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“My mother doesn’t know I’m here.”
Lennox stared at me. “Why would that be?”
I teetered between telling the truth or trying to come up with a lie. I didn’t know where this conversation headed. There was no way for me to figure out what lie I should craft. Plus, I’d always been a terrible liar. Better to keep it basic. “Because I was running from her. I came upon Prince Sai’s group by chance.”
“And he abducted you?” Lennox cocked an eyebrow.
My breathing picked up.Just stick with the truth, Lira. Don’t lie and it will be fine.“He thought my magic might be useful.”
Lennox shifted his weight and the polished shoes he wore glimmered golden where the lamp touched them. “Why would you agree to help him when your mother is under the protection of our court?”
“She is?” I blurted the words before I had time to think better of it.
Lennox frowned at me. “How do you not know that?”
“Prince Lennox, I—”
“Please, just call me Lennox.”
I nodded. Calling a royal by his name was a huge breech in manners from some no-name person like me, but if that’s what he wished, I’d respect it. My future rested on his assessment, and it sent a shiver of fear skittering through my body. “My mother didn’t raise me. I know little about her or her magic.”
“You have a birthright to your mother’s magic.”
“A right I don’t want,” I said with more volume than I intended.
“You ran to avoid receiving the magic?”
I twined my fingers together and the mark Mother had given me burned beneath my sleeve. “Yes. I didn’t mean to get caught up with Sai and his group. You can trust that I didn’t even know he was a prince. I know you recognized him on sight, but I’d never even heard of him before.”
“I didn’t recognize him, either. I’ve never met Prince Sai before.”
“But you knew him?”
Lennox shifted out of the light and fiddled with the cloak he’d hung. “He looks very much like his brother. Handsome men, both, are they not?”
There was something achingly sincere and sad in Lennox’s voice. I wasn’t the person to judge that though. Clearly, I’d miscalculated Sai terribly. “I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting Prince Shaan.”
Lennox turned back towards me and shifted the conversation. “You wish to evade your mother?”
“Yes.”
I don’t know why I shared with him except I was already a hundred leagues deep in an ocean of trouble and he was piecing it together on his own, anyway. “You need to stay through tonight’s dinner, or it will arouse suspicion. I can help you escape tomorrow during the gala. The guests will distract my father, the guards will have their focus on trouble from the Prasanna, and you can leave through my private escape.”
“You want to help me?”
His pale blue eyes welled with sincerity. “I do.”
“Why? You already said my mother is involved with your court. Why wouldn’t you be loyal to her?”
Lennox sighed and took his crown off, setting it on the table by the lamp so that it gleamed like a stage’s spotlight. “My father has plans of his own. We rarely see eye-to-eye.” He shifted back to me, and he looked like he possessed a world of sorrow within him. It made me want to cry. “If I could escape my father, I would. So, yes, foolishly I’ll help you.”
“Won’t you get yourself in trouble if your father finds out?”
Lennox released a bitter laugh. “You assume he respects me, and I’ll lose that. Trust me, Lira, you assume too much.”
“He trusted you to escort me.”
“Yes, he gave me the job of a human serf. The point I’m making is, he’s already displeased with me. It won’t be any hardship to add to that. Remember, your name for the night is Álainn.”
