She couldn’t quite get her head around what he was saying. But one thing stuck. “Captain Lanval isn’t my lover.”
“Whatever you say, Princess.”
She could feel her hackles rising. He’d stopped at princess, but she heard the rest anyway. Oh, she knew what they called her. Princess Peevish. Frigid. Barren. Heartless. Even once she was queen, they still called her princess.
But they didn’t knowher. Never even tried.
Ballanor had started it. Amusing jibes and cutting remarks. He had come up with Princess Peevish, him and Grendel, and the rest of the court naturally followed.
All except Keely. And Val. Val with his powerful wings held back, always under relentless self-control. His black hair falling across his cobalt blue eyes in a way that made her fingers itch to stroke it back. Val who she….
No. She absolutely wasn’t going there.
And she still couldn’t quite believe the guard opposite her. “Grendel’s really dead?” she whispered.
He raised flashing eyes, dripping scorn. “Why do you think I’m here?”
“I have no idea.”
“Of course you don’t.” The guard’s voice oozed with sarcasm as copper-colored scales flashed along his arms, all the way to his jaw, like bristling armor.
She knew enough about the Tarasque to know it meant he was losing himself to his beast, and she took a step back, glad of the bars separating them.
And then lifted her chin and stepped forward again. She was sick to death of the way she was treated, and she wasn’t standing for it anymore. What was the worst he could do—kill her? “I don’t see how you can think I have anything to do with it. I’ve been in a cell since last night. You watched them drag me here.”
His lip curled. “We all know you’ve been conspiring against the king.”
“How? How do you know that? How would I even manage it locked in my room all day? Which you know, since you’re one of the men who held me there.”
The guard blinked heavily, as if he was considering her point. But then his jaw firmed belligerently. “Your lover has been helping you. The traitor who’s now free thanks to his murderous harpy of a sister.” Rage filled his eyes. “You and your precious captain have cost me everything. So many years, so many things I’ve had to do”—a brief flicker of distaste crossed his face—“and all for nothing. I was so very close. And now, instead of the promotion to Captain of the Blues that I was promised, here I am with you. First I was blamed for the Hawks getting into your rooms and now, given one chance to redeem myself, I’m being punished for the death of the very man who was about to give me everything I wanted.”
Could it be true? Grendel dead? Could they have all escaped? She was slightly in awe of Nim, Val’s strong, confident sister. The woman he had spoken of so often. Whom she had so longed to be like. If anyone could have killed Grendel, it would have been Nim.
She let herself sink slowly to the edge of the hard cot. Half daring to hope that they were all alive. That the only people who had ever cared for her, the people who she cared for more than anything, might have survived.
She was glad. So very glad for them. Terrified for herself. Completely alone. But also, glad.
One fickle tear escaped, and she brushed it away with numb fingers.
“And you say he’s not your lover.” The derisive snort mocked her.
She shook her head, not bothering to answer. Val would never be her lover, no matter what she might have wished. That hopeless daydream was dead.
As she would be in less than a day.
Chapter Four
“You’re sayingthat Ballanor was abusing his wife since the day she arrived in the palace while you were forced to listen, and that was the secret that you couldn’t tell us?”
Val dipped his chin slowly, hackles raised, not clear on whether Tristan’s appalled tone implied disapproval or disbelief. Did he think that Val would have chosen to let a woman get hurt like that? Or did he think he was making it all up?
“But that still doesn’t explain what happened at Ravenstone.” Ah. Disbeliefanddisapproval. What a surprise.
Val rolled his shoulders back to loosen the stiff muscles and forced his clenched fists to open. Forced his aching wings back down. He crossed his arms in front of his chest and held them like that as his shivers started up again. Gods, he was tired.
“I don’t know for certain what happened at Ravenstone any more than you. I was walking with Princess Alanna when I saw sunlight glinting off metal under the trees. I didn’t have time to do anything except throw her up onto Boreas and try to warn you as best I could. But given that Ballanor was dead set against the treaty, and he was the one who set up the meeting and then suddenly couldn’t go, it’s not all that difficult to guess. Especially when you take into account how desperate he was for me to confess and his refusal to send us before the Nephilim justice.”
Tristan shook his head, scales glittering at his wrists as he scowled. “Why didn’t you come straight to us? We could have protected you. Surely you could see how guilty it made you look when you disappeared off like that?”
