“Fuck,” I hissed.
Lexie followed my gaze. “I know, right? I’ll enter the trial tomorrow, but I don’t want to bond with anything like that. That’s Kira, by the way. First in command.”
Kira hadbondedwith a death adder? How could she sleep? Without the rare antidote, its bite would kill you in half an hour, and the antidote was notoriously difficult to acquire.
I shuddered, remembering the treatise on poisonous creatures I’d studied as part of my education. Father had insisted I learn about such things. Know your threats, he’d said.
This woman wore death as jewelry.
Looking up at Trew, she smiled, her body language screaming intimacy.
A raw, uncomfortable heat twisted low in my belly.
Not jealousy, but something fierce and unwanted. My magic sparked under my skin, wild and reactive.
He’s your enemy, Isi. Remember that.
Yet when she smiled at him, something inside me clenched like a fist. For a heartbeat I imagined walking over and pulling her away, an absurd, ridiculous thought. I dragged in a breath and fixed my attention on my plate.
Fates, I was losing my mind.
Attraction to him was suicide.
A shriek echoed through the hall, and a cinderhawk soared across the big, open expanse. The bird circled once before diving to land on Trew’s shoulder.
The death adder’s head snapped around, and even from some distance away, I could hear its hiss of rage. The serpent’s forked tongue flickered out, tasting the air between it and the hawk.
Tilting its head, the cinderhawk studied the snake with disdain before striking out, pecking the death adder’s head. The serpent recoiled, and the woman jerked her arm off of Trew’s shoulders.
“Control that thing, if you please,” she snapped at Trew. “It could hurt her.” She snuggled the death adder against her throat.
“Keep her away from my hawk, Kira, and we won’t have a problem,” Trew drawled.
“Damn, she’s brave,” Derren said softly, watching them as avidly as me. “Who’d go near a thing like that?”
Kira, it seemed.
The cinderhawk ruffled its feathers and settled deeper onto Trew’s shoulder, only sparing the serpent one last glare.
Lexie glanced around to make sure no one was watching before leaning close to speak by my ear. “Kira’s brutal in a fight.”
“Is she with him?” I bit out, unable to stomach even one more bite of food when before, I’d been starving. I lifted my glass and took a long swig of my wine.
“Aiming high, aren’t you?” Lexie asked with a teasing grin.
I nearly choked on my drink. “What gives you the idea I’d go anywhere near him?”
“Why not? He’s gorgeous. Powerful. The king of all he surveys. Most here would kill to find a way into his bed. Maybe even me.” Her eyes sparkled with mischief.
Derren’s low growl made a few people nearby pause in their eating. “No way.”
“Oh, please.” Lexie stroked his face. “No one’s replacing you, you jealous beast.”
She pulled his head down for a kiss that started gentle and quickly became heated. Someone hooted, and the couple broke apart, sharing smiles.
I smiled along with them, but their kiss only emphasized my isolation. Everyone here seemed to have someone. A partner, a friend, a place where they belonged. I was the outsider, the pretender, the enemy about to unleash her claws.
“If you’re not interested in him,” Lexie said, turning back to me, “stop staring at him like he’s pastry on a plate.” Her grin came filled with pure mischief.
