It’s another white egg. He holds it gingerly in his hand, turning it over. There’s not a crack on it.
Light flashes from his fingertips, brief and bright. Ronan carefully tucks the nest back into the cavity, placing the warmed egg back inside.
Then he backs away. “I don’t know if that will make any difference. The starling will be back. But it was worth a try.”
I stare at him for a long moment, speechless.
I’ve never been more captivated by anyone in my life.
“What?” he asks, his good eye amused.
“It’s just…you’re not what I expected.”
“What did you expect?”
A monster. A villain. “I don’t know. Just not…that.”
Ronan, wearing Soren’s face, smiles shyly. Then, his expression shifts to something more playful. “I’m sorry to disappoint you.”
I laugh at that.
With neither of us sure what we’re looking for, we abandon the search. Ronan leads us through the alleys back to the palace.
“Am I like you expected?” I ask as we walk, unable to resist. There’s something about seeing his face as Soren that frees me to speak with him in a way that I can’t with Ronan himself.
“Better,” he says, and it sends a shiver through me.
“Soren, I have to tell you something,” I say with mock seriousness. “I met someone.”
“Oh?” He looks fake-puzzled. “Was it a red-headed man, about this tall, quite a good duelist?”
He’s describing Titus, the man who beat me in the sword-fighting tournament.
A man who flirted with me. “You noticed that?”
“Oh, I wasn’t there. Far too busy with the imports. But I heard the two of you had quite a bit of tension. I’ve heard they’re placing bets on whether you end up married.”
“They aren’t.” They better not be. That would be absolutely mortifying.
“They are. But there are rumors that your heart belongs to another.”
That very same heart begins to pound. “Oh?”
“Are they true?” Ronan faces forward, unwilling to look me in the eye.
“Well, I don’t know about my heart. But there is a man. He’s difficult to describe.”
“Ruggedly handsome? Roguish with a heart of gold?”
“Definitely not. More like disturbingly perfect. Uncannily gorgeous. In a way that makes your eyes hurt when you look at him.”
He feigns being stabbed in the chest. “Thank the gods you aren’t talking about me. I’d be absolutely insulted.” He pauses. “Not even the heart of gold?”
“Well, there is a lot of gold involved, I guess,” I say lamely. It’s true, but it sours the mood almost immediately.
Ronan grimaces. “You want to know something stupid? I fuckinghategold.”
I stop in the middle of an alley underneath a clothesline. “What?”
