His mocking gaze met mine.
“What’s she like inside?” I asked.
“She’s prissy, and she’s . . . No, that’s not right. I thought she was prissy, but she isn’t. I haven’t figured out what she’s like inside, actually.”
“Snarled at her too much, did you, in addition to stealing her sword?”
His snort echoed around us. “I couldn’t help but snarl. It’s me. You know that.”
“That it is.” I was his complete opposite, yet we’d been friends for what felt like forever. “I’m glad she’s feeling better. Thank you for helping her.” Pure longing came through in my voice. “If only I could’ve met herfirst, done this for her myself.”
“With what’s going on, this was the only way. You two are married, and the course is set.”
“Can she . . .”
“We’ll soon see, won’t we?”
He was right about that as well. “Tell me more. She came on board and—”
“I followed her from the moment she left the manor house the Lydel High Lady and her husband, High Lord of Weldsbane, own near the harbor.”
“You didn’t introduce yourself to them?”
“Would you?” he asked.
“Naturally. I’d love to meet the High Lady.”
“And the High Lord?”
“His reputation precedes him.”
“Earned, from what I discovered. Perhaps that’s where Reyla gets it. It’s bred into her. Many say the Lydel High Lady has tamed the Beast.”
“A good thing,” I said. “It never pays to place too much power in half the courts of a vast kingdom and now two of them are allied by marriage. If she can control him, it’ll provide balance.”
“Better two allied kingdoms than one divided into three warring forces, like ours.”
“I’m not giving up.”
“We may have to.”
“I’m surprised to hear you say that.” I watched the twitch of his jaw and the way his scar pulled tight. “You’re much too fierce, too driven, to allow this to happen.”
“We should’ve acted sooner.”
“No one would agree.”
Lorant’s grumble rang out.
“We have enough time.” The fates knew I’d done all I could to avoid what was coming. Like those who’d traveled this route before me, I’d fight it to the end. I’d never succumb, not until I was dragged off the edge of the world and swallowed. “Perhaps my queen will soften you.”
“No chance of that,” he said dryly.
We’d see.
“Anything else?” I asked.
“She’s befriended a nyxin. Brought it on board with her.”
