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“I heard. I doubt anyone at court will talk about anything else for the foreseeable future.” I pulled out a bottle of wine, pouring us each a goblet.
Levana laughed quietly though it seemed slightly forced, accepting the drink I slid across the counter. “No, I suppose not. It’s strange to think that a few hastily made decisions over the past couple of days could shape the future of the realm forever.”
“If they stay. I can’t see why they’d want to. Plenty of Shades will struggle with the presence of Hunters who may have been responsible for the deaths of their loved ones.”
I didn’t feel great about it myself. Just a few months ago, one of the young chefs on my team, Sorcha, had been killed on a trip to the human realm to feed. She’d been a smart kid and a fast learner and should have had her whole life ahead of her.
To Hunters like the queen’s sister, she was just a number. Another point toward their kill count.
“You’ll be careful around all these Hunters?” I asked gruffly, stoking the small flame.
“Of course,” Levana replied blandly. “I doubt I’ll see them all that much. The queen will likely go to them in Elverston House and no Shades are allowed to enter.”
She hesitated for a long moment, taking a sip of her wine before continuing. “And perhaps it would be better for Ophelia to have a new guard after everything that happened. A fresh start for her more permanent life here.”
I paused midway through reaching for my knife. It didn’t sound like a decision. It sounded like she was voicing the idea and seeing how I’d react.
“Did Ophelia suggest that?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
“No, of course not,” Levana replied hastily. She went quiet for a moment, twirling her goblet between her fingers. “Some Shades might see her brief return to the human realm as a failure on my part.”
I grabbed a cutting board and busied myself pulling down herbs from the drying rack hanging overhead. “Some Shades are idiots.”
“They’re not idiots. They just expect the best for their monarchs,” she shot back, immediately defensive. Ah, this wasn’t hypothetical. Someone had definitely suggested that this was a failure on her part, and Levana needed someone to talk to about it.
I was furious that anyone was criticizing her, but selfishly pleased she’d brought those criticisms to me at the same time. It was progress, wasn’t it? It was something.
“Do their opinions matter more than those of the individuals actually involved?”
Levana twisted the goblet again. “Maybe. Maybe looking at the situation from the outside has given them a better perspective.”
No one would ever describe me as sensitive, but even I knew to tread carefully here.
“Or maybe it’s easy to throw around opinions when you weren’t there and don’t have the full story.”
Levana shot me an exasperated look. Possibly that hadn’t come out as sensitively as I’d hoped.
“Ophelia was held hostage by the Hunters Council in the human realm. I could have stopped that—”
“Shechoseto leave. It was an ill-advised choice, and probably the king’s fault, but it was her decision,” I interrupted, a little more harshly than I’d intended, and I did my best to soften it, though it had never been a strength of mine. “It’s infantilizing to suggest otherwise. No one could have known the Hunters would treat their own so poorly, and ultimately, she’s here and safe now. Why punish yourself?”
If anyone should feel bad, it was the king. No wife of mine would be skipping off to another realm with the enemy, that was for fucking sure.
“It’s not apunishment. It’s more like a… Well, it doesn’t matter now. I was never meant to stay in the Guard anyway. At some point, I need to return home.”
“You need to? Or you want to?”
“Both. Of course.”
I wasn’t so sure I believed that. Levana’s family had been a source of hushed gossip at court since I’d moved here. Where most heads of families spent at least part of the year at court being chummy with the king, Levana’s father wasneverhere. The heir didn’t visit either. It was just her.
“You weren’t joking when you said ‘one night only, don’t get any ideas,’” I teased, managing to keep my voice mostly light as I threw some bones into the bottom of a pot before covering it with water and setting it on the fire to boil.
“If it helps,ifI was staying—”
“It doesn’t.” I gave her a tight smile, chopping the herbs a little more forcefully than usual. Nothing was ever gained from dwelling on what-ifs and might-have-beens. “What will you do when you return home?”
“The same thing I do now, but for the estate, I suppose. Second children often have protective positions on the family property.”
