“What three words?” I was intrigued.
“‘Want to dance?’” Griff replied dryly. “I was very sophisticated.”
“I see not much has changed since then, if your performance at Ignistar is anything to go by,” I said mildly.
His grin was my only answer as Freya continued, “And then you’d watch the girl swoon that Griffin Narvene had asked her to dance.”
“Sometimes they’d be so nervous that Griff would just stand there with his hand outstretched, waiting for her to make up her mind.” Finn stood, over his earlier disquiet and back into his normal rhythm, and headed over to the bar.
“Our Champion over here used to be the life of the party,” Freya continued.
I whirled to him. “You? The life of the party? This I have to see.”
He gave me a rueful look. “Things change.” He nursed his first drink as Finn came back with a second round for all of us.
I was only partially done with my first drink as Finn slid the tankards around.
“Speaking of change,” Griff said, glancing at me. “I hear you got through an entire council meeting without an outburst or storming out the other day.”
“I’ve never stormed out,” I protested, although that was decidedlyuntrue. I had been going to more and more of the council meetings, not that I had any real place there, nor did anyone listen to me.
“No?” His eyebrow arched slightly. “You told me about the time Zachariah was being an ass?—”
“That doesn’t narrow it down,” I interrupted.
Finn chortled. Freya’s eyes were bouncing back and forth between us.
“As I was saying, Zachariah was harping on you being the Orlaith and I believe there was profanity before a door slammed upon your exit.”
“That was preservation,” I said with as much dignity as I could.
“For self or others?” Griff asked.
“Does it matter?”
He nodded at me, an amused expression on his face, but conceded the point.
Freya had paused with her tankard lifted halfway to her lips, a curious expression on her face as she watched Griff. When she caught me looking, she quickly took a drink, but I saw the thoughtful expression as her eyes darted between us.
They continued in this vein, telling stories of their childhood and teasing each other. When Freya announced that she was heading back up to the castle, I decided to join her. Griff made to stand but I put a hand on his shoulder, feeling the muscles tense under my touch. “No, stay. I’ll be fine just walking back up to the castle.”
He gave me a look that told me he’d show up in my room before too long, but settled back in. Unless I was mistaken, the twins had precious little time just the two of them, and after the death of a friend, they deserved some time by themselves.
As we left the tavern, the quiet of the night was at odds with the din from inside. The streets were mostly empty, our footsteps echoing along the cobblestone paths.
“The walk down is always so much easier than the walk back up,” Freya complained. “And you basically lose your buzz by the time you get back up here.”
“I suppose that’s a good thing, at least for me,” I mused. “Probably shouldn’t be publicly intoxicated. The whole ‘unbefitting of a princess’ thing.”
“Don’t let your stick-in-the-mud asshole of a grandfather get to you,” Freya responded, rightly guessing who I was parodying. “Besides, who cares what he thinks?”
I grinned, but decided to share. “Most of the time I don’t. But sometimes, I very much want his approval.” It must have been the alcohol talking; I didn’t usually let myself think like that.
Freya put her arm around my shoulders and gave me a friendly squeeze. “That makes sense. Given he’s the only family you have here.”
“An asshole family,” I muttered, and she laughed.
“But the real question is,” Freya started slyly, “what’s going on between you and Griff?”
