Sasha’s fingers curled into the front of my jacket like she’d been waiting for the excuse. She tasted like mint and sunlight. When I pulled back, she was already smiling.
“If we kiss at every window, we’ll never eat,” she said,tugging me close for another kiss. “But we’ll be fueled by joy.”
We did try to keep moving. We failed twice more. Savory swooped past, a black streak with opinions. Sasha listened and bit back a laugh.
“What’s she saying?” I asked.
“That we’re causing a blockage on the staircase, and she’s filing a complaint with the household staff.”
“Of course she is.”
When we turned onto the hallway leading to the dining room, we found Lord Turren standing halfway down it, staring at his reflection in a silver wall mirror as if it had personally offended him. His purple hair had been perfectly slicked back, and he wore a dark tunic, not his usual purple. He caught sight of us and stiffened.
“Your Majesties.” He inclined his head toward us and cleared his throat. “I had time to think last night.”
My shoulders tensed, and I forced them to loosen. “So did I.”
His mouth flattened. “I…see how, when one is attempting to protect an entire court from a shadowy threat, one might, through no fault of one’s aesthetic sensibilities, suspect someone who is both ubiquitous and dazzling.” He paused. “I accept that.”
This was the closest thing to grace I’d seen from him, but guilt still pricked under my ribs.
He pivoted to the mirror, checked his profile, and smirked at his reflection. “However. I discovered something fascinating. With the darker circles and this particular pallor…” He angled his chin. “I look incredible as a villain. Positively sinister.” He flicked his tunic hem. “Aren’t I the most marvelous villain you’ve ever seen?”
Sasha covered her mouth with her hand, her eyes sparkling. “Absolutely terrifying.”
“The worst,” I said.
“Delicious,” the lord said with a happy sigh. He waved toward the open dining room door. “Shall we? If I must be wrongly accused, I intend to breakfast as a tragic figure.”
We walked together. He kept glancing at every reflective surface and making tiny evil faces. Sasha’s shoulder brushed my arm, and her mouth twitched.
“Yourvillain smirk could use work,” she whispered to me.
“I’ll ask him for lessons.”
“Do.”
We reached the door and stepped inside. Sunlight washed light across the long table and vases full of flowers positioned between tea cups and platters heaped with food. The air smelled like rashers, fresh bread, and the sweet tang of ripening fruit. Chairs slid back as we approached, and we took our places. Staff flowed in, pouring tea in our cups, primwort for Sasha. Savory landed on the back of a chair and studied the food waiting on the platters.
Lady Featherby settled into a chair across from us and studied the choices. “Oh, what a lovely presentation. I wasn’t sure if I had much appetite, but I have to admit the pastries look tempting.”
Lady Kenneth entered in a fitted tunic and pants, her hair braided tight, a pencil behind one ear. “Morning. I’m famished. We’ll need every bit of energy for today, right?” She slid into a seat and took a sip of her tea.
Lord Primrose swept in like a pastel storm, her a jacket stitched with embroidered foxes and thistles and an unnecessary number of pearl buttons. After Lady Daphnie had sat, he kissed her hand and then her forehead and then theair around her, as if he was kissing the very idea of her. She responded with a sweet sigh.
“My heart,” he said, producing a handkerchief and waving it close to an open butter dish, “this dawn gifts us two suns, the literal one and the inferno of your gaze, my dear wife.”
Lady Daphnie pretended to swoon. “My love, must you set me ablaze before breakfast? I am but a fragile flower.”
“Do fragile flowers order the kitchen to add three extra baskets of sugar twists?” Lady Featherby whispered to me as she passed a plate of pastries down the table. “I’m not judging, of course.”
Lady Edwina floated in, the velvet pouch at her hip jingling. After taking a seat beside Lord Turren, she scattered her divination stones across his napkin.
He caught a tumbling stone before it rolled into his lap and hissed in her direction.
She blinked at him.
“Today, I’m a villain,” he announced to the room in general.
