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I laughed.
Closing the door behind us, Jay quipped, “Luke, perhaps you could refrain from flirting with Alarie long enough to give me your report?”
“Sorry, Jay,” Luke replied, his tone making it plain that he was not sorry at all.
“Is this one of the times that youdon’twant me to pretend to be Alarie’s boyfriend?”Luke asked, the smile disappearing completely from my friend’s face.
“Luke, what are you talking about?” I demanded.
Luke looked pointedly at Jay.
“What is he talking about, Jay?” When Jay did not immediately answer my question, I followed up with, “Did you ask him to pretend to be my boyfriend as some sort of cover for us?”
“Well, Alarie, you wanted things to remain a secret throughout your first year as liaison,” Jay replied.
“Weagreed to keep it a secret,” I corrected him. “But, Jay, I never asked that Luke help us hide it.”
“You didn’t have to, love.I’mthe Lord of Whispers.I’mthe one who handles what’s said behind closed doors here at Court.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked.
“Why didn’t you ask?” he retorted.
“I didn’t know I needed to.”
“Exactly, Alarie. Like everything else, you left it to me, and I took care of it,” he said.
And his point sunk into me like a blade, buried to its hilt in my side.He was right. I didn’t question the way everything in my life just went perfectly since I’d gotten involved with him. I didn’t ask questions about how things got paid for or what needed to be taken care of.
When I’d arrived on Jay’s doorstep, I’d been so independent to the point of self-isolation. But with Jay, I’d submitted to him not only in our intimate moments together but completely. I’d let him make every decision to do with me, and I didn’t even question it. It had been such a relief, for once in my life, to have someone take care of me. But at that moment, I didn’t even know the wage I was being paid as liaison or even where my money was being kept. My insides churned at this realization, at the dichotomy to what I used to be.
“Jay—”
“Alarie, we’ll talk about this later,” he interjected, cutting me off.
“Report,” he barked, looking back at Luke.
Luke looked at me. I nodded, letting him know I wanted to move on.Pushing past the awkwardness of the moment, Luke and I began our report to the high lord.
“Cole’s been conspicuously missing from Court lately,” Luke began. “As you can imagine, no one particularly misses Cole’s charm, but him missing his own House soiree a couple of weeks ago started some chatter. House Tragon has remained silent on the reason for his sparsity.”
“Pretty much, Cole has missed every court function the last couple of weeks. No one has seen him for more than a minute or two,” I added in.
“Cole and House Tragon are hiding something,” Luke concluded.
“The other day, Cole referred to Cass by his first name. That’s weird, right? How could he possibly know Cass?” I asked, bewildered.
Jay nodded in agreement, forgetting our prior rift.
“I have no doubt that they’re up to something,” he growled. “I just can’t figure out what. Before, there was a silence around them that I thought may have been because of my fading powers. But even with my powers returning, it’s like there is a shield around their whispers, keeping them from me. But I know every person who is capable of that kind of shield and none of them would work for House Tragon,” Jay said, letting his aggravation show.
When we were finished with our report, Luke moved toward the door of the study, holding it open for me. I looked back at Jay.
“I’m going to hang back for a minute, Luke,” I said, failing to hide my irritation.
Throughout the entirety of our report to the high lord, I had sat there fuming at the way Jay had pulled his high-lord card, ending our conversation prematurely.
“Ok, Al. I’ll see you tonight,” Luke said, squeezing my arm with his large hand and then closing the door behind him.
