I sighed and left the room, arriving after Delaine and Reyla, finding them sorting through Brenna’s dresses, holding up one after another while she rejected them. She was in a snarly mood, and it appeared nothing was going to make her feel better.
“I want something pretty,” she said, flouncing around her room in her underwear. “Pink or light blue.”
I stepped into the closet and went to the back, shifting the dresses along the rack, looking for something she hadn’t wornyet. There were plenty of dresses to choose from, and I gathered an armful of them and carried them out into the room, holding up one after another while she scorned them all.
Doing my best to maintain a smile, I returned to the closet for more while Delaine and Reyla did the same. Delaine tripped Reyla as she left the closet. Reyla kept going, her gaze locked on the ground.
I sent Delaine a sneer and mumbled a spell that made her nose grow longer.
Pausing, she frowned and ran her fingertip along it. She wiggled it and it shortened once more. “Do that again, and you’ll regret it.”
“Touch Reyla again, and you’ll be the one living with regrets.”
“What did you do to Prenton?” she hissed as she dragged a medium blue dress from the rack.
“Prenton?”
“My father’s Nullen. He’s missing.”
“Perhaps you should ask your father about his collared Nullen, not me.”
“You didsomething,” she fumed. “I know it.”
“Ask Madrood.” I threw it out there and watched for her response. She didn’t disappoint me.
The high color left her face. So, she had been aware of the plan to kill me. “I don’t talk to dragons.”
I strutted past her with three pink gowns draped over my arm. “You should try it sometime. The conversation can be quite heated but the burn after is delightful.” I didn’t like using Prenton’s death to irk her, but I hated this woman with apassion that made my veins snap. If only I dared do more than lengthen her nose.
“What happened to him?” she called after me.
I turned in the open doorway, noting Reyla pausing behind me, rejected dresses hanging from her arms. “It was so odd. I was leaving Madrood’s stall, and Prenton ran toward me with a knife in his hand. I can’t imagine why he’d do something like that. For a moment, I thought he might accidentally cut me. Perhaps Madrood thought the same thing? He seems to have taken a liking to me. He urged me to the side and . . . I’m terribly sorry to share this news with you, but Madrood . . .” Real tears sprung up in my eyes. No one deserved the ending Prenton had found in the stable. “Madrood burned Prenton with fire.” I swallowed hard. “At least it was a quick passing.”
Delaine rarely gave anything away, but she did now with a widening of her eyes.
“Had you known him long?” I asked.
“Years,” she snapped.
What cowards she and her father were to send him to kill me. Delaine knew I could defend myself. Had she thought he’d find a way to sneak up behind me?
“I can’t imagine why he was carrying a knife, let alone rushing at me with it raised,” I said. “Do you think he believed Madrood was threatening me and wanted to protect me?”
We both knew that wasn’t the case.
“That must be it,” she said tightly, spinning around to grab more dresses.
“I suppose this means your father can now claim someone else.”
Her arms empty, she shoved past me. “I suppose it does.”
We finally found something for Brenna to wear and quickly helped her into her gown. While she sat in her chair at the vanity, we arranged her hair, dressed her feet, and draped her with jewelry.
She kept snarling.
“What’s wrong, my lady?” I asked, struggling to remain patient.
“Nothing. Nothing,” she snapped. “I had plans for tod—” She slapped her hand over her mouth.
