Page 7 of The Poison Princess and the Lord of Misrule

I ignore every single one of them and look at her.

Only her.

Her fathomless eyes are more open now, her lips slightly parted, and there it is—devils below, take me now—the faintest smile graces her mouth. It’s small and startled. Involuntary. Cracking through that porcelain stillness like the first fracture in ice before a thaw.

She’s smiling.

At me.

And my heart vaults against its cage of bone.

Everything else falls away. The king. My botched plan for vengeance. The life I may have forfeit just by walking through the throne room doors. All of it goes white and silent, because she is smiling and it’s the most devastating thing I have ever seen.

I need to leave. I need to turn around and walk out of this room before I do something more reckless than simply standing here gawking at the king’s betrothed with my heart doing things in my chest that make it feel like it might just explode.

I bow again, too quickly, and turn to go?—

And trip over my own gods-damn boot.

I hit the stone floor with a grunt and an oath that echoes off every gilded surface of this room. The bells on my hat ring out in a mournful, jangling chorus. Pain lances my knee. My palms slap the rough stone and slide, smarting with a hot sting.

My next whispered curse is met with silence, whole and merciless, a whip of pain across my ego. Without a backward glance, I push to my feet.

Then one sound fractures the silence, stopping my heart.

I turn, watching as a tinkling giggle escapes past her soft, delicate lips.

Another taut beat of quiet, then the court erupts with a roar of laughter. The steward pinches the bridge of his nose.

But the king, he’s not laughing—he’s watching me closely, a calculated look to his icy eyes.

My eyes return to her. One hand presses over her mouth, her dark eyes bright above her fingers, her shoulders shaking with the effort of containing it. It’s such a beautiful sound, like real bells, not the dull ones on my hat. It’s warm and startled and alive, and the entire court goes quiet once again just to hear it, like they’re hearing an angel for the first time.

Princess Seravyn is laughing at me, with mud on my boots and my dignity in pieces, and it mends something broken in my chest.

I gave away my angel to get into this room, and the room has bestowed me a new one.

The king surges forward in his throne, his grin so wide it distorts his handsome features. “Him—” the king says, jabbing a finger at me.

Jester hat askew, knee throbbing, I glance around, knowing this is the moment before my death. Somehow, Aldric has realized I’m a fraud, and he’s about to have me run through with a sword. I’m at peace with this, so long as I get to stare into her beautiful, smiling face as the blade cleaves me.

“You are a fool,” the king says, waving his goblet. Wine sloshes over the rim, staining the dais red. He beckons his steward forward. “Find him quarters. Feed him, clothe him. Whatever he needs. He’s made my bride laugh.Announce it to all.”

Shock nearly drops me to my bruised knees. Wait—fuck. This wasn’t supposed to happen.

A servant hauls me toward the other side of the throne room, my legs unsteady. The court is buzzing at the sad princess, laughing at the worst jester in the kingdom.

As I’m led farther from the hall, I risk a glance back.

The princess is watching me from her throne, her hair shielding her face once again. And yet, right before I’m escorted past the door, I see the hint of her sweet smile resurface.

So soft and lovely and—gods, I don’t have a word for it. For the way this girl is looking at me, like I’ve cracked open something she’d sealed shut.

The smile is gone now, tucked away behind that careful stillness, but her eyes hold the ghost of it. I walk out of the throne room with my heart slamming against my ribs and a feeling in my chest like falling, like drowning, like being dragged beneath the surface of something I don’t know how to survive.

I came here to kill a cruel king.

Instead, I fear I may’ve just damned myself to a whole new realm of hell.