He’s really gone all out for this dinner.
The Prince of Thorns is resplendent in his formal attire. A rich maroon shirt emphasizes the purple flecks in his dark, alluring eyes. His toned forearms are on display with sleeves rolled up. The fitted black trousers perfectly hug his legs, while a matching waistcoat adorned with shining buttons completes the ensemble. A cloak of shadows, black as night, drapes over his broad shoulders, adding a hint of magic to his already striking appearance.
A half smile curves his full lips, while his dark hair has been slicked back, except for a single piece that falls over his brow.
Surprisingly, Kel hasn’t launched into a tirade yet. I turn to see his stunned expression mirrors my own.
I guess it’s not every day you see your arch enemy standing in your entrance hall expecting dinner. They have some sort of history. A betrayal. My gaze drifts to Kel’s wrist. He has a bargain with Caspian, one he refuses to tell me about.
“Well,” Caspian’s dark eyes roam over us, “if it isn’t my two favorite people in all the Vale.”
“You’re not welcome here,” Kel finally speaks, stepping in front of me.
Caspian picks an invisible piece of lint from his shirt, positively unbothered. “Really, Kel? After your mate was so kind to invite me?”
So, he knows I’m Kel’s mate. “That was before you decided to spread your thorns in the Winter Realm,” I say.
“Hmm.” Caspian smirks. “I thought you liked my thorns, Princess.”
Two small vines slither up from the ground and twine around my ankles.Pleasure and pain, remember?His voice echoes in my mind.
I remember the day he watched me pleasure myself in the castle gardens. Rage sweeps through me, and I free myself from the briars.
It won’t be enough to ask him to leave. He’s too powerful. He’s literally got the entire castle under his wraps. And the princes’ magic is weak because of it, while his own remains unbridled. Perhaps even stronger if he truly is sucking the magic from Castletree. Keldarion can puff his chest all he wants, but the only way Caspian leaves here is if he wants to. “Tell me why you came.”
“Is it so hard to believe I want to eat dinner with you lovely fae?”
“Yes,” Keldarion and I say at the same time.
“Stars.” Caspian holds his hands up in a peaceful gesture. “Fine. I heard you have an impossible problem. And I love to figure out the impossible.”
“Farron?” I breathe.
Caspian reaches toward me, almost as if to touch my cheek, before dropping his hand. “Come now, loves,” he purrs. “I can hardly discuss details on an empty stomach.”
I’vehadmyfairshare of awkward dinners at this dining table. And I expected one with the Prince of Thorns to be the most awkward of all.
Except it’s not.
Not in the slightest.
Were the three fae princes surprised when Keldarion and I walked in with Caspian at our side? Indeed.
The vacant seat beside Farron and the ice wall didn’t please him, so he dragged the chair all the way around the table and pushed it between Keldarion and me, so now I’m in the middle of the Prince of Thorns and Ezryn.
But that was it, the only awkward thing. Because now, the wine is flowing, plates are empty and… everyone is laughing. Even Keldarion. And the Prince of Thorns has the goddamn cockiest shit-eating grin on his beautiful face.
I pop my fifth jelly tart into my mouth, waving away the wine Dayton offers me. Don’t these idiots realize the Prince of Thorns is here and we need to be on high alert? But they’re all so invested in some story he brought up. A memory of a lake by a place called the Prismatic Palace.
“I bloody knew it was you who put the frogs in Tilla’s bed,” Dayton laughs, his cheeks flushed from the wine.
Caspian just tilts his cup.
Farron clutches his belly and wheezes. “I remember asking Day if a rooster got loose in the palace. That’s what her scream sounded like.”
“Who is Tilla again?” I ask, losing count of all the names they’ve mentioned.
Caspian wipes a crumb off my cheek with a napkin. “Darling, swallow before you ask questions. No one can understand you with a mouth full of pastry.”
