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And there she was.
She was fine. Laughing. Walking into the room with Ziriel. She touched his shoulder and he laughed at something she said.
There she was. Five tables away. Her skin looked pale and she looked a little thinner than before, and there were the tiniest shadows under her eyes that hadn’t been there two days ago, and I wondered what she had been doing…
My wolf rose up, demanding a shift, demanding I take what was mine, but I closed my eyes and pushed him away. I wasn’t like Dastien. I wasn’t going to go around biting my mate, forcing the issue. He was lucky Tessa didn’t die in the transition. And he was doubly lucky that her sanity didn’t crack either. I knew too well what happens when someone is bitten to ever bite Cosette, even I was pretty sure biting her wouldn’t do anything. She was fey. She couldn’t be changed.
The human side of me wanted to go talk to her right then. The night before I’d left, we’d had a fight, and…
But I was a rational werewolf. I had to do the right thing. Which meant I would wait here and assess how she was doing. Figure out why she was here. Why I was here. What Eli was really up to.
I’d deal with everything else later. Privately.
“Do you know what’s going on?” I asked Rayvien. “Does she know I’m here?”
“And this is where things really get interesting.” Rayvien pulled a coin out of thin air and tossed.
It flipped through the air, and then she caught it. Studying the coin in her hand as if it would tell her something.
“I know why you’re here,” she said finally. “I know why she’s here. As does everyone else in the room. But neither of you have a clue about the path that you’re on. That’s why so many have gathered to bet. It’s never this busy here. Should be an interesting few days. If it all goes well, maybe you and Cosette won’t be the only ones to get what you want. Maybe I’ll get it, too.”
“Is there something that you need? Something that by helping you, I could help Cosette?” Because I could get behind that.
“No. You can’t help me. Not directly.”
I didn’t understand Rayvien at all. If my getting what I wanted could help her get what she wanted, then why wasn’t she helping me? Why wouldn’t she give me some clear steps to follow to break my lunar tie?
Cosette laughed again, and I wanted to go over there. But I couldn’t. Not yet. Not with so many people around. Cosette was her mother’s spy, and I was in way over my head with all of the fey politics. If she was playing some game for her mother or something else was in play, then I couldn’t fuck that up for her.
So, I’d sit and I’d wait and I’d protect her if anything started to go to shit.
“Asheral,” Ziriel yelled across the room.
A tall, dark-haired man stood from one of the tables in the center of the room, turning to smoke for a moment before reappearing in front of Cosette. He was dressed in a dark shirt and loose black pants, but the way he stood next to Ziriel—confident and proud—made me think he was more dangerous than the guards in all white.
I started to stand before I could stop myself, but then she laughed and smiled, holding out her hand. I sat again, watching them, wanting to rip off the guy’s face, but it wasn’t her real smile. She wasn’t showing her t
eeth and her chin wasn’t tilted down the way it does when she’s really, really happy about something.
So, I let out a breath and waited.
I wasn’t sure what Eli was up to, but I was definitely here for a reason. Here for her. I just didn’t expect her to be here.
“Who is that?” I was done with flirting with Rayvien. Now I needed whatever information she’d give me.
“Asheral. Ziriel’s son.”
Cosette was meeting with a prince? Why? I knew she was a spy for her mother, so maybe it was nothing, but… “Wait. Asheral’s your son?”
“No. Not mine. I’m about three centuries younger than Asheral.” She paused. “I’m forty-one. Ziriel was married before me. Many times.”
For a second, I looked away from Cosette to give Rayvien my attention. “He was?”
She nodded. “No one lives long when married to him.”
“Then why did you marry him?” It seemed like a dumb thing to do when everyone who married him died.
“Why indeed?”
