“And what about the mental aspects?” Ruri pressed, staring him down. “What kind of mental fortitude have you instilled the girl with?”
I closed my eyes momentarily, wishing I could shake my brother. He was doing everything he could to try to get information from the lords, testing their loyalties and looking for lies, all in the hopes of solving the mystery of our brother’s death. While I wanted to know just as badly, I couldn’t help but be concerned about the way he was chasing this.
“Well, I unfortunately can’t take the credit.” Carnelian sniffed, almost as if in distaste. It certainly wouldn’t surprise me. “I had little to do with her until recently, since she wasn’t raised in my court. But her cunning is without question, despite the lack of influence I’ve had over the girl. It must be something in the blood.”
Ruri snorted softly, shaking his head in disbelief as he turned to me, raising a brow. Carnelian’s deflection was expected, but his wording took me aback. While Ruri may doubt the truth of it, I knew Carnelian better than that.
The man preferred his lies to be told with nothing but the honest truth. He’d twist and turn his words until the meaning was unclear, sure enough, but he rarely outright lied.
This could be one of those rare times, but it could also be the absolute truth that he had ignored the girl until she was useful to him in some way. Say when the High King needed a lady from Ruby to compete to be his wife.
Lady Jacinth had been something different from the first moment I saw her. Every interaction with her left me more intrigued by her, needing to find out more about her. I couldn’t tell whether it was from suspicion or attraction half the time, which was definitely concerning.
As king, I needed to maintain control over my desires as well as my actions, but…especially after the picnic, when I got to spend some one-on-one time with her for longer than the span of a single dance, I found myself lost on what I was feeling or what to do about it.
Watching Jacinth as her blindfold was removed, allowing her to take in the obstacle course set before her, I could see the fire scorching through hereyes as they narrowed. Her body straightened as she set her shoulders back, bouncing on the balls of her feet, preparing to take the course on with a determination I’d rarely seen in other ladies at court.
I was anxious to see how she would do. There were some ladies that I knew would have a terribly difficult time, Zumra and Safira coming to mind immediately, and I was already amused imagining them taking it on. Some I wasn’t sure about, as I didn’t know Sania, Amatista, Allirea, or Ophira well enough to guess, but I was positive that Jacinth would demolish this trial.
Thinking of Sania, remorse grew in my heart. Looking from her to Jacinth, it was too easy to imagine Jacinth as someone else. Sania wouldn’t be the daughter of Pearl standing here today; instead, Lady Linnea herself would be here to represent Pearl Court. Her vivid pink hair and eyes would have been so similar to Jacinth’s.
It was on me that she wasn’t alive today, and that was something I had to live with forever. It was never easy when children got caught up in the political games played in court, but little Linnea’s death had always weighed on me the most. Perhaps it was her father’s fondly amused comments to me about her wish to marry me one day, or the brutality dealt out on a child who never should have gotten in the middle of that mess—either way, her blood stained my hands and refused to wash off.
Watching Jacinth now, her long mane of candy-pink hair braided back behind her head as she ran forward, I pushed all thoughts of the past away, focusing instead on the future.
Watching Jacinth contort her body over the bars and balance across the rope, I was wholly impressed. Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised that a dancer had such skill, since she’d shown off her flexibility and agility quite clearly during her routine, but this was on another level. While I’d never admit Carnelian was right, she showed her cunning plainly as she found a way to work around the water attempting to drag her down or the beams trying to knock her off.
She didn’t even take one of the false exits the illusions would try to lead her to, meaning she was able to master herself when it came to fear and desire without much hardship. A remarkable feat, surely, but as she approached the lion, I found myself leaning forward, intensely curious as to how she would handle the challenge.
I could practically see her mind spinning as she looked over the platforms she had to navigate, like she was mapping out the best course to take in her mind. When the lion appeared, my eyes eagerly awaited her reaction, andthe narrow-eyed glare she sent me made me want to smirk back at her, but the eyes on me from everyone nearby kept me from letting my lips do more than twitch.
I was thankful Ruri thought of this just for her reaction alone. Something about the way she had no hesitation in challenging me was thrilling. It was so rare that anyone dared these days. It had been years since I’d had interactions with anyone outside my friends and family that felt sonormal. Even the ladies I took to bed treated me as the king, not as a man.
With Jacinth, things were very different. I found myself wanting to earn the pleasure of her smile or the disapproval of her upturned nose. Every reaction had me wanting to push for the next.
It was ridiculous, and Ruri would certainly kill me if he found out. Only his avid desire to avoid kingship might save me.
Jacinth tried to run quickly around the lion, but that had no hope of working, and once she seemed to realize that she…turned and ran in the opposite direction she needed to be going, leaving both the lion and me utterly confused. Mutters rose around me as the nobles in the box continued their incessant chatter about every little thing that happened.
“What is that foolish girl doing?” I heard Carnelian mutter to himself, a scowl firmly set on his face.
I leaned further forward, trying hopelessly to get a better view of her. I watched as the perplexed lion looked back toward the wall, then huffed and sat down, which is when Jacinth turned her head to look back with a smirk. She somehow spun on her feet faster than I’d ever seen, and raced back toward the wall. She jumped from platform to platform more swiftly than I’d thought she was capable of.
And the lion hadn’t noticed what she was doing at all. My breath caught as I realized the beast had assumed she’d given up—and thus let its guard down. It was only as Jacinth sped past him that he finally realized what had happened.
The crowd roared just as the beast did. Its ground-shaking anger was nearly silenced by the people standing up and cheering as Jacinth raced forward, outpacing the lion now running swiftly after her. My hands curled around the bar in front of me as my heart picked up speed in tandem with her.
Jacinth’s head whipped backward to check on the lion, and seeing it was beginning to catch up, she faced forward once more, flat out sprinting across the platforms now. She neared the last one she needed to cross, but the lionwas gaining on her, so close that when he swiped out a huge paw, her braid flew with the wind generated by the motion?—
Until she pushed off her feet and sailed upwards in the air and over the chasm, clearing the last platform and landing nimbly, now standing before the wall she’d needed to reach.
My hands relaxed their tight grip as the crowd went wild, the lion dissipating into thin air with its role fulfilled for now.
I sat back in my seat, a small smile on my face as I looked forward to watching her complete this last challenge, whichwewould get to see at least. Almost as much as I looked forward to her comments about this later.
Only Ruri’s watchful eyes kept me from truly feeling relief at that moment.
Chapter Seventeen
