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“Damn it, Charles,” I growled, my grip tightening on the blade I had nearly thrown into the throat of the traveler once again.
“We are going to have to do something about your repeated failure to follow protocol, soldier,” I said sternly.
I was on edge and angry. I still felt like something was off about the entire encounter. Why were the Alancians only coming over in such small numbers? We’d made preparations, but undoubtedly, a larger force would challenge us, especially if that force included warriors with magic. We still didn’t know if the magic of the Alancians had faded along with our own.
“We’llstartwith fifty laps around the camp.Notraveling,” I sentenced.
I was going to have to drill discipline into the well-meaning lord, or I was going to find myself short a traveler. Charles stood across from me, grasping his throat like he couldn’t believe a dagger wasn’t buried there.
“Did the other men make it back okay?” I asked.
“Yes, sir,” Charles replied, removing his hand from his throat and standing at attention with his hands at his side.
“Then let’s leave this place, Charles,” I said.
13
Alarie
Rhett shot the eight ball into the far corner pocket with a deafening thud, looking smug. Bar Louie was particularly busy for a Tuesday night, but we’d managed to grab one of the three pool tables.
“Rack ‘em baby,” he crooned in a sultry manner, running a hand through his golden hair.
Even when he was gloating about beating me, he still managed to be supernaturally good looking, I thought, annoyed. I rolled my eyes and leaned against the pool table. Luke walked over from our table near the bar, and my gaze focused in on the way his cotton t-shirt pulled over his muscled chest. He was wearing a plain white t-shirt, an extremely casual look for him and one that Ireallythought he should embrace more often.
With a knowing smile, he leaned over me, resting his palms on the pool table on each side of my body. I looked up into his dazzling sky-blue eyes. He leaned in, and I parted my lip slightly, ready to accept his kiss. He moved to the side of my face instead and whispered in my ear.
“I’ll rack them for you, Al baby.”
Unlike when Rhett used the nickname, the words on Luke’s lips made something in my body react. I felt like his sultry words were somehow directly tethered to the space between my thighs. He pulled away from the table with the triangular rack in his hands. I slapped his chest, squeezing my thighs tightly closed.
“Tease,” I said, accusingly.
Rhett, Luke, and I had quickly and easily moved past the events that occurred between us at and after the Summer Ball. There had been no further discussion, or concern, about me being Rhett’s mate. Rhett was still hot and heavy with James. And Luke and I had gone back to doing what we wanted, when we wanted. We weren’t exactly dating. If anything, we were perhaps a little more guarded with each other now. When we had been worried that I was Rhett’s mate, things had gotten awfully intense, awfully fast, and that just wasn’t what either Luke or I was looking for at the moment.
Things were actually going quite smoothly for me at the High Court lately. My role with House Dumont now felt more like a success now that we had at least one lesser fae liaison placed at every House at the High Court. Already the Court felt more lively and diverse with the new faces around.
“You guys want to meet over at my place before the Ball tomorrow?” Rhett asked. “James will be over. I’ll have some people from out-of-town over, too.”
Reaching for a stray ball, Luke shot a glance my way from over his shoulder and then straightened up, plopping the ball in the rack with a thud.
“I have to meet up with Karina for the Ball. Karina Dempsey,” he clarified. “She just moved to the High Court. And I…” Luke looked over at me again. “I promised my mother a while back I’d take her to the Fall Ball. And you know, with things how they are in the north, the King is expecting me to make sure House Dempsey remains a strong ally.”
Luke was almost rambling, which was odd for him. Rhett faded to the other end of the pool table, applying chalk to the tip of his cue stick like he wasn’t the one who had started the conversation to begin with.
“But, you know, I could probably get out of it. My parents are used to me disappointing them at this point,” he joked.
I looked at Luke, furrowing my eyebrows. I knew about Luke’s agreement with his parents regarding Karina. He’d told me about it months ago. And it wasn’t like Luke and I were exclusive. We had just happened to have been with only each other lately.
“What? Because of me?” I asked. “Oh. No, Luke. It’s okay,” I assured him.
I was under no illusions regarding my relationship with Luke. We were friends withreally, reallygreat benefits. But he wasn’t dating me like he was going to date Karina. There were no hopes of the King and the Kingdom tied to our time together. He looked at me from under his brows.
“I’m good.” I nudged him with my shoulder and gave him a small, reassuring smile.
Rhett began to head back to the head of the pool table to make his break.
“You don’t have to worry about me.Really,” I reassured Luke. “Actually, Cass wrote to me and told me he would be there and… he asked me to go with him,” I said.
