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Quinley stepped forward. “We would like to speak to Kieran, Orla, Dallas, and Nolan.”
Kieran tensed. “Princess Brianne should join us.”
Quinley shook her head. “She’s not an acting royal.”
Curry and his father stopped next to me and glanced back and forth between the Winter King and his sister, intrigued.
Princess Brianne hugged her brother and said, “I’ll be fine. You won’t be gone long.”
Kieran and Nolan frowned, but soon, they went back into the dining area, leaving the rest of us in the hall.
I spotted Maeve and took a step to join her, but someone grabbed my arm and held me firmly.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Body tensing, I watched as Maeve’s hand went for her sword. My heart pounded harder as I glanced over my shoulder.
I didn’t know who I expected to see, but it wasn’t her.
Princess Brianne dropped her white-gloved hand from my arm and bit her lower lip. “Hello, Princess Alina. I was hoping we could talk for a quick moment.”
Her voice was soft, and her demeanor screamed that she was uncomfortable, which I understood all too well. That had been my body language for the past twenty-three years of my life, wanting to fly under the radar and stay invisible. Immediately, my guard lowered, which never happened. “Sure.”
She nodded toward an empty corner of the entrance hall.
She wanted to speak to me alone. My earlier conversation with Kieran slipped back into my head. Was her meek and mild temperament a front?
Curiosity got the best of me, and we headed for the back of the hall, close to the ballroom doors.
The silence between us was a tad uncomfortable but not excruciating. Her presence was soothing, and even though that should have worried me, it didn’t.
Reaching the corner, I faced the other fae and the front door. Of course, Curry’s and his father’s attention was locked on us. A shiver ran down my spine, not because I feared him but because I knew he was a malicious person.
“Are you all right?” Princess Brianne narrowed her eyes and turned to see what held my attention so thoroughly. “Oh, yes. Curry Gall. He’s one of the most vicious competitors, from what Nolan has told me.”
That was fitting, but the last thing I wanted was to talk about Curry. If she had something she wanted to discuss, I’d much rather we talk before Kieran came back. “Is that what you wanted to talk about?”
Facing me, she pressed her lips together. “No. Not at all. I …” She smoothed her blonde hair, which was draped over the shoulder of her glimmering purple-gray gown. “I … I wanted to take the opportunity to say you seem like a nice person.”
My head tilted back. I hadn’t expected that. “What makes you say that?” I waited for the punch line. To become the butt of some joke she was making.
“Helping my brother.” She wrapped her arms around her stomach. “Not many people would have done that even if they were from our kingdom.”
I didn’t know why, but I liked that she had said her kingdom instead of Winter fae. The divide didn’t seem as wide that way. “He helped me too. It wasn’t one-sided.” For some reason, those words felt relevant. It wasn’t as if I’d done something and he hadn’t returned the favor. Although, in so many ways, I still owed him.
A lump formed in my throat as I remembered how I’d spoken to him earlier. But what did he expect me to do when he kept saying we couldn’t be together? Hearing those words—again—had been harder than should have been possible.
“I know, but that doesn’t surprise me.” She shook her head, an adoring smile spreading across her face. “That’s my brother. He doesn’t tolerate injustice, especially not after the war fifty complete season cycles ago. He does everything in his power to protect those who need it, and when he learned that Queen Orla planned to put you in the Comortas even though you had been back in Talamh for a mere seven sun cycles, he was livid and beside himself.”
He hadn’t told her why. That sounded right. He hadn’t believed it was me until the tournament started. “He sounds like a very good man.”
“To a fault.” Her smile literally turned upside down. “He always makes sacrifices so no one else has to. It’s like he thinks he should be punished, but I’ve never been able to figure out why. Even with the tournament, after Nolan got hurt, he refused to even consider me com—” She slapped her hands over her mouth.
She didn’t have to finish. I already knew the end of the sentence. Everyone had wondered why she hadn’t been the one to compete, and it had everything to do with Kieran. With her timidity, I could see why he would be afraid to let her fight, but I saw a strength in her that most wouldn’t. She was a survivor, but she was also a royal. What had she already suffered?
“Please don’t tell anyone.” Her face turned a shade pink. “I didn’t mean to?—”
“Your secret is safe with me.” I reached over and touched her arm. “I promise.” The last thing I would ever want to do was cause problems between Kieran and Brianne. She had a genuineness that I’d only seen in Maeve. It seemed rare in the upper-class citizens of Talamh.
