AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Remove your touch this instant,” Malyr growled low, his posture stiff, his death gaze locked on Darien’s hand. “Or you will have to finish this gown one-handed.”
I frowned at the way Malyr’s eyes jumped from that innocent touch to Darien’s gown, and back to that touch.
“Apologies, my prince. I get carried away with excitement sometimes.” Darien quickly retrieved his hand, cleared his throat, then ran his hands over my shoulders. “Perhaps a collar like the one you had me make for the feast? With her hair curled and pinned up?”
“No curls. No pinning up her hair. I want it down and flowing.” Malyr placed his mouth by my ear where he whispered, “That’s how you prefer it.”
A jolt went through my belly as I turned my head to stare at him in nothing short of shock. Yes, that was how I preferred it, but… how would he know?
“No collar, then,” Darien remarked, and pointed at the ravens set into the train. “I’ll use real feathers to bring out the dimension of these. The finest, youngest plumes. It’s a shame we don’t have a white weaver. For the sake of solidarity, a few threads of white would strengthen the picture of unity.”
For a second, Malyr’s lips pressed together. “My house hasn’t seen much solidarity from them when the war started. They hid like cowards, watching the rest of us get slaughtered.”
Who was them? But most of all… “What’s a white weaver?”
“Some shadowmagic is white,” Sebian explained. “It’s extremely rare; I’ve never met one in my lifetime. Have you, Malyr?”
Malyr ran his hand down along my arm, thumbing the shadow-embroidered vines. “My father had one in his ravenguard. Strange beings, said to be sickly. If one didn’t pay attention, you might confuse them for—” When his fingers reached the silky blue string tied around my wrist, he gripped it, yanking my hand up between us. “What. Is. This?”
“I found it in my room one morning. I think that raven might have dropped it.” I looked at Sebian since Malyr likely hadn’t heard the story. “The one from the night of the storm? Remember, I said it carried something in its beak?”
“Oh, shit.” Sebian pushed himself off the shelf, his hands still buried in his pockets. He looked down at the ribbon, then he lifted his gaze to Malyr, exchanging a long, silent look.
Yet another conversation I wasn’t privy to. Why?
“What does it mean?” When nobody bothered to answer, I looked at Darien. “It’s just a string of ribbon, right?”
My question jerked Darien out of his daze before he pulled the pouch on his belt shut. “Oh, where is my head? I brought all these salted spells, but not a single pearl ofaerymelfor sparkle. No need to fetch it for me, Sebian. I’ll attach those in the morrow.”
Sebian waited until Darien was out the door before he said, “Who would dare?”
“Dare what?”
“Someone who is conspiring against me.” Malyr turned his attention to the hole above the window and pointed at it. “I want a builder to close every flight hole that leads to her chambers. If any Raven at court so much as approaches her, looks in her direction the wrong way, I want to know of it.”
I hooked a finger into the ribbon for comfort. “I don’t understand… What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” Sebian ran his hand down my spine before it settled on the small of my back. “Just Ravens quarreling for power is all. Go take the dress off. Put something else on, and I’ll take you to Cici. She might know the Dance of Ten Feathers.”
With a curtsy that went mostly ignored by Malyr, I left through the door that led back into my personal room. What was that all about?
I disappeared behind the privacy screen, peeled myself out of the shadow gown before I hung it over a nearby stand, and shucked back into a plain, silken blue dress. Something clattered behind the screen. Tjema, perhaps, who’d silently adopted her position as my lady’s maid.
“The fire has nearly gone out,” I said, still tying the strings in my front as I stepped around the screen. “I didn’t know what to put on, the oak or the—” The blood chilled in my veins, freezing my feet to the ground. “What are you doing in here?”
“He is mine!” Lorn’s hand collided with my cheek, slapping me with such force, Malyr’s spanking seemed like child’s play as I stumbled sideways and crashed with my shoulder against a stone column. “Don’t you ever forget that!”
Within the blink of an eye, Sebian appeared behind Lorn, gripping her hair with one hand and pressing a shadowy dagger to her throat with the other. “Step away from her right now, or I swear, I’ll do what Malyr can’t bring himself to and put you out of your damn misery.”
Lorn only laughed, letting a cloud of shadows whirl around her before she slipped out of Sebian’s grip. She shot her arm out, caging my throat in the death-grip of her fingers. “You can have the castles, the silks, the titles, but you cannot have him.”
“I got it.” Malyr slowly stepped up beside Sebian. “Lorn. Let her go.”
Lorn set her glistening eyes on him. “You announced akjaer?”
Malyr lifted both hands in an appeasing manner, slowly stepping between her and me. Protecting me? “I have to marry, or I will not win this war.”
An audible gulp hiccupped from Lorn’s throat, a sound too vulnerable for someone so vicious. “Why her?”
