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“Go away.” It sounded childish, and I didn’t care. “Leave us alone.”
“Well, I would, but you invited the Court of Pain, so here I am.”
“Because you’re a prince now?”
“Half of one, when it suits my brother.”
I snorted.Brother. The man who had killed my family, my court, and almost me was Lark’sbrother. “I trusted you.”
“Did you, though?”
“A little…” I admitted.
“I trusted you, thought I knew who you were, listened to your promises, until you held a blade at my throat.”
Laughter bubbled from inside the hall behind us, but outside, it was just Lark and I, under a bloodred moon in a land neither of us belonged to. I raised the tattered card. “What’s this for?”
His eyes glittered in the dark, and his smile vanished. “You need to leave, now. Take Draven if you must, but go now.”
“And go where?”
“Anywhere. But you can’t be here this night.”
“Why?”
“Razak…” Lark leaned closer. “He has something planned.”
“So do we.” I smirked and eagerly drank more wine.
Lark’s gaze narrowed. He studied my face, looking for some clue as to our plan. “Whatever it is, it won’t work. He wouldn’t have come if he considered War a threat.”
I knew Razak. He thought he was untouchable. He was wrong. “His ego will be his undoing.”
“What are you going to do?” Lark whispered, and he was closer now. Too close. Whether the scent was from his clothes or the man, the familiar smell of warm amber triggered memories of he and I tangled between the sheets.
“Do you think me that much of an idiot that I’d answer you?”
He tilted his head. “I need you to go.”
“What youneedis of no concern of mine.”
“You don’t understand—”
“I don’t want to.” I slammed the card against his chest, rocking him back a step, and when I let go, the card fluttered to the ground. “Youneed to leave.”
“What are you going to do?” he asked again, closing in once more. “It’ll be simple, because you don’t have the influence at War’s court to do any more… Draven then, your new husband, what has he promised you? Vengeance? Did you let him fuck you if he promised to kill Razak?”
I almost struck him, but the lust sparkling in his eyes suggested he’d want me to. “Why do you have to be like this?”
His dark chuckle did things to my body it had no right to do. “This joining is a farce. Anyone with eyes can see your heart’s not in it.”
I flung what was left of my wine into his face and bared my teeth. He staggered and laughed. “Draven is all I have left. You and your wretched brother have taken everything! Leave, now, or I will go to Ogden and tell him there’s a plot against him andyouare at its center.”
He wiped wine from his face and flicked it from his fingers. “Regardless of what you think of me, thereisa plot this night, and if you don’t leave then I will be forced to act.”
“Thenact. You’re so good at it. I’m not going anywhere. War is my home, and Draven my husband. You are—” I raked my glare over him.“—nothing.”
His smile fractured. He huffed a silent laugh and shrugged a shoulder. “Very well. Then I can only hope you know what you’re doing, Arin.” He bowed, with ironic flamboyance. “I wish you and your husband all the best fortune, should you survive the night.” He left in a swirl of silk coat.
