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Finally, the prince leaned over, his breath hot on my ear. “You seem to ruminate on that moment often, rebel. Should I take that to mean you wish you had complied with my request?”
I stiffened and did not look at him, staring straight ahead as I continued to pick at my eggs. “Only because it is proof of your true abhorrent personality, my lord.”
I felt him smile. “I think you’re a liar, rebel. You want to get on your knees for me, but you like to hide behind this notion that I might force you. Pretend all you like, but we both know that when you come to my bed, you’ll not only be begging me to fuck you, you’ll say ‘thank you, lord,’ when I’m done.”
I spluttered, dropping my fork with a loud clang that made everyone look up. “Sorry,” I mumbled. “It slipped.”
My face burned, and I refused to reply or look at him throughout the entire rest of the meal. I had to assume that at least Siobhan and Cross, who were seated nearest to us, could hear the whispered conversation, but neither commented. Maybe this was more common than I realized among the Fae, or maybe they just didn’t want to upset Scion—there had to be some perks to royalty, I supposed.
Despite my desperate desire to run, we still had a heist to plan, and I was glued to my chair for at least another hour.
“No one has seen Dullahan in the city,” Arson said shortly once his plate was cleared. “Which in effect means he isn’t here.”
Scion nodded. “I’d expected as much.”
I looked up at him, surprised. “You did?”
“My brother wouldn’t just come quietly, rebel. Even if he was the one to ask for the meeting, he’ll still want to ensure it happens in the last way you might expect.”
I stiffened, something about that phrase rankled, and I couldn’t quite name it. “So what are we going to do?”
“We’re getting to that, lass.” Cross leaned toward me, his elbows on the table. “Vander here might’ve seen someone who worked as a lookout while out an’ about last night.”
I glanced over at Vander again, taking in his blind eyes, and decided not to ask how he’dseenthem. “How do you know they worked for Dullahan?”
“All the rebels dress the same,” he answered. “You seen them? They have these long cloaks, like—”
“I’ve seen them,” I cut him off sharply.
Immediately, the image of my sister’s face peeking out from beneath the hood of her long cloak flashed through my mind. Of all the cloaked figures running into the camp, like nightmares come to seek waking vengeance. I hadn’t realized that was something they wore all the time—it hadn’t even occurred to me to consider it. If it had, I no doubt would have had a much easier time locating someone to question about Dullahan in the capital on the several occasions that I’d tried.
“Why would they want to identify themselves?” I asked. “If everyone knows the cloaks are the uniform of the rebellion.”
Siobhan shrugged. “Not everyone does know, but for those who do, it’s not usually much of a deterrent.” She threw a sideways glance at Scion. “There are many sympathizers who are not necessarily part of the army.”
“I’m well aware,” Scion ground out. “As long as none of those sympathizers sit at this table, then we shouldn’t have a problem.”
“Where did you see the rebel?” I asked, covering the uncomfortable silence that followed his statement.
Vander ducked his head slightly as he replied. “The Side Saddle. He was there all night, as far as I saw.”
Siobhan guffawed. “And you were as well, were you?”
“On business,” Vander snapped, his too-quiet voice rising. “All the patrons there carry far too much gold and don’t watch it carefully.”
Arson laughed, smiling for the first time since we’d been sitting here. “I wouldn’t either with some nymph’s cunt in my—”
“Alright,” Cross cut them off, his brow furrowing in vague annoyance. The way he looked at the others, one really would think they were his children.
I stared around at the group, marveling at the dynamic. This was a different sort of family than the Everlasts—at least from what I’d seen of them. The Everlast siblings might hold this sort of easy banter with each other in private, I didn’t know, but Cross’s family seemed far more open, no matter who joined them for dinner.
“The Side Saddle is the den of the pleasure guild,” Cross explained. “It’s everything you might expect from that description, the only unique thing being that the madam is quite difficult to get one over on.”
It sounded like he spoke from experience.
“We suggest going there this evening to try and smoke out the rat,” Arson said bluntly, looking at Scion this time.
“And what if he’s not there this evening?” Scion asked.
