Adeline did not slow as they stepped into the evening. The night air had cooled, and Kai only realised how hot and slick his skin still was with the kiss of the breeze. By the grace of the Mother, he could only hope nobody else would notice—nor wonder where they’d been. But the gardens had stilled somewhat, the raucous noise of the courtiers and musicians reduced to a quiet, contented hum; the golden lantern light drawn in, now just one singular flame remaining lit.
They had been gone much longer than he realised.
The Empress sat with half a dozen courtiers in a circle of wooden chairs beneath the last remaining lantern, sipping wine and smothering their laughter. A pretty raven-haired woman sat in Eleni’s lap, their heads bent close and their overlapping skirts creating one tufty cloud in the shadows where they seemed to float together, giggling and giddy.
“Aunt Eleni.”
Adeline’s voice was a current in the air, the crack of it sharp as a bolt of thunder. The women jolted at the sound, and shot nervous looks around themselves; a few of them whispered to one another as they noticed Adeline approaching, but she hardly seemed to notice them.
“The fucking flowers?” she seethed. “Really?You couldn’t tell me outright?”
At her heated language, the courtier in the Empress’s lap drew herself upright, spine straight and lips flattened with tension before they parted, apparently poised with a reprimand—but when Eleni lay a coaxing hand on her forearm, she bit her tongue.
For a moment, nobody moved, nor spoke, though Kai saw their gazes swivelling from Eleni, stiff and wide-eyed, to Adeline, fists curled and chest heaving. The courtiers were barely breathing—as though by staying as still as possible, they could avoid being seen and dismissed, missing the royal conflict unfurling before their very eyes.
But Eleni composed herself and said, without taking her eyes from her niece, “Ladies. The hour grows late, and I’m sure you are all weary. I shall bid you goodnight.”
“We arequiteenergised, cousin,” said one beady-eyed woman over the rim of her glass, her every word so dry and drawling that her neighbour gave her a playful nudge that sent both of them spluttering into their wine.
“Leave,” said Eleni.
With no small amount of grumbling, the ladies got to their feet and snatched up their wine glasses, then weaved arm in arm toward the palace. The woman curled into Eleni’s side was the last to leave; she shot a mistrustful glance toward Adeline, then Kai, but Eleni whispered something low and reassuring, and she eventually followed the others across the grass.
“Hello again, Your Majesty,” said Eleni—and Kai had been so engrossed in Adeline, in the rage pouring off her like the magic that had spilt from her hand, that it took him a moment to realise the Empress was addressing him.
“Oh—hello,” he said, a little weaker than he’d like.
“I take it you’ll be remaining where you are,” Eleni said pleasantly. “You know what this is about?”
Kai was about to tell her he hadn’t asingularnotion what this was about, but Adeline spoke first.
“He most certainlywillbe remaining,” she snapped. “Because, like me, he deserves to understand what just happened.”
Eleni’s eyes were ringed with white as she leaned forward and clutched the wooden armrest of her seat. The flare of excitement lighting her face told Kai what he should have guessed from the moment that Adeline dragged him out here—this was no one-off peculiarity. He had been wildly sifting his own thoughts for a logical explanation, assumed that some combination of their connection, and the sex, and Adeline’s hand around his pendant had aligned the perfect circumstances for a magnificent burst of magic. But no. As the women stared at one another, he realised how wrong he was. Because the Empress knew what Adeline was talking about. She knew what Adeline had done.
Which meant she had done it before.
“Itjusthappened?” Eleni said eagerly. “This very evening? Where?”
Adeline gave an angry huff of laughter, glancing around at an invisible audience in disbelief. “You might be surprised to hear that I have questions of my own.”
Eleni leaned back in her chair, and the gleam in her eye drew in, smothered with a rather practised effort. “Of course. Will you sit?”
Kai did, at once. His legs were shaking, he realised, and he did not think it was from exertion. Adeline sent him a hard look of betrayal, and he sent her a softer one back.Sit. Talk.She resisteda moment longer, then fisted her hands and took a swift step around the closest seat, sinking into it.
“There,” she said, in an acerbic voice so unlike her own. “I’m sitting. Aren’t we so civilised?”
Eleni sighed. “I’m sorry, Adeline.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I couldn’t. I promised I never would.”
“Promisedwho—”
Adeline cut herself off, her words simmering on the air before they were replaced by a half-choked gasp of disbelief. Her narrowed eyes widened, brow pitched nearly into her curls.
“My father?”
