AllFreeNovel
Share Us
* * *
Arin attended dinner.
I danced and sang and played tricks. I listened to rumors and gossip, stoking those fires while adding fuel of my own. I did what I’d been put inside Arin’s court to do—sow the seeds of chaos—but now Prince Arinknew. He watched, discreetly, from the top table, playing his part of the aloof royal. Perhaps he’d assumed I’d be ashamed of my actions, now I’d been “found out.” Oh, but the opposite was true. His knowing gaze fueled the added bounce in my step, the extra flare in my gestures.
It was like being caught while having sex and having the observerwatch. A thrill, a dance, a performance.
He’d so rarely attended the dinners that his presence drew attention.
I mingled, and the guests wondered aloud,where had he been?Grieving for his mother, most assumed, but his absence had begun long before her death. They spoke of rumors of how he sometimes left the palace. Some were adamant they’d seen him in the taverns, drunk and high, eying tavern girls. But Arin was not his father. The ladies of the court admired him, lusted after him, several asked me if I knew how to gain an audience with the prince. I smiled and laughed and teased such possibilities. Arin wasmysecret. One of many I kept, but a new and exciting one.
The evening wore on, I performed, and when I caught a moment to myself, I skipped a glance his way. His pale blue eyes lifted and locked with mine, sparking lightning down my spine. With his gaze on me, the banter and laughter, the endless jeering and demands of the court, all fell away. The ballroom may as well have been empty, the guests all gone. Just he and I stood alone. As we’d been on the beach.
I broke the connection and fell back into step, only missing a moment. Nobody noticed our secret dance.
After dinner, with the guests’ bellies full, wine glasses empty, and feathers wilting, I approached the prince. It would have been unusual for me not to at least acknowledge him, considering how new his presence was among us. King Albus glowered but made it seem as though he was the overprotective father and not a jealous dolt.
Arin ignored my approach, the same as he’d done for years.
“A card trick, Your Highness?” I asked, plucking a deck from my pocket.
He lifted his gaze. “If you must.”
The ice in his tone and his eyes proved how good a liar he was. This Prince of Love was so very cold, but I knew the truth to be the opposite. His secret was mine to keep.
I fanned my cards, told him to pick one and remember what card he’d seen. A few of the lords and ladies had fallen silent to watch us; the king too. “Return the card to the deck, facedown.” He did, and I shuffled the entire deck with flare, then slammed them facedown on the dining table and swept them in a great arc. I hitched myself onto the edge of the table, crossed my legs, and bumped my boot against his elbow. “I cannot possibly know which card you chose. They are all facedown, are they not?”
The crowd agreed. Even the king begrudgingly nodded.
Arin studied the backs of those cards, searching for any tiny imperfection, any crease, that might suggest I could pick his from the rest. But they were all pristine. “There’s no way,” he agreed.
“My boot, dear prince?”
He smirked and leaned away, only now realizing how I’d been resting my foot against his arm. “What of it?” he asked.
“Unlace it.”
Gasps and excited giggles simmered. Oh my, how dare I demand the prince unlace my boot.
Arin’s glare turned suspicious. I was skirting the line we’d agreed not to cross.
“It surely does not bite.” I wiggled my foot, in its boot. “At least, that part of me doesn’t.”
Our audience tittered, and a smile broke through Arin’s expression, shattering his stoic mask. His grin was a thing of true beauty, and for a few heartbeats, its appearance stunned me into silence.
He tugged at my boot’s ties, intrigued, and considering his jerking efforts, probably irritated by the attention we’d garnered. Peeling back the boot’s edges, he found a card folded against my calf muscle. Our twittering audience simmered with delight.
“Well?” I asked him. “Take it out?”
He held up the card and laughed. “How did you—”
“The King of Hearts, no?” I prompted.
He showed the card to the crowd, and they burst into applause. My work done, I scooped up the deck, hopped off the table, took a bow, and retied my boot as the audience filtered away, leaving just Arin and I. The king was nearby too, but his focus was already elsewhere.
Arin offered the card back, pinched between his fingers. “Very good,Fool.”
I took the card, taking the opportunity to stroke his hand. The gesture was so quick, nobody noticed. The trick had bedazzled him, and he made no attempt to hide it from his expression. Or if he did, then he’d failed. No wonder he hadn’t dared come to dinner before; his wide smile and sparkling eyes belied any attempt of his to pretend he was cold and hard. It was rather endearing.
