I peeked at Luvic’s pocket square, and sure enough, there was a little brown cricket tucked into the silk.
Last gave Luvic a cricket? I shivered, remembering the story she’d told me about her little pet. “That is disturbingly odd.”
“Says the woman who looks like an extra in a B-rated slasher movie.”
I scoffed. “B-rated? Excuse me. This is a high-budget affair. I’ll have you know I spent countless hours in hair and makeup.”
Luvic leaned back against the wall, thudding his head against the stone. Thud. Thud. Thud. “I can’t . . .” He wiped his eyes, holding back a laugh. “I can’t. You are such a pain in my neck. We’re all gonna die, Mari. There are certain people you never invite to weddings. The exes. The estranged. The embalmed. You don’t invite dead people to a wedding.” He ran his hand through his hair, messing up the slicked-back styling. The cricket chirped again. “See? Even the cricket agrees, and it’s a cricket.”
I reached out and tweaked his bow tie. “It was crooked.”
He looked down, his gaze filling with surprise and then a flash of warmth. “Mari?”
I put my hands on his shoulders and brushed a kiss across his warm cheek. The kindness felt like a hundred wasps stinging at once. “It’ll be okay.”
“No,” he whispered, clutching my blood-splatter dress. “It won’t.”
“Take note,” Primus drawled, stopping as he rounded the corner, “the groom and the maid of honor show a lack of respect for my sister.”
I tried to step back, but Luvic grasped my dress. When I frowned at him, he gave a slight shake to his head. He bent down and pressed his mouth to my ear, whispering, “Don’t let them die.” Then he pulled away and turned toward Primus, straightening his tuxedo’s sleeves. “Primus. Amazing. I was just thinking, ‘I wonder when I’ll see my delightful brother-in-law again. I do hope he pops around the corner and delights us with his wit. Not creepy. Never creepy. Ready? Let’s go in. I can’t wait to stand under the arch, watch my bride float down the aisle, and get married for an eternity of bliss.’” He gave his megawatt Bard grin. “I’m overcome with ecstasy.”
Primus ignored him. Instead, he focused on me. It felt as if he were peeling the layers off my skin and poking me with cold metal instruments. He was dissecting me, and I wanted to squirm under his inspection. I held still and stared back.
His lips curved into a gaunt, tight-skulled smile. “I like you in blood?—”
Luvic stiffened.
“—red,” he finished.
I smiled, fluffing my skirt. “It’s crimson.”
Primus’s smile widened. I could hear what he was thinking: Take note, Mari doesn’t know how to address her betters. He twisted his hand, tying a clove hitch knot and forming a black, wilting rose.
“Stunning,” Luvic said dryly, staring at the curling, wilted edges.
Primus stepped forward and pinned the rose to my bodice. His long, cold fingers drifted over my collarbone. “It is,” he said, staring at me. “But be very careful. The thorns are poisonous. I find deadly things to be the most enticing.” He stepped back, his cold gaze flat. “Take note, if you want the Bard heir to live, you’ll not kiss him, you’ll not touch him, you’ll not be intimate with him again. He is marrying a Clark. We do not share. Understood?”
I thought about the conversation we’d had in the catacombs. How Primus had said he liked the thought of what he and I might do together. I think he was warning me that while Last wouldn’t share Luvic, he also wouldn’t share me.
I leveled my gaze on him. There was no softness there, no humor, just a command and the expectation of obedience.
During the games, Luvic had taken me from the Clarks. Now, Primus was trying to take me back.
Luvic growled. Primus smiled.
“You can try to kill me?—”
I held up my hand, cutting Luvic off.
Jagger had ordered me to protect the Clarks. If there was a fight, I’d be on Primus’s side. Luvic wouldn’t stand a chance.
I looked into Primus’s cruel black eyes and gave him what he wanted. “Yes, Heir Clark. I understand.”
Primus’s face filled with grim approval. “Good. Now, go find my sister. It’s time for her to marry. And Mari . . .”
I turned back, already slipping down the hall. “Yes, Heir Clark?”
“You’ll dance with me tonight.”
