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"You must risk something if you wish me to risk everything.”
"The Unseelie Court has no hope of winning a battle. You ought to take whatever I offer and be grateful for it.”
"Nonetheless," Roiben said. "If I lose the duel against your champion, you will become sovereign of the Unseelie Court, and I will be dead. Quite a lot for me to wager against your offer of transient peace, but I do not ask for equal stakes. If I win, I only ask that you agree to make Ethine Queen in your place.”
For a moment Kaye thought she saw Silarial's eyes shine with triumph. "Only? And if I don't agree?”
Roiben leaned back on the cushions. "Then war, winnable or no.”
Silarial narrowed her eyes, but there was a smile at the corners of her mouth. "You have changed from the knight that I knew. “
He shook his head. "Do you recall my eagerness to prove myself to you? Pathetically grateful for even the smallest regard. How tedious you must have found me.”
"I admit I find you more interesting now, bargaining for the salvation of those whom you despise.”
Roiben laughed, and the sound of it—thick with self-loathing—chilled Kaye.
"But perhaps you despise me even more?" Silarial asked.
He looked down at the fingers of his left hand, watching them pluck at the onyx clasps of his other cuff. "I think of the way I longed for you, and it makes me sick." He looked up at her. "But that doesn't mean I've stopped longing. I yearn for home.”
Silarial shook her head. "You told Ethine you would never step down from being Lord of the Night Court. You would never reconsider your position. You would never serve me. Is that still true?”
"I won't be as I once was." Roiben gestured to Kaye and to the other girls standing against the wall. "No matter what I long for.”
"You have said that nothing about me tempts you," Silarial said. "What of it?”
He smiled. "I told Ethine to tell you that. I never said it.”
"And is it so?”
He stood, walked the short distance to where Silarial reclined, and knelt before her. He lifted his hand to her cheek, and Kaye could see his hand tremble. "I am tempted," he said.
The Bright Queen leaned closer and pressed her mouth to his. The first kiss was short and careful and chaste, but the second was not. Roiben's hands cupped her skull and bent her back, kissing her like he wanted to break her in half. When he drew back from Silarial, her lip bled and her eyes were dark with desire.
Kaye's face flamed hot and she could feel her heartbeat even in her cheeks. It seemed to her that Roiben's hand's shaking as he reached for Silarial was worse than the kisses, worse than anything he had said or could say. She knew what it felt like to tremble like that before touching someone—desire so acute that it became despair.
Kaye forced herself to look at the dirt, to concentrate on the winding roots next to her slipper. She tried not to think about anything. She didn't know how much she'd been hoping that he still loved her, until she felt how much it hurt to realize he didn't.
A rustle of clothes made Kaye look up automatically, but it was only Silarial rising from her cushions. Roiben's eyes were wary.
"You must want me to agree to your terms very much," the Bright Queen said lightly, but her voice was unsteady. She brushed a strand of hair away from his face.
"Ethine would very probably give you back your crown were she to win it," Roiben replied.
"If you should defeat my champion . . . ," Silarial began, then paused, looking down at him. She brought one white hand to his cheek. "If you should defeat my champion, you will regret it.”
He half smiled.
"But I will grant you your boon. Ethine will be Queen if you win. See that you do not win." She walked to the bowls of liquids, and Kaye saw Silarial's face reflected in all their surfaces. "Of course, all this negotiating matters not at all if you will merely join me. Leave the court of those you detest. Together we can end this war today. You would be my consort—”
"No," he said. "I told you that I won't—”
"There is someone here with the means to convince you.”
He stood suddenly, whirling toward the wall of servant girls. His gaze shifted across them and stopped on her. "Kaye." His voice sounded anguished.
Kaye dropped her gaze to the ground, gritting her teeth.
