Prince Valeris sauntered into the room as the servants exited.The sight of him evaporated all the joy the flowers had brought me.
“We probably could have fit a few more, but this will do for now.Another set can always be brought up later.”
My eyebrows shot up at the suggestion.Any more and we would have to turn the suite into a maze.We barely had room for what they had just deposited.
I turned to the prince and plastered on a hospitable expression.“Could I help you, Your Highness?”
He smiled, taking me in.“I would settle for a thank you.”
His cocky attitude grated against my control, my eye twitching at having to restrain my facial features.Why was he here?
“I’m afraid you must have me mistaken with someone else and have the wrong room, Your Highness.Valeris, was it?”I asked, purposely mispronouncing his name.
“I beg your pardon, ma’am, but it’s pronounced Prince Vuh-laire-iss.”
My gaze flicked to the man waiting outside the door.He held a note pad in his ink-stained hands and a pair of spectacles sat low on his nose.
I suppressed my eye roll.“My apologies, PrinceValeris.”
“Oh no, this is the right room.”He peeked at the number on the door.“Analleia Kallistar, wasn’t it?You interrupted my conversation with Lord Eyreling last night.”
Subtle.
My hand tightened around the dagger concealed behind my back.
“Oh yes.”I pasted on a sickly sweet smile.“I do recall.If I remember correctly you were lying to him about a trade you had made with the quarries in the north.”
Irritation sparked in his green eyes as a muscle feathered in his jaw.I waited for him to explode, but he remained calm as ever, never removing that stupid, stiff smile from his face.
“It’s all a matter of perspective.I would interpret it more as a fortune telling of the future than a lie, but to each his own.”
I lifted my chin.“A matter of perspective, I suppose.”
Valeris circled the room, eyeing the bedroom doors.“Are you attending the balls by yourself?”
My hesitation lasted half a second.“My friends are wasted from the festivities last night, and my attendants are out gathering supplies for the ball tomorrow evening.I’m sure they will return soon.”
“No family attending with you?”
I shook my head.
“What kingdom was it that you were from again?”
“Allowyn,” The lie rolled off my tongue easily.I had almost said Donnovar out of habit, but I didn’t know the limits of the Enchantress’s magic.All she had said was I could go by my real name.
Valeris’s gaze swept over the half-conditioned boots on the floor then roved over everything else.He did it casually so as not to draw attention, but with my trained eyes, I knew the tricks.He was looking for something.
“I hoped these flowers might grant me your forgiveness after the most unfortunate disturbance you received this morning.”He looked at me.“A simple misunderstanding that should have never happened, and trust me, it won’t happen again.”
Trusting him was the last thing I intended to do.
“I also hoped”—he took a step toward me, and the hair on the back of my neck rose.What was he playing at?—“that you might forgive me for my behavior last night.”
He smiled, the question hanging between us.
His behavior last night?He hadn’t exactly beenrude—but nor had he been welcoming.There was no reason for a royal like him to apologize even if hehaddone something.
I stared at him, recognizing the expectation deep within his eyes.
