“If Maudoric cleared it, then I have no reason to care.”
“I wouldn’t know,” Lydrasa replied with a small, delicate shrug. She circled me, tracing her fingers over my shoulders. “What’s wrong, Kaldur? Are you upset with me?”
“I know what you’ve been up to,” I informed her when she came to stand in front of me. I grabbed her forearm when she tried to move away. “I don’t appreciate you spreading my private business. Nor is it your place. Consider this a warning, Lydrasa. Keep me out of your mouth.”
She licked her lips. Her voice dropped and she touched my arm. “Yet I remember a time when you begged me to keep youinmy mouth,Kyzaire.”
“Lydrasa,” I growled.
“Yes, yes,” she sighed, irritated. She dropped the act, like a curtain falling, and stalked away toward the shelves, which were littered in old artifacts from across the universe. Strange rocks and glittering gems. Grotesque little figurines and pots of bright colors. “I’m only watching out for you, Kaldur.”
I scoffed. “How exactly are you watching out for me? I’d love to hear this.”
“Don’tmake a mockery of me,Kyzaire,” she hissed. My title felt like a jab as she glared. “I know every noble in this territory. I’ve dined with or fucked or been a comforting friend to nearly all of them. I know what I’m doing. I only want what’s best for Vyaan. Myhome. I’m trying to make you remember that so you don’t become the nextKyzaireof this territory to throw away his power on akeeper.” I hid my flinch well, but she still caught it. “Ibelieve you will do great things here. When you and your brothers slowly started coming into power, uniting the Kaalium under one House again, I almost felt hopeful. I still feel hopeful.Whywould you compromise that?”
She wasn’t…wrong.
“Go on,” I said, showing her I was listening. That was the thing about Lydrasa. She might’ve liked to gossip and stick her nose where it didn’t belong, but I knew her loyalties were tied to House Kaalium. I knew she put Vyaan above all else. Her family had been here since the territory’s inception. Every ancestor in her family’s shrine had their soul gem in place here.Thatwas nearly as powerful as a blood bond.
I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t considered her as a potential wife. She would make Vyaan stronger, one of the better choices I could make for my territory. And while it would never be a love match, we respected one another as friends…and our sexual relationship had been satisfying. Many married couples wouldn’t be able to boast that.
“I don’t have to tell you, Kaldur. I know who you used to be. Everyone saw you as this unserious,lore-smoking womanizer with a charming smile that got you everything you ever wanted,” she said, approaching me. Her coy grin was gone, replaced with a serious expression, a hardened glint in her eyes. I swallowed, my nostrils flaring at her description. “But I know that’s not who you are, and you proved to these Houses that youarea very capable leader.
“But I’m here to remind you because you seem to have lost your way. The nobles of Vyaan ripped your uncle to shreds when he married that keeper. Laughed at him behind closed doors. You think you know what was said? You have no idea. Nobles don’t have tolikeyou, Kaldur. But if we are heading to war?—”
“We are not?—”
She shot me a look. “Please.If we are heading to war, the noble Houses don’t have to like you. But they do need to fear andrespect you. The one sure way to make sure they don’t? Fuck one of your keepers and elevate her position within your House. You’d be another silly fool of House Kaalium and prove them all right. You’ve worked hard to get here, to shake their perception of you since the beginning. Don’t throw everything away for awoman.”
“It’s nothing I haven’t already thought myself,” I finally said. “Believe me.”
“Oh, I do,” Lydrasa said. She raised her voice, “Come in.”
My brow furrowed, watching the door push open, a familiar face appearing. Velle. She’d been waiting.
“Don’t take it from me,” Lydrasa told me. She regarded the hybrid girl across the room, gesturing her forward. “Tell him what you told me, Velle.”
The keeper bit her lip, as if torn. I frowned.
“Don’t worry—you won’t be in trouble,” Lydrasa coaxed. To me, she said, “I think you should know who you have in your bed.”
My eyes connected with Velle’s. I knew she was a friend of Erina’s. She was the one who’d walked in on us that morning.
“If you have something to say, speak,” I told her, though I kept my tone even. Everything about this felt wrong, but if they knew something I didn’t…I needed to know. Citizen files could only tell me so much.
I heard her swallow. Her hands fidgeted in front of her like she was scared. “Erina and I have been friends ever since she started working at your keep,Kyzaire. Maudoric asked me to take her under my care as she got her bearings, and we’ve been close ever since. But I am loyal to your House and I thought you should know that she’s not who she seems. I brought it up to Lady Lydrasa because I know you are both friends and…”
“Go on,” I prompted, my tone slightly rougher. My brow was furrowed, my lips pressed into a thin line.
“Erina is a very ambitious girl,” Velle said. “And in ourconversations she’s made it clear that she intends to attach herself to a wealthy or noble family. Or to be a paid mistress of one of the Houses. Anything to gain status and wealth…but mostly for money.”
“And why is that?” I asked, narrowing my eyes. My heart had sped in my chest, dread beginning to build. Yet it didn’t sound like the female I’d come to know.
“Erina never had much growing up. She was an orphan…I’m not sure if she told you. She never wants to be poor again. But she also wants money because of—of Luc.”
“Luc?” I asked quickly, stilling. “Do you know him?”
“I knowofhim. They send each letters all the time,” Velle replied. Briefly, her eyes went to Lydrasa behind me. Her spine straightened. “Luc Denoren.”
