AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Luz gestured for me to follow them and leaned in to whisper. “You’re between Prince Lennox and me. You have the best seatmates at this entire dinner.”
“Do you trust Lennox?”
Luz slowed their steps and kept their voice low. “To some extent.”
“Sai doesn’t like him.”
“Yeah, well, he fucked over his brother. His reasons are personal.”
“But you believe he’s well-meaning?”
“Contrite maybe.” Luz licked their lips. “Well-meaning is one of those terms that’s defined by the person receiving the actions. I highly doubt Prince Shaan would label Lennox such.”
I faltered a step at the reminder of what Lennox had done. Sai was here to get the Prince’s—his brother’s—zevar back after Lennox had tricked it out of him in such a malicious way. I sat beside Lennox, and he bowed so that his golden hair tumbled over his forehead, and his gentle eyes sparkled in the candlelight. How could he have done it? He didn’t strike me as the type to be malicious.
That was a reminder of my poor judgement of others in the past week. I’d trusted Sai, and he’d done nothing but lie to me. When we’d met some of his first words to me had been not to trust others. It was like he screamed:I’ll lie to you and misuse your trust.He’d even suggested his plan might be to lure me away and hurt me. I didn’t listen to his warnings at all. Because I was a fool. That was only emphasized by the time I’d spent with his group and how not one person had told me he was a prince. I wasn’t just a fool; I was the only one unaware of it.
“How are you this evening?” Lennox said, stealing me out of my thoughts.
“I’m well, thank you. And you?”
“Well enough.” His gaze darted past me. “Luz.”
“Good evening, Lennox.”
Lennox shifted back to his place setting as serfs filled his goblet and then mine with wine. I wouldn’t drink it, though. In the past week, I’d let my guard down enough. I wasn’t making the same mistake twice.
The dinner carried on with minor attention drawn to me until the conversation took a sour turn. A large man who sat near the King and had long black hair that flowed over his red velvet jacket sneered. “The Unseelie believe they can continue to steal from us, cross into our territory and we won’t do anything about it. I certainly hope”—he spoke to the King—“you don’t intend to return their prince to him. That man is a nuisance.”
The woman next to him nodded. “And a danger, at that. Haven’t you heard he kills anyone who stands in his way?”
Luz stiffened beside me, but their face remained unaffected as they took a bite of beef leaving a smear of wine sauce on the plate.
The King raised his hands as if to stall the conversation. “We can’t go inciting a war, I’m afraid. We’ll return the Prince… for a price, of course. His friends, however, shall pay for his sins.”
The King would punish the others? I immediately thought of Elisa and her gentle kindness. The idea of her facing retribution left me queasy. The knife I used to slice a piece of beetroot slid across the plate, and the woman who’d spoken turned towards me, her emerald eyes gleaming in the candlelight. “Was it so terrible, being held captive by them? If I were honest, I fear for my children to go out unaccompanied anymore with the Unseelie’s aggression.”
Everyone stared at me, and I knew what I needed to say, but the words felt like mud on my tongue. Sai may have misused me, but he wasn’t the killer or dark menace they made him out as. He’d unleashed his magic to protect humans, had treated his group members with respect even when they’d messed up, and agreed to help me leave town despite it making things more difficult for him. My anger with him was personal, but Sai wasn’t dangerous or evil.
Luz placed their hand on my knee gently—a reminder that we played a role currently. “I was lucky that they had only held me captive for a few days before Prince Lennox”—I raised my eyes to meet his and gave him a look that I hoped felt sincere—“rescued me.”
“Cheers for the prince, then.” The man who’d spoken to the King hoisted his glass into the air. The few dozen at the table all raised their glasses and took drinks. All except for the King. Lennox noticed too and flinched.
“What did you say your name was again, dear?” the woman asked me.
I’d lifted my glass to toast Lennox, and I pressed it to my lips, let the rich liquid fill my mouth and warm my throat, before choking on some and coughing. Some of the wine actually went down wrong, and I coughed in earnest, pressing my mouth into my elbow and struggling for a breath as my eyes watered. Luz patted my back, and Lennox gripped my arm. “Are you all right, Álainn?”
Oh, yes, that was my name.
I probably still couldn’t get the pronunciation right.
“I’m fine.” I batted my watering eyes and looked back to the couple and the King. “Forgive me.”
“Don’t worry yourself, dear,” the woman said. “It must have been absolutely dreadful to be in the clutches of the Unseelie. Thieves and murderers, all of them. They have no reservations at all.”
The man next to her raised his eyebrows as he sliced into the meat. “They revel in their use of magic.”
The King’s expression took a dark turn. “A mistake they will soon live to regret. Let us shift this conversation to more pleasant topics, however. We’re ruining a wonderful evening.”
