I narrowed my eyes at my demon. “This is your fault.”
“That feels unfair.”
“The city is literally romanticizing fruit because of you.”
One younger servant blurted out without thinking, “The palace staff thinks it’s cute.”
The entire room froze. My demon turned his head toward the servant. The poor demon visibly braced for death. Thensurprisingly, my demon just sighed quietly and looked away again. It was interesting to watch him soften. Because the servants noticed it and their fear gave way to open fascination.
Meanwhile Nina had wandered back toward the windows while the younger brother followed her automatically without realizing he was doing it.
“They’re still chanting,” she informed us gleefully.
“That is not good news.”
One silver firework exploded outside again.This time forming a giant glowing heart above the city. The younger brother leaned beside Nina near the window, both of them watching the chaos below while silver light reflected across their faces.
“This is romantic,” he admitted.
Nina snorted. “Your standards are broken.”
“Yes,” he agreed. “You noticed.”
Her eyes lingered on him for one brief second too long. And the atmosphere near the window shifted slightly.
Oh. This was interesting.
The younger brother noticed too. His gaze dipped to Nina's mouth for the briefest moment before returning to her eyes.
Nina folded her arms across her chest almost immediately.
“You’re staring again.”
“You’re standing dramatically against fireworks.”
“That sounds fake.”
“It’s objectively happening.”
For one tiny second, the younger brother's hand rested against Nina's waist as he leaned over the balcony to point something out below.
Nina stopped talking halfway through her sentence.
Oh. OH. The younger brother noticed too late that his hand was still there. But neither of them moved.
Silver fireworks exploded softly outside the windows while the city below screamed about royal romance chaos completely unaware of the entirely different disaster happening beside the balcony. Nina glanced down toward his hand on her waist. Then back up at him again.
“…You’re doing the face too now.”
The younger brother blinked once. “What face?”
“The one where your thoughts stop being legal.”
The younger brother grimaced genuinely offended by that accusation. Then ruined it by tightening his grip on her waist slightly without realizing he was doing it. Nina was startled at his action.
Including the palace servants still standing frozen near the doorway holding newspapers about my apparently catastrophic love life.
One servant whispered quietly, “Oh no. The second prince bonded hard.”
