“I spoke with King Ailithir,” Reese whispered. “You have his support, as ever.”
“Then we only need theirs.” I swallowed.
The queen bolted from her seat, heavy skirts dragging behind her as she flew to our side. A radiant smile crossed her face. “Reese!” She sounded like a lovesick young woman, seeing her beau for the first time since he left for war. “I had hoped you’d be here.”
“Siobhan,” Reese said, dipping his head.
The queen’s gaze flicked to me, and her smile faltered. “So, the stories I’ve heard are true. Cierthine was always unpredictable, but this . . . ”
“This,” Reese emphasized. “Is a promising warrior. Given a year of training, she’ll be a force to be reckoned with.”
“If you have faith in her, who am I to doubt?” The queen beamed at him.
I saw something in her gaze. Longing, yearning. Her pale irises darted around his face, looking for something—approval, or perhaps affection.
Her voice struck me, hearing the childish naiveté in her words. This woman was younger than me.
Reese’s eyes lifted, staring at someone behind the queen. A Solheart lord rose from the table, adjusted his crimson doublet, and approached.
“May I, my lady?” He asked in a deep voice. “You should return to your seat.”
Queen Siobhan lifted her heavy skirts and cast a final glance at Reese before walking away. I hadn’t been imagining it—that woman was infatuated with him.
A thousand burning questions raced through my mind, and I desperately swatted them away. I needed to remain calm. No one could see a crack in my defenses tonight.
Reese’s jaw tightened. “Father. I presume you're here to make things more difficult than they need to be?”
Father? I glared first at Reese for leaving this pertinent information out. Then, I studied the Solheart lord—Lord Tiernan.
Saints. They looked exactly alike. The father sported a mane of wavy golden locks, but his every other feature matched Reese’s.
“We’re dealing with the unprecedented.” Lord Tiernan looked me up and down. “Is that not worthy of pause?”
“I’ve been paused enough already. It’s getting old.” Reese's eyes darted away again, and he let them flutter closed.
A flicker of distress, resignation, and exhaustion. Someone he hated approached. The lord he’d warned me about?
A younger man joined Tiernan’s side—he smoothed back his golden locks and straightened his crimson finery. It bore the same sigil Reese’s father wore—a ball of flame resting in the palm of a hand.
Perhaps it was wrong to judge a man from his face, but this man looked so smug. He had noble features, no doubt, a slightly curved nose, and well-groomed eyebrows. But his lips curled in an eternal sneer.
“Dear brother, you’re late,” the new man tsked. “Your little pet is a side-note compared to the drama unfolding over there.”
He jerked his thumb toward the eastern edge of the room. I noticed my king first, his steel hair and antler-decorated crown. By his side stood a young woman with dark blue hair who wore the robes of Tsuyan’s vaunted Shatterblades.
Relief flooded through me. Diar was alive—and she still held Siotha.
Chapter 55
Diar
The people of Muirashi did not throw balls. We invited others over for dinner, held vigils for the departed, and celebrated the arrival of spring. Quiet affairs, save for the crooning farmers did toward their orchards.
Ferris smoothed down his silver finery and straightened his dark green cloak. Sighing, he thumped his head against the wall.
We hid in the hallway outside the ballroom, preparing ourselves to enter. Agendra had gone ahead of us to fill Reese in while Ferris prepared to meet his family.
I tapped my fingers on Siotha’s cold grip, listening to the murmurs from the adjacent room. “Are you sure this is the best way?”
