He’d grown tired of trying to pick the perfect phrasing. At first, Kas intended to expound on the ideas Nesrina inspired while maintaining plausible deniability that he was Thanin and she was his muse. Giving up had never felt so freeing. The world wouldn’t make the connection, but he had no doubt she would. There was nothing for it anymore, and he was determined to take the reveal into his own hands.
A series of soft raps sounded on his apartment’s door. “Enter,” he called over the tailor’s head.
Thera poked her head in, but her eyes were pinched closed. “Are youdecent?”
He chuckled at her expression. “I am. Come on in.”
Scurrying over, she handed him a letter, and he spied the royal seal before it left her hands. “This was delivered by an urgent courier.”
Kas scowled as he ripped open the missive. The line between his brow grew deeper as he read. “Change of plans. The trip is canceled, and my sister’s coming here.”
“Oh?” Thera tilted her head, asking for more.
Kas dipped his chin in the tailor’s direction, indicating he would share details later, when they were alone.
Thera scurried off to alert the rest of the household and reverse the preparations already underway.
Kas breathed deeply, in through his nose and out through his mouth, a trick he’d picked up from Nes. His whole plan, his whole timeline, had gone up in flames.
As the tailor wrapped up his fitting with a few final pins and lines of chalk, Kas’s thoughts were at the palace with Ehmet, who he’d learned was hurt. It was the impetus for his sister’s visit to Stormhill.
“An incident occurred,”she wrote.“Ehmet sustained an unexpected injury while hunting. I am on my way to you.”
Most injuries were unexpected, why had she added that adjective? Not once did she use the word accident, which he would’ve expected in her short letter. With the recent rumblings out of the capital, something about the situation didn’t sit right, but Kas would need Hevva to arrive to get all the details.
“Whycan’twegoanyway, Uncle Kas?” Ataht asked, voice pitched into a whine as he dug into his dessert.
“Your mum’ll be here in a few days, and she’ll be able to tell you more than I can. Perhaps there are no clean sheets at Summer Cottage and thetrip has to be postponed?” Kas offered, earning an incredulous glance from Miss Kiappa.
As supper wound down, the disappointed twins were dismissed from the dining chamber. Nesrina folded her napkin neatly and placed it by her plate while Kas debated whether he should give her more information than he’d offered the children. It was only fair to apprise her. He didn’t want Nes to be startled by the additional soldiers he’d ordered to stand guard around his property, out of an abundance of caution. Hehopedhe was being overcautious. Perhaps Ehmet had taken a tumble from his horse? But if it had been that, why hadn’t Hevva said so?
Nes stood abruptly, jolting Kas from his thoughts. Leaping to his feet, his thighs knocked the tabletop. “A word, Miss Kiappa?”
She looked startled. “Certainly.”
He inclined his head toward the side door to the room. “Shall we speak outside? It’s a warm night.” Every night was warm, it was summer. What the fates was wrong with him?
“I suppose.”
In a split second of madness, Kas grabbed a half-drunk bottle of wine and two glasses from the table. She followed him silently from the room.
When they were safely ensconced on the southern terrace, a rarely used patio tucked between the kitchens and a stairwell, he placed the two glasses atop the railing and began to fill the first.
“No sheets at Summer Cottage, Lord Kahoth?” Nesrina teased, opening the conversation, much to Kas’s delight.
“Ah.” He chuckled as he finished filling his drink. “I thought you might— Oops.” Kas looked down over the railing where Nes’s glass lay shattered upon the cobbled walkway below. His stupid nerves.
“You thought I might, what?” she asked, not commenting on the fallen goblet. She simply produced a new one with her magic.
“I thought you might— This is cold? How is it cold?” Kas was diverted when he took the magical glass from her. The stemware was icy.
She winked, sending his stomach into a tailspin. “A trick of my magic, I suppose. Haven’t you noticed the princess can change an item’s luminescence, and the prince can shift the temperature?”
Kas sucked his teeth. He had not noticed that. He was always so observant, when had that changed?
It’s impossible to see the stars while the sun shines.
Fair enough.He felt somewhat better about the oversight. “A subtrait of chaosweaving?”
