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“Wait,” I said. “I thought you knew?”
“I knew nothing of this. Now answer my question. Who let you in here?”
“I did.”
Luc appeared behind my father. There was no doubt in my mind that an awkward situation was about to get somehow even worse.
Chapter 34
Luc
“Iwant her gone.” Alaric’s voice was cutting, a rage behind it that I rarely saw from the king. “I want her gone before the morning is over.”
“OK,” Hailey said, dusting her hands on her jeans. “So much for getting to know each other over coffee and everything bagels.” She smiled after she spoke, and I could tell that she was trying to diffuse the situation with some well-placed humor. Little did she know, however, that the king did not have a sense of humor when it came to the goings on of his palace.
“I do not want to hear another word from you—either of you. Ava, take this girl out of my sight. Now.”
Anger flashed on Ava’s face. She opened her mouth to speak in defense of herself, but I made sure to catch her eye and shake my head, sending the wordless message that anything out of her would only make the situation worse.
She got my hint, zipping up and remaining silent.
Ava nodded to Hailey, and the two of them hurried out of the dining room.
“Shut the doors behind you,” Alaric commanded.
Ava shot me one more worried look as she closed the doors, leaving the two of us alone. Silence fell, no noise aside from the ticking of the grandfather clock on the far end of the room. Alaric said nothing at first. I could sense through his anger, that he wanted to choose his words carefully.
“Lucas,” he hissed, his voice angrier than I’d heard it in a long time. “What the hell were you thinking? You brought Analise’s other daughter into my palace without so much as a word to me first? What in God’s name were you thinking?”
The rage in his voice was a tone I hadn’t heard since we were kids, when Alaric was less of a king and more of a hot-headed young man. I knew I needed to tread carefully.
“Ava is having difficulties adapting to her new role,” I said, keeping my voice extra calm in an attempt to balance out his anger. “I thought that bringing her sister in might help settle her.”
“Youthought,” he snarled, his eyes flashing. “Do I need to remind you that your job is not tothink,it is to do what I say?”
A shiver of my own anger ran up my spine.
“You’re my king, Alaric. But I’m not about to stand here and be dressed down like a disobedient child.”
He snorted, shaking his head. “You’ve got quite a nerve to talk like that considering what you did. Your duty has been to prepare my brat of a daughter for her role as princess. And what do you do instead? You betray me like this!”
If only you knew just how much I’ve betrayed you, my king.
Part of me wanted to throw it out right then and there, to get my relationship with his daughter out in the open while he was already mad at me. Another part of me had a feeling that if I were to make Alaric any angrier, his next step would be to head into the palace basement and dust off one of the old guillotines.
“I do not know where to begin with this situation. The whole point of you being in the position you are is so that I have someone to trust. What am I supposed to think now that I know I can’t?”
“You can trust me, Alaric,” I said. “You instructed me to help Ava prepare for the ball and her naming ceremony. I decided that this was the best way to do it.”
“By bringing in a reminder that my wife was with another man after me?”
“All that I had on my mind was helping Ava. I thought that having her sister here would go a long way in making her more comfortable with life at the palace.”
“Ridiculous,” Alaric snapped back. “It might’ve been one thing if she were just some random friend of hers. But Analise’s other daughter? Can you even begin to imagine the sort of complications that might ensue if the nobility were to get word that Analise had another child?”
Spoken by the man who’s continuous cheating sent Analise on that very path.I grit my teeth for a beat, trying to work through my frustration at Alaric’s audacity.
“We’re talking about Ava, and what would make her more comfortable and relaxed about the process of settling in here.”
