“Uh, no.” It was the best I had. I’d climbed the stairs because, well,Ihadto climb them.
“Well are you done being up here? Because you have a very important meeting with not one, buttwoPrincepes. Right now. And I was supposed to get you there a few minutes early.”
I blanched, the importance of that meeting suddenly striking me. We needed to get Aric’s alliance, and showing him the basic respect of being on time would likely influence his opinion of us. Pretendmagvisor not, I really shouldn’t be late. I certainly wouldn’t have a valid excuse if asked for one.
I fled past Stefano and shot down the stairs, jogging as fast as I could without tripping over my feet. He muttered something about insanity as he trailed behind me, and then we were scurrying down the hallway, racing to a pair of heavy wooden doors like those guarding Harthon’s library.
Stefano swung a door open and ushered me into the room just as I caught my breath.
Harthon faced us from where he sat at the head of a small, oval table. A man sat across from him, his back to us.
I was late.
Based on the hint of displeasure on Harthon’s face, he wasn’t happy at that fact.
At all.
“Thank you, Stefano. You can leave the wing. I’ll walk Etarla back,” he said in a voice that lacked the hint of familiar warmth I’d grown accustomed to.
This voice was stony. Unfeeling.
It was the voice I expected another Princeps to use when addressing a subordinate. Not Harthon.
Maybe it was an act for Princeps Aric. Maybe that was why I was supposed to be here a little early, so he could explain how this meeting was going to go.
After all, there’d been no other opportunity for him to brief me on this meeting. Since our initial conversation with North, Callen, and Ana, I hadn’t seen the man. According to Callen, he’d been occupied by the crop plague, personally visiting nearby village farms to deliver news of the rations and inspections.
Aric twisted in his seat as Stefano closed the door, locking me in the small, sparsely decorated room with two of the most powerful people in the Territories.
You’re supposed to be even more powerful than them,I reminded myself.
I schooled my features just as Aric’s face came into view. His short hair was a combination of blacks and grays, but his face was on the younger side, like Harthon’s. His structured jaw was clean shaven, his eyes almond-shaped, but it was the jagged scar, dark against his golden-brown skin, running from the corner of his right eye to his mouth that gave him a sense of brutality. He was big with muscle, burly like North, and I imagined the scar was earned in battle.
The Princeps struck me as a hunter, much like Harthon had appeared when he’d first chased me down. Except here in this room, I wasn’t prey.
That scar shifted as he grinned. One of his top teeth was cut short, as if it’d been cracked in two and never replaced. “You must be themagvisthe rumors have spoken of,” he said in a smooth tenor.
I thought carefully about how to respond. With Ellan, I’d been borderline rude as themagvis,and he hadn’t even questioned the attitude. But it was apparent that Aric was a different animal.
“I don’t care much for rumors, but I am themagvis,” I replied cautiously, testing the waters with my natural response.
“I don’t care much for rumors either, as they often leave out important details, such as how stunning you are.”
Oh.
Knocked off-kilter by his bold words, I searched for a response.Apparently, this was plain on my face, because he essentially pointed it out. “Has Harthon here failed to tell you how stunning you are?”
Harthon hadn’t called me stunning, but he had called me beautiful. Not that he’d done so in recent days.
I internally shook my head, focusing on the task at hand. Themagviswouldn’t care about being called beautiful or stunning or being kissed. “It’s irrelevant to me. I don’t care for mundane compliments,” I said, forcing a flat tone.
“Everyone enjoys compliments, beautiful,” he drawled, oozing dangerous charm.
Perhaps he was trying to off-center me, digging for a sign that I wasn’t themagvis.That was what a cunning leader would do.
Play your role.
“I don’t consider myself to be like everyone, for obvious reasons.”
