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Slowly, my features tightened like fist. Even slower, my eyes skewered toward him.
Malice crawled across my knuckles. Fortunately for the king, I hadn’t brought my blade with me today, otherwise I might have let it slip.
Artifice be damned. I felt my irises darkening to a murderous shade. The king’s comparison had sounded as if enslaving human beings versus employing a trained fool dressed in lace and leather was a matter of inconvenience rather than barbarism.
What was the word he prided his kingdom on? Refinement?
Because the rest of this company supported owning born souls, they murmured their empathy with Summer. The only one not engaging was Queen Avalea, who jotted notes and kept her thoughts to herself.
This turned into a slippery moment when reacting viscerally would do spectacular harm. I should have licked my lips and sunk my teeth into the king, right before suggesting the man go fuck himself hard.
The problem was I couldn’t trust myself to speak without giving myself away. Not when the ribbons around my wrist clung to me for protection.
I’d earned a vital measure power in this court. My sovereigns wouldn’t admit it, but I had more social influence with their subjects than they did.
Yet they didn’t take it seriously. Why? Because jesters sided with their rulers, not with themselves. Traditionally and historically, our kind didn’t have ambitions beyond revelry, ridicule, and sex.
In their minds, I embodied that rule. Therefore, they presumed I wasn’t a threat.
I intended to keep it that way for now. For what I had in mind, I couldn’t afford to take risks yet. I needed more time.
To hide the mayhem festering inside me, I swung my head toward the windows. Dust motes swam in the mullioned light. Watching them, I latched onto a memory of tiny hands grasping at similar flecks, small fingers trying to catch them.
Soon enough, my tongue would be primed to go another round and make actual headway. For when had I ever failed to sway a Royal?
Last night, perhaps.
Mentally, I flung that thought out the window before it pissed me off. Yet the image of her flinty eyes and smart, righteous mouth resurfaced, branding itself on me like a lesson that refused to be learned.
7
Poet
Anger has a profound effect on a person’s ingenuity. Looking back, the violence I’d felt in the throne room helped me reclaim my voice later that night, during an intimate affair for the Royals and their peers. They had beseeched me to engage the court, and my words had oozed into the sky, where a canvas of stars flashed above the orchid garden.
As the centerpiece, I outdid myself.
But then l saw her …
*
“In Summer,”I narrated,“the sun rages with heat. Whilst amid the bones of Winter, every crystalline sound is solitary.”I cocked a brow at the court’s children.“And ready to cast a magic spell.”
Gap-toothed mouths wreathed into smiles. I knew someone else who would have loved to hear this recital, set among the gardens’ lush shrubs and alcoves. That someone would have also loved the bubbles floating from a collection of wands, which several of the guests wielded. That someone would have loved to be here with me.
I suppressed the ache.“In Autumn—”
I had meant to indicate Queen Avalea.
But there stood her daughter.
Briar’s wonderful glower cut me off. She wore ivory and amber brocade, the gown divided down the center, from its bodice to the hem. Within the gap, the same material shone through, except the colors were reversed within the pattern, and amber trim encircled her scalloped elbow sleeves.
Impressive. Not the style a Spring lady would flaunt, but in fine taste all the same. If this thorn weren’t careful in the future, she would eventually out-dress me.
Covertly, she fussed over the gown. Her fingers plucked at the fitted shoulders, then her palms fluttered over the low neckline, as if desperate to shield her exposed flesh. Just like a proper heiress, except with a frown instead of a blush.
My lips tilted. The neckline befitted Spring, yet the coverage of skin everywhere else smacked of Autumn. Nevertheless, the garment evidently wasn’t her personal preference.
