Rhay offered her a glass and grabbed another one for himself. “To the sky,” they cheered. The drink tingled a bit, as if she was biting into something very bad but also very tempting.
She took a seat on a blue velvet sofa while Rhay respectfully sat on a chair. An awkward silence settled between them. Amira sipped her drink while avoiding Rhay’s vibrant eyes.
“I wonder how it’s going to look,” Rhay said, breaking the silence.
Amira raised her head, intrigued by the statement. “What are you talking about?”
“Your engagement portrait.”
Amira’s interest immediately dropped. “The painter is very talented.”
“Oh, yes she is,” replied Rhay with a strange smile.
Amira wanted to press him with questions, but she wasn’t sure that she would enjoy the response. “Have you ever had your portrait done by her?”
“By her, no, but one of my most prized possessions is a portrait of my parents and I. I was barely a year old when they made it so I don’t really remember the posing time, but it’s one of the last images of my mother.”
Amira smiled gently at Rhay. She could feel the pain of his loss. “I’m very sorry. I know how hard it is to lose a parent. And you were really young, right?”
Rhay looked at the bottom of his drink when he replied. “I was only six. She died in an attack while travelling back from her sister’s house. There was a lot of instability in Sapharos back then.”
Amira couldn’t find the proper words to express her compassion. She decided to keep the conversation going. “Did you leave Sapharos soon after?”
Rhay downed his drink and grabbed another one. “Yes. My father was an advisor for Queen Kaede, but Harten Adelway had offered him a position a long time ago. He had said no at the time because my mother wanted me to be raised in Lazuli. But after her death, it was too hard for my father to stay.”
“So you’ve grown up in the palace?”
“Yes, right along Karwyn. We were the same age.” He paused for a second. “It helped, having someone who knew what it felt like to lose a mother. Karwyn had lost his mother barely a year before I moved to Parae.” Before Amira could intervene, Rhay hastily added, “Plus, Karwyn also had quite a complicated personality. He was never interested in making a ton of friends.”
“That part hasn’t changed,” Amira replied dryly.
Rhay’s lips parted in an agreeing grin. “Can’t really prove you wrong after today.” His face suddenly turned serious. “It wasn’t easy for him, you know, growing up in his brother’s shadow.”
Amira almost spat out her drink. “He had a brother?”
Rhay avoided her inquiring eyes. He looked so regretful, like he had just broken a very important promise. “Please don’t ever mention this to Karwyn.” He had never sounded more serious.
Amira put a hand to her heart. “I promise. But how come I’ve never heard of him?” She thought back to the portrait she had seen of the Adelway family before the Dark King had killed most of them. Had one of the two children pictured been Karwyn’s brother?
“It’s not a complete secret. His brother died in the fight against the Dark King almost 75 years ago. You’re too young to have heard of him, but he is quite famous in Turosian. The king was very proud of his son and when he died, no one knew who would replace Harten on the throne when the time would come.”
“But then he had Karwyn.”
“Yes, and he has always compared the two. But how could Karwyn compete with a dead man? Only his greatness had stayed as his legacy, none of his faults.”
Amira took in all this new information. In her head, she could see a young Karwyn desperately trying to gain his father’s approval. It made him appear so…vulnerable.
Rhay shook his head in disbelief and looked at his empty drink. “I really made them strong this time.”
“I thought it was a fool-proof recipe,” Amira joked to lighten the mood.
“I shouldn’t have told you all that. You’re just so easy to talk to.”
“Are you sure it’s not just the drinks?”
Rhay laughed. “Well, that too. But I mean it, you’re a good person, Amira. There aren’t many fae you can have a genuine conversation with here at court.”
She could feel her cheeks turning red. She wasn’t used to such pure compliments. A bit of sadness sank her heart as she remembered the feeling of Karwyn invading her thoughts. “Karwyn doesn’t think so,” she whispered.
