Stars, he is tall.
I lean to the side, peering around him until I catch Awri’s eyes, noting the confusion on her face. I smile. My annoyance at his rudeness and his unreasonable disdain for me is overwhelming, and I can’t help but let a little of my natural sarcasm slip.
“The general and I like to play a little game called ‘who’s the more sullen child.’” I sigh exaggeratedly and thank the stars when Awri smiles at my quip, choking back a laugh. I continue, “I’m extremely competitive and I hate to admit that I’ve yet to beat him at the game.”
“Donotspeak to me like that,” he hisses.
“I wasn’t. I was speaking with Awri before you interrupted. We were just discussing our plans for tomorrow.”
He turns a delicious shade of red when I deliver the news, and I smile up at him. The male is far too easy to rile. The smile quickly falls from my face when I consider exactly who it is I’m vexing and just how much of an impediment he could be to my introduction to his king.
His lips quirk up at the edges like he can tell exactly what I’m thinking, and I decide that I don’t really care to be in his presence, not now or ever again.
“General, perhaps you could give us a little privacy,” Awri says sweetly, and I wish I knew how to make my voice as placating as she so easily can.
I make a mental note to practice her exact tone and the gentle flutter of her lashes.
“I think I’ll stay,” he says through gritted teeth.
“I’m not asking, General. I will be with you shortly.” She tips her chin toward the end of the garden path, and just like that, he puts twenty paces between us without so much as a harrumph. Though, he does seem like theharrumphing type.
“I didn’t realize you could command the general,” I whisper, making sure to lock eyes with the male just to irritate him, before reminding myself again why I do not want to annoy him any further. “That might come in handy.”
“Only if you intend to start a war,” she laughs, and I join in, hoping it doesn’t seem forced.
Awri is quick to set a time for us to meet in the morning, before appeasing the general by allowing him to escort her back to her brother’s side. I catch her smiling at me throughout the evening, just as often as I catch her brother and the general brooding with their heads together, casting occasional sideways glances in my direction.
My uncle does his duty well, spending the rest of the evening making important introductions. Though he informs me that he is set on me fostering a friendship with the siblings above all others. It isn’t until late in the evening that I realize there are a handful of beautiful young women scattered throughout the party, their singular task to make similar connections. I wonder how many of them have traveled to A’kori for the same purpose I have—a moment alone with the king. I imagine, should they succeed, their plans with the male differ greatly from my own.
CHAPTER 11
THE MANOR, A’KORI
Present Day
“They are close friends of the kings,” Felias says, producing a flimsy, pale blue A’kori gown from the closet. “You won’t find better influence anywhere on the continent.”
He’d come to my room early, still ecstatic about my encounter with the siblings, and eager to fill me in on what he knows about them.
Yawning, I rub the sleep from my eyes before cinching a thin dressing robe around my waist.
“Why didn’t you mention them before?” I ask.
“I felt it unlikely they would take to you.”
I try not to be offended as I walk to my vanity, spearing my fingers through my hair, running them through the hefty tangles I have accumulated in my sleep.
“Sit,” Felias says, all but shoving me onto a heavily cushioned bench behind a dark wooden desk below a colorfully stained window.
I frown at my sleep rumpled face in the mirror just as my uncle does the same, though his attention is fixed on my hair. He runs his fingersthrough it, freeing the tangled strands with ease, then selects a gold comb from the table, twisting half of my hair into a knot, and pinning it to the back of my head.
“They must be powerful if they are close to the king,” I say absently.
It is the thing that occupied my mind until I fell asleep last night, and the first thing in my head upon waking. Getting close to the wrong type of feyn, in my profession, would be a death sentence. What if they can read minds? Influence emotions? Provoke desire?
“They are, but not in the way you might expect. Awri is aGlier. She has the ability to change the appearance of something or someone.”
That would be a handy trick for a Drakai on an assignment to end the life of a king.
