla jumped in her seat as her eyes flashed to his. She sat ramrod straight, and her discomfort made me want to look anywhere else.
She’s Fae. I reminded myself.No better than any of them.
“That’s better. You were doing so well, too.” Disdain dripped from Cyrus’s lips. “The veneer of confidence is much better than this weakness you show. I know how you prefer to fade into the background, Sister, but truly, it’s unseemly for royalty to act in such a way.”
“I know.” Twyla bit the words out, clearing her throat as if to dislodge the next ones. “Forgive me, Brother.” Her nervous shifting made me even more uncomfortable. The confidence she’d arrived with had eroded within minutes of speaking with Cyrus. It felt like a reflection had fallen, cracking as it revealed the scared little sister she was inside, rather than the dignified princess. I found myself cheering for her to hold her own againsthim, even if she was Fae royalty. No one deserved to be degraded or spoken down to like that.
“Forgiven.” Cyrus smiled easily and sat back, looking the very picture of a magnanimous prince. “Now. What. Brings. You. Here?”
Cyrus’s slowly drawn-out words made me stiffen. Twyla’s eyes shot around the room before landing on me. The sudden shifts of mood and temper were not a good sign. My alarm bells were ringing loud and clear.
“I’d…heard rumors.” Twyla began slowly. “About you sequestering your new slave in your own quarters. I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I’ve never known you to use a human more than once or twice before moving on.”
Did I hear that correctly? Cyrus’s philandering sounded about right, but not a royal hoarding a slave girl like a dragon hoarded jewels. Did people actually think that was what was happening here? And why would a princess even care about who her brother slept with? There had to be something else going on here, but Cyrus didn’t seem suspicious of her statement. If anything, it seemed to put him more at ease. The suspicious glint in his eyes faded and his body released the tense hold it had been in.
“Well, Asteria is hardly justanyone.” He smiled brightly, that charm of his that clouded my head reappearing, leaving me confused once more as I remembered that moment of real connection we’d shared between us.Damn Fae allure. They were said to be able to draw anyone to them when they wanted. The magic in their very blood akin to a Siren song—and just like the Sirens of the Namminian Ocean, they would kill when they lured their mark in. I’d never seen one in action, of course, but the Namminian Ocean bordered Dusk, so I may have the chance now if Cyrus ever had reason to make his way to the coast with me in tow.
I’d lived on the coast of Sunrise Kingdom, where the Damaculous Ocean spread wide, as far as I could see from the small beach near my old village. Occasionally, friendly Mermaids would make their way to the rocks nearby to sun themselves, waving to any people they saw and inviting them to talk and share stories about their life on land. They loved interacting with people. But despite being cousins of the Mermaids, the Sirens were ones you did not want to catch the attention of.
I thought of Fae much the same way. If humans were more like Mermaids, Fae were like bloodthirsty Sirens, luring us to our deaths with their beauty and magic. And you’d often forget that fact upon seeing and hearing them. Just as I kept forgetting what Cyrus was when he turned that smile and charm in my direction. I had to keep reminding myself of his true nature. Those glimpses of cruelty I’d seen from him were not mere tricks of the light. They were the truth, hidden beneath smoldering blue eyes.
“What makes her so special?” Twyla drawled, eyebrows rising. “I’d never known you to give humans the time of day. Let alone take only one to bed. I would think you’d rather have a harem of women to choose from.”
“There’s not much you do know, Sister.” Cyrus laughed, husky and low. Twyla straightened at the insult, but he continued on like he hadn’t just essentially called her an imbecile. “She’s as beautiful as one of us, is she not?”
