“Slim pickings.” He stuck a piece of twine in his mouth. “I’ve tried thawing out Kiera, but to my incredible regret, she’s not interested in men.”
“Maybe she’s not interested inyou,” I said.
His mouth lifted in that mallow-sweet grin of his. “Sugar, when in confinement, you do what you can with what you have. And frankly, between me and Cruz, the little Daneelie’s spoiled rotten.” He removed the twine from his mouth and waved it at me. “However, if you’re completely opposed to walking around naked—”
“I’m completely opposed to it.”
“—then we have some extra clothing in the caves. Not the Neverrian finery you’re used to, but it’ll beat a damp suit.” He pushed off the tree. “Come. I’ll take you to our walk-in wardrobe while Remo finishes up with the tiger.”
Remo rose, rolling his bloodstained knuckles into fists. “She’s not going anywhere with you, Kingston.”
I got to my feet and gripped Remo’s taut forearm before he could swing it toward my uncle. Not because I cared about Kingston—I absolutely didn’t—but Iba had taught me to choose my battles, and this one wasn’t the right one to wage.
Kingston hitched up one of his eyebrows, the one that wasn’t riddled with welts. “Is that jealousy coloring your tone, Farrow Junior? Could what Kiera have said on the beach actually be true? A Farrow and a Wood, romantically entangled?Oh . . .the court intrigue I’ve missed out on.” He twirled his little vine. “How did you end up dating the help, Amara? Actually, let me guess . . . My dearest brother is worried about Gregor stealing his throne, so he outright gave it to him? Am I right?” He looked from me to Remo and back, then clapped. “Ooh, I am.”
A nerve ticked in Remo’s jaw.
“How have the others not forced the apple down your throat?” I asked.
“Simple. I took it from Cruz’s cave the first week I was here and hid it.” He tapped his little vine against his thigh.
A surge of lethal animosity shot through me. “Would it be wrong to gas him?”
“I have no objections,” Remo said.
“Gas me?” Kingston laughed. He actually laughed with tears in his eyes and everything. “With what exactly? A handful of sand? Oh, sweet little niece, your powers don’t work in here, in case you haven’t realized.”
When he flicked my nose with his liana strand, Remo grabbed him around the throat and dangled him in the air.
“I’ll just come back.” His hair fluttered around his purpling face. “And when I do . . . I’ll be very grumpy.”
Remo set him down so roughly my uncle stumbled backward.
Still flushed, he added, “Has it already slipped your puny caveman brain that I have the apple, Farrow?”
“Nothing slips my puny caveman brain, Little King.”
“Call me that again, and—”
“You’ll run to your cave and grab your fucking apple?” Remo spit. “Good luck trying to shove it down my throat.”
I laid my palm at the base of Remo’s taut spine. “He’s your ticket out of here, Kingston. You feed him the apple, you will never see the outside of this prison.”
A pulse point in Kingston’s neck throbbed. “I calldileshit. If Remo had come to free me, we wouldn’t have had to fight offtigri.”
Remo’s mouth curled in that signature smirk of his, the one he used to toss my way. “Is that what you were doing? Fighting?”
Kingston rubbed his mottled neck. “To think I was going to make youwariff. You can forget about having any position in my government after this.”
I stuck one hand on my hip. “Your government? And which government is that, Kingston?”
Kingston shot me another syrupy smile. “Why, the one I’ll inherit from your father, Amara. Why do you think I was kept alive?”
“Except Remo’s my fiancé, which means Gregor has no use for his puppet.”
His smile flickered like a faulty faelight as he absorbed my news. In the end, he spit out, “I’m no one’spuppet, niece.”
“That’s not the rumor circulating around Neverra.”
