I devour my breakfast—eggs, sausage, roasted vegetables, and a chewy honeyed pastry that I’ve grown particularly fond of and that has appeared more and more frequently on the palace menu in recent weeks, purely coincidentally, I’m sure.
As I’m eating, Ronan explains that he’ll need to spend the day, possibly the next few days, dealing with the Alchemists’Guild situation. He invites me to join him, but I decline, at least for today. I need to let Larus know what happened to me before they hear it from someone else. (And Adria too, I suppose.)
And I need to find out if Larus has managed to derail the invasion. Because there is one last thing between us—the reason that we came here. I want to tell him the truth even more now after he saved me. After what happened between us last night.
But I can’t betray my family. Not unless I have no other choice.
After breakfast and one final morning tumble in the sheets, Ronan shows me a passage that leads from his chambers to the hall that contains the chambers Adria and I share.
“I’d like to introduce you to the court,” he says, suddenly shy, as I’m about to leave. “At the closing ball. If it would be alright with you.”
He doesn’t say it, but I understand his meaning. He’d like to introduce me to the court as his consort. His partner.
It’s a serious move. From what I know of courtly politics, only official relationships receive such an introduction typically, and only when the monarch or other royal intends to marry, although the marriage could still be far off.
It’s a lot to grasp. As much as I feel for him, I don’t know how I feel about letting everyone else know. There’s a part of me that wants to shout it from the palace rooftops, but there’s also a part of me that wants to keep it entirely to ourselves. To keep it our secret, something that we share with only each other, for as long as possible.
Maybe it’s the shadow-born in me.
“Oh,” he says, feeling my panic. There’s a twinge of pain, and then he smiles mischievously. “Of course. I’m getting ahead of myself. Our secret for now, then.”
And then he fucking winks at me.
“I swear to the gods—”
“You love it,” he says, winking wildly so that it looks like his face is spasming and pulling me into his arms.
He kisses me while laughing. The kiss deepens, as all of our kisses seem to do now, but he breaks from it, spanking me as he sends me into the passage.
“Get out of here before I take you back to bed,” he says, and I sigh as I return to my chambers, missing him already.
I find Adria and Larus together in a palace courtyard, watching the winning comedy street performance. It’s a bawdy, silly affair about fishmongers going on an epic quest; Quinn and I saw it a couple of weeks ago before the competition came to a close.
“And where have you been?” Adria whispers to me.
Damn. I was hoping she would have found someone to keep her entertained last night, but it seems like she noticed I was gone.
“Kidnapped,” I say simply. Larus’s eyes open wide. “Nearly killed.”
“Very funny,” she says.
“Sylvie?” asks Larus, realizing I’m serious.
“I found the missing shadow-born I told you about a few weeks ago,” I say to Adria. “The Guild Mistress decided I needed to join their number. Apparently Hermes was helping her. He’s dead.”
That finally gets her attention. “Are you saying that the Mistress of the Alchemists’ Guild kidnapped shadow-born?”
“Kidnapped you?” asks Larus.
This is the part I know they’ll both like. They know he’s still alive, so it doesn’t jeopardize their plans. “It was a trap for the king.”
They shoot an approving look between them. “Did it work?” asks Adria. She guides me by the shoulder, and the three of us leave the courtyard and head onto a path out of the palace.
The streets are busy once again, this time with carts full of the incoming harvest. The harvest festival next week, which I’d once thought to be a dangerous waste of limited resources, is now something I’m really looking forward to. Even Adria forgets to mime her discontent as a cart of wonderfully fragrant plums passes.
We find a bench overlooking an empty plaza, tucked out of the way of the main thoroughfare. There, I explain to them how the king rescued me and healed me, killing Zara in the process.
“And you stayed with him last night?”
