Lexie finished and stepped back to inspect her handiwork, her dark eyes scanning me from the low-cut bodice to the capped sleeves snug to my upper arms, to the full skirt of the gown that shimmered in the torchlight. “I swear, Isi, when people see you wearing this tomorrow night, they’ll be composing ballads and poems.” She leaned close. “Trew willdie.”
My heart flipped over. “You think so?”
Surprisingly enough, I was getting excited about the ball, and Iknew why. Trew had held me, protected me, and treated me with a gentleness that made my throat tighten.
“Definitely.” A mischievous smile tugged at Lexie’s mouth. “You’ve got the whole deadly grace thing going. Lethal, but in a way that will make men and a few women go stupid.”
“You’re sure I can borrow the gown?” I smoothed my hands over the fitted waistline. “It would look great on you.”
Lexie snorted. “I told you. It was in the closet, left by a past recruit who’s probably stationed somewhere else. They were told to take their things when they left, so even if she came back to court, she wouldn’t want it. She also left a yellow one that’ll look great with my skin tone.”
I glanced over my shoulder. “Yellow? What’s the neckline look like?”
“About here.” She made a chopping motion at the top of her breasts, her grin rising. “It’s gorgeous. When I put it on, Derren pretty much passed out.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
We laughed, grinning at each other like fools. It was nice to do girly things, to dress up and pretend things were normal.
“I’ll wear it tomorrow night.” Lexie secured my hair in a high tail and stepped back, making a swirling motion with her finger. “Turn again.”
I spun slower this time so she could see how the skirt moved.
“Amazing,” she breathed, dropping the brush on the floor by accident, scooping it up.
I stared at my reflection in the full-length mirror while she peered over my shoulder.
“It’s perfect for you.” She squealed and clapped her hands.
“It is.” The deep green set off my pale skin, the color richer than moss and threaded with a subtle shimmer that caught the light. For a moment, I almost forgot what this place was and why I’d come here.
A bang rang out in the bedroom, and we gave each other raised eyebrow looks before hurrying into the room, just in time to see the door explode inward.
Wind slammed into the room first, swirling with a crackle of power that buffeted my gown. Torch flames guttered and flared. The air reeked faintly of ozone, as if lightning had just kissed stone.
Trew filled the doorway like one of the fates come to ground, his golden eyes blazing, his jaw sharp enough to cut glass. Magical heat licked along my bare arms, currents of air that snatched at my hair and made it whip around my face.
The way his gaze softened when it landed on me was the first warm break in the clouds.
Lexie froze beside me.
I was too startled to speak, my heart thudding hard.
Trew’s gaze swept through the room and landed again on me.
The violent surge gentled, the currents curling around me in a way that felt almost like his hand settling at the back of my waist. My pulse tripped over itself as I realized he was bending his magic solely for me.
And his eyes… By the fates. The storm in them had melted into something dangerous.
He sank to his knees in front of me, this king I suspected knelt to no one. He stared up as though I’d been lost, and he’d just found me.
My pulse forgot how to be steady. This was a man who made kingdoms bow, and yet, here he was, bowing to me.
“You broke down my door to…” My voice sounded steady only because shock kept it there. “Do you plan to kneel there a while, staring up at me?”
His mouth curved in a hungry smile. “If I’d known this was what I’d find, I’d have broken the door down sooner.”
