AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You were half right, you know, about being named a counselor for House Vitruvian,” I said.
“I figured as much. What’s the other half?” he asked.
“House consort,” I replied flatly.
“I guess we won’t have to keep up this charade much longer then,” Luke said, gesturing to his arm around my shoulders.
But his words did not come off as lighthearted as he had intended. I snuggled into him closer, ignoring his ill-fated attempt at a joke.
“That’s not all. She’s pregnant, Luke. Lady Vitruvian is,” I said, finally voicing what was on my mind.
“That’s amazing,” he exclaimed without thinking about what that might mean for me.“I mean—” he said, trying to lessen his excitement.
“No, it is. It’s a blessing for everyone. A sign that maybe things are going to get better. Who knows? Maybe the magic is coming back for everyone,” I said.
Our conversation was cut off by our arrival at the manor. Jay met us at the door, opening it and stepping through. Jay pointedly looked at Luke’s arm slung around me. The King himself might have withered under the stare that Jay gave him, but Luke just lightly tugged on me, pulling me closer to him.
“Ah, you’re home,” Luke said, unfazed. “Congratulations on the baby, Jay. Al told me.” His kind smile contrasting the heat that blazed behind Jay’s usual icy eyes.
“Luke,” he said, tight-lipped, with a slight nod of his head.
Luke shrugged. “See ya, Al,” he said.
I tried to smile back at Luke but failed, only managing to slightly turn up the corners of my mouth. Jay stepped aside, waiting for me to enter the manor. He quietly but firmly shut the door behind us.
“What did you do, Alarie?” Jay demanded, his anger simmering beneath his too-quiet words. He had obviously been waiting for me that morning in the study beyond the foyer.
“Jay, now’s not really the time for this. Isn’t the lady in the house?” I replied, directing our attention to what I believed was the real obstacle that stood between us.
I’d assumed that the lady would come back with Jay to make their announcement at the Spring Ball that was only two weeks away.
“I don’t give a damn if she hears!” Jay exclaimed, raising his voice but confirming my suspicion that Lady Vitruvian was back in town.
“The whole godsdamned Court can hear for all I care.What. Did. You. Do?” he demanded, punctuating each word with a pause.
I met his question with stony silence. I held his gaze defiantly, refusing to look away from the anger there. I tried to sell the lie with the silence and my eyes.Let him think the worst, I thought.
But I felt sick about what I’d done for many reasons. Most of all, I felt sick about using my best friend. I had used Luke to cheat.If you can even cheat on someone who has a wife and fucks her a couple of times a year,I thought sourly.
“So, this is how you get back at me for Lady Vitruvian?” Jay asked, completely ignoring my attempt to make him feel guilty.
Fair enough,I thought. After all, he had taught me most of my means of manipulation when it came to getting the upper hand in a conversation. If I was being honest with myself, I hadn’t done it just because of the lady. There were a lot of reasons why I had tried to implode our relationship the night before, and the arrangement with the lady was just one of them.
I continued to stare back at him in silence, maintaining my icy veneer, which seemed to only make him angrier.
“First, you flirt with Lady Tragon’s whore and now this?” he demanded, his jaw rigid.
“So, that’s what I’ll be to you, Jay? Yourwhore?” I asked, my anger beginning to match his own.
“For fuck’s sake, Alarie,” he said, allowing a rare obscenity to cross his lips. “You know that’s not what I meant,” he retorted. But he didn’t apologize.
“It may not be what you meant, but it’s what everyone else will think! It’s what I’ve been training to be all year, isn’t it?” I screamed, finally admitting a small part of what I was worried about.
“You really think that?” His question was dangerously quiet and brimming with something more than just anger. “You think that I trained you,” he said, then spat his last words, “tobe my whore?”
He took a deep breath, calming himself.
“Alarie.Love,” he said, softening, “everyone at the High Court is playing a game of some sort. But it’s what’s between your ears, not your legs, that makes you valuable to my House.Yes, I may have taught you to use the influence your beautiful face buys you around the Court, but it’s your ability to knowhowandwhento use it that matters. You arenothinglike him,” he said, unwilling to say Stefan’s name.
