“According to the sprites sent by the commander, they breached the throne room and doused your eternal flames.”
His intake of air is sharp, as though the guard announced the entire castle had been demolished.
“Anything else?” Dante asks.
“That’s all, Altezza,” the second guard says, wiping his brow.
Marco sputters. “Anythingelse?” Smoke drifts off his gold brocade tunic. From his clenched knuckles, as well.
Since he isn’t Crow, I suspect he isn’t about to burst into an amorphous blob.
Blob?
I smile at Morrgot’s reaction. Until I remember he can literally read every thought in my head.
“It’s a direct attack on the crown!” Even though Dante stands between us, the heat radiating off the crowned monarch suffuses my skin. “Justus, ready my ship! We leave tonight. I want to gut the traitorous rats myself, then burn their carcasses, and have their ashes blown across Racocci.”
My hands drop to my stomach that gives a violent kick at his disproportionate retaliation plot. I look toward Dante, willing him to slake his brother’s thirst for murder by reminding him that putting out flames may be insulting but hardly worth snuffing out lives.
Marco storms toward the door but halts at the guard’s softly delivered, “Maezza.”
“What?” he barks.
Roberto seems suddenly fascinated by his sand-crusted boots. “No one was caught.”
The relief that hits me is so heady, I almost swoon.
“What do you mean, no one was caught?” the king snaps.
“Meaning, they got away.”
“Who did you fucking leave in charge of my kingdom, Dante?”
Dante’s jaw clenches. “Like I mentioned earlier, I left Commander Dargento in charge.”
Marco’s crown slides across his sweat-lacquered brow. He shoves it back in place before ripping it off his braided tresses and lobbing it to one of the guards who just manages to catch it. “Dargento is an impotent imbecile.”
I never expected to see eye to eye with the king on any matter, but I must admit, he has Silvius down pat.
“I hope you’re proud.” He pokes Dante’s chest, and smoke curls from the white shirt. Then he grips a handful and heaves his brother toward him until his mouth is flush with Dante’s ear and hisses words I fail to catch. When he shoves him away, the fabric of the prince’s shirt is charred. “Tell my fiancée that I’m going home so that my kingdom doesn’t fall to imbeciles because of an imbecile.” And then he thunders out the door, Justus and a fleet of soldiers in his shadow.
The imbecile he speaks of, is it his brother or Silvius?
I’m still angry at Dante yet can’t help but touch his arm. “Are you all right?”
He glowers at me as thoughI’dsinged his shirt, then plows forward, toward the throng of revelers. He’s intercepted at the front by a young woman with skin as white as snow and a dress that seems woven from snowflakes.
She touches his wrist, raising eyes as silver as her dress to Dante. Although his nostrils still flare, he doesn’t flinch away from her touch. She asks him something I don’t hear over the loud chatter, and I catch his chest lifting in a sigh.
She touches his cheek with a gloved hand, and although he catches her wrist and tows it away, my chest tightens with jealousy. Her gaze slips past Dante and lands on me. Alyona and I haven’t been introduced, and yet we clearly know about each other.
Dante’s hand glides up her arm, settling on her elbow. He tugs, spinning her away from me, and leading her into the crowd. Because he’s taller than most, when his head turns toward me, our eyes lock. Can he see the pain he’s caused me? And if he can, does it bring him any guilt?
The scent of potpourri overwhelms me as my aunt comes to stand before me. “Best you leave now. You’ve outstayed your welcome, Fallon.” She smooths hands adorned with twinkling yellow diamonds and pointy red nails down the satiny folds of her dress. They’re the hands of a woman who has everything done for her.
“Funny you should use that word seeing as there was nothing welcoming about the moment we spent in each other’s company.” How I hope Morrgot and Sewell are finished. I’m very ready to leave. “Any message you’d like me to carry back to your sister and mother?”
“What sister?”
