He rolled his eyes at Masakage. “You want me to set it up?”
Evar nodded. “He won’t listen to us or even return any message I’ve sent.”
That made sense to Xaydin. “I take it that you don’t want to go to his kingdom.”
Evar gave Xaydin a droll stare. “Rather not, as I’m sure I wouldn’t come back. At least not alive.”
He was right about that. “I’ll see what I can do,” Xaydin promised.
“Thank you.”
When Mischief started to leave with her brother, Xaydin called her back.
She hesitated at first, then excused herself from her brother to return to their table. “What?”
“Take a seat.” Xaydin indicated the one beside Ronan.
“Do I have a choice?” she asked.
“Not at the moment.”
Sighing heavily, she pulled the chair out and sat down, then waved at the server to bring another tankard. “Yes, I’m a princess. No, I don’t want to talk about it. What else is on your mind?”
“So, so many things.” Xaydin held his tankard in his hand as he tried to sort through what little any of them knew about her.
Except for possibly Ronan. The two of them had always been close.
“Did you know?” he asked him.
Ronan shook his head. “I had suspicions, but she didn’t speak about it and I never asked. Always assumed she’d tell me what she wanted me to know, and if she didn’t mention it, it wasn’t any of my business.”
She reached over and covered his hand with hers. “Thank you.”
“I’m always on your side. You know that.”
Arching a brow, Xaydin exchanged an I-told-you-so smirk with Masakage.
Like I didn’t know,Masakage said in his mind.
True. Everyone knew Ronan loved Mischief. The only question was if she loved him back. She’d never given any real clues about her feelings other than to claim she had no feelings whatsoever.
Which they’d known was bullshit. But she did do a better job of hiding them than anyone else he’d ever met.
Xaydin took a drink. “We respect your right to withhold. However, how are we supposed to help your brother?”
“I have no idea. I told him this wasn’t something he should do. But he’s older, so he never listens to me.” She cocked her head. “Kind of like you, X.”
“Don’t take it personally. I don’t listen to anyone.”
Ronan choked. “So not true. Have you not noticed you give total deference to Lady Gisela?”
“Princess Gisela,” he corrected. “And you won’t speak of her unless it’s to lavish praise upon her glorious being.”
They all laughed at him.
Until they realized he wasn’t kidding.
“Nice to know you still have no sense of humor.” Candara set her empty tankard down. “I’ll work up a spell so that Mardyth can come ashore. But it probably won’t last long. Maybe half an hour.”
