“It is music. Complex, intricate music that people train lifetimes to master. Not caterwauling.”
“I have to side with Danten on this one, Reyn.” Khiran said. “The last opera I attended sounded a lot like Marseo crying in the middle of the night.”
“Then you are truly lucky to have such a talented son.”
Danten chuckled, then glanced at the clock above the mantle. “I should be off. It was lovely seeing you, Lady Reyn. Khiran, I’ll see you tonight.”
“Eight o’clock. You get Velario, and I’ll bring Del.”
Once Danten left, Reyn couldn’t suppress her curiosity. “You are doing something with Lord Velario tonight?”
Selona’s cousin was not the easygoing companion that Danten was. She was mad at him, insulted by how he treated her, and absolutely curious about him. Despite storming off after dancing with him, she wanted to talk to him again. Probably because he was the only person she felt like she could be herself around. She didn’t need to pretend to be a particular version of Lady Reyn around him—he had already decided he didn’t like her.
Now that Merine was several kingdoms distant, talking with Velario had been the conversation she had felt most free to be herself. Even with Selona, Reyn tailored her responses a little. She hid her foul moods.
Khiran shrugged. “Just a card game. Danten thinks Velario has been working too hard of late and needs a break.”
“What exactly does Velario do?”
“He manages the banks in Tryn. In all of Lhanaperi, I suppose.”
“I didn’t realize the banks were a part of Family Ferrini. I know Selona is working in one, but I thought she was an exception in the family. She mentioned wanting to work at the bank because otherwise she has to report to her father, and she thinks he still doesn’t see her as a grown woman.”
“All five Elector Families own the banks. They are currently under Velario’s oversight, though.” Khiran cleared his throat. “Now then, could you feel your lure?”
Reyn blinked. Usually, Khiran had her focus on an emotion or pretend she was in a certain situation in order to access her power. She only succeeded about half the time, and never with any sort of conscious control. “I was luring?”
“Off and on.”
She frowned. “No, I sensed nothing. I wasn’t trying to lure.”
“Well, what were you feeling?”
Reyn considered. She had asked about Velario out of curiosity. He had so clearly judged her as unworthy of his time or attention; she wondered what he devoted himself to. All right, and a little resentment might have crept in there too, because he considered her beneath him.
She tried to be honest, but also diplomatic, since Khiran was friends with the other man. “Curiosity and annoyance. Lord Velario and I do not see eye to eye.”
Khiran pressed his lips together and hummed. “Maybe we’ve been approaching this all wrong. Even though your lure is lust-based, the trigger might be something else entirely. The few times you’ve used it when you were pretending to flirt, were you thinking, uh . . . seductive thoughts? Or was your focus more on how to best someone?”
Reyn thought through her practices with Khiran. Usually, when he asked her to pretend he was someone else and flirt, she felt awkward more than anything. Let’s see, she had been more successful than not the time she pretended he was Lady Celedra, rather than a gentleman she wanted to flirt with.
Reyn’s relationship with Lady Celedra, Merine’s new sister-in-law, and a spoiled brat who had considered herself the heir of the Daaljene throne, had been antagonistic, to say the least. Reyn’s time in Daalj usurping Celedra’s social dominance had also been when she had truly begun to believe she had a lure.
“I think social competitiveness may be a common theme, yes.” If she was going to be a flirt, she was going to be the best flirt around. Of course, if Khiran’s suspicions were correct, then she had to give credit for that talent to magic she couldn’t control.
Khiran nodded. “Let’s focus on that, then.”
Maybe she could learn to control it. Learning to control her magic had been Reyn’s goal for all these lessons with Khiran. She had come to Lhanaperi to have this opportunity. But for the first time, she thought about what it might truly mean to control her power. Not to have the ability to cut it off when faced with a persistent man she had no interest in, but to use it purposefully. Intentionally.
She could capitalize on her ability to steer a conversation and manipulate people’s responses. She wouldn’t have to worry about tempering her responses in fear she’d lose influence if she pushed too far. Being a socialite didn’t have to mean contributing nothing to society.
For once, the lesson did not make Reyn want to scream. They worked on identifying and activating her lure for over an hour. She still did not have either skill mastered, and she could not call up a single emotion other than lust with her lure, but she used it more than once.
Reyn’s stomach growled, and she noticed how late it had grown.
Khiran looked at the clock over the mantle, too. “I suppose we should stop there for the day. We still need to refine things, but I think we are finally on the right track.”
Reyn dropped her head back against the chair, doubts rising once more. “What does it say about me that I instinctively use a lure in order to be more popular?”
