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Clavis wasn’t the only prince having problems with women, as I soon discovered. Every congratulations I received for my engagement turned into a convenient segway for eager young noblewomen and their parents to launch into a barrage of subtle and not-so-subtle questions about the Rhodolitian princes. In retrospect, it shouldn’t have surprised me. Marriage among royalty and nobility was political, so everybody understood why none of the princes had been in a rush to marry before they knew which of them would become king. The choice of a queen was too important to risk marrying the wrong woman in advance. But now that Chevalier was king, and he’d chosen his queen, the assumption was that his brothers were now on the market in a big way. And since I’d succeeded in capturing the Brutal Beast’s heart, I held all the answers for anyone wanting to bag one of the less vicious noble beasts.
At least, that’s what everybody seemed to think.
I didn’t have the heart to tell the hopeful young women coming to me for answers that I never thought I’d be in a relationship at all, and I’d put no effort into starting one with Chevalier. I already knew from Theresa’s lamentations that such a revelation stung for a woman who’d put in the work and seen no results. And I certainly couldn’t tell anybody to do what I did. For one thing, the circumstances just didn’t apply. Chevalier and I only met because I’d been in a very difficult situation, and a job at the palace met my needs, even though his bad behavior alone would have been more than enough to make me quit any other job after the first day, and his brothers weren’t much better. I only stayed out of desperation.
It was a good thing I had plenty of experience in dodging questions and providing vague, evasive answers, because I didn’t know what to tell these women. But by late afternoon, when I found myself suddenly alone in the hallway with nobody but my guards to bother me, the thought that there was still more than an hour until dinnertime made my shoulders slump in exhaustion.
“Psst, Ivetta.”
I jumped, startled, and scanned the hallway again. That was Clavis’ voice, I was sure of it, but I couldn’t see him anywhere.
“In here,” he hissed. A tapestry covering an otherwise innocuous-looking section of the wall fluttered suspiciously.
Normally, I would have run in the opposite direction, but the prospect of shady, secretive dealings with Clavis in a hidden room was much more attractive than staying out in the open, waiting for the next swarm of man-hungry women to jump me. I checked all directions again, dismissed my guards, and darted behind the tapestry.
“Thank you,” I said to Clavis as he stepped back and allowed me to slip inside.
A handful of candles lit the otherwise darkened room, shedding light on a lounge at nearly full occupancy. Jin and Silvio were sitting on opposing sofas in front of a stone fireplace, bent over a game of chess on the coffee table between them; Leon was sitting beside Jin, a glass in his hand as he watched the game; Yves, Licht, and Keith were reclining in armchairs off to the side, drinking tea; and Nokto was standing by the covered window, lifting the drapes to peek outside.
“Don’t do that!” Leon scolded him.
Nokto dropped the curtains and raised his hands defensively. “I was just looking.”
I smiled and shook my head. “This is pathetic,” I observed. “Eight grown men hiding in the dark from a bunch of women.”
“More like wolves,” Leon commented. “Come on, take a load off. You want something to drink?”
“Just tea,” Clavis answered for me, slinging his arm around my shoulders and guiding me to the sofa next to Silvio. “She’s trying to kick the habit.”
I rolled my eyes and shrugged Clavis’ arm off, scooting over to put some distance between us. “Tea is fine.”
Silvio cast me a sidelong smirk and snickered before returning his attention to the chess game. “You never did answer my question.”
“What question?” I asked.
“The one about when the wedding’s happening.”
I resisted the urge to squirm, but I couldn’t stop the heat rushing to my cheeks. “W-we haven’t set a date,” I said, trying not to stammer and hoping the poor lighting hid most of my embarrassed blush. The smirking faces around me said it didn’t. “And why are you and Keith hiding, anyway?” I asked, hoping to redirect the conversation away from that topic.
“‘Cause we ain’t got enough women in our own countries harassing us,” Silvio snapped. “Now, we gotta have half of Rhodolite after us, too. They’re like sharks that’ve smelled blood.”
“It’s flattering, but…” Keith trailed off, shrugging helplessly.
“Speaking of blood, you could try what Gil does,” Clavis said cheerfully. “Veiled death threats.”
Jin laughed. “Yeah. Right. If you think that’s such a great idea, why don’t you try it?”
“Well, I’m too much of a gentleman to treat a woman in such a dishonorable manner,” Clavis replied, his grin smug and confident.
“Running away from Lady Simmons and her daughters is honorable?” I teased.
Leon led the round of laughter, as usual.
Nokto dropped onto the sofa on Jin’s unoccupied side, crossing his arms over his chest and kicking his feet up on the coffee table. “She has a point,” he said, his crimson eyes narrowed with the smirk he directed at Clavis.
“As if you know anything about how to treat a woman,” Yves commented.
“I don’t see you going on a lot of dates, Evie,” Nokto retorted.
“Don’t call me that!”
“Actually, Yves spent most of yesterday with that girl you dumped right before the coronation ceremony,” Clavis interjected, his golden eyes glittering as he smirked back at Nokto. “Which you wouldn’t know, because you spent most of yesterday hiding from her father. Now, what was her name?”
“Elise,” I supplied. “And that reminds me, she asked me to deliver a message to you, Nokto. She doesn’t want you to get the wrong idea from her father, because no matter what he says, she will never consider dating you again, especially since you still haven’t apologized to her. And Yves, she’s looking forward to her upcoming date with you.”
Another round of laughter ensued, and although Nokto shrugged it off, he looked a little sheepish. Yves’ fair cheeks flushed a deep red, and for the next few minutes, he wouldn’t meet anybody’s eyes. I wondered if I shouldn’t have relayed her message to him in front of the others. But Nokto was right. Yves never got as much attention as his flashier brothers from women, and the only reason I could see for that was his Obsidianite mother. I remembered how shocked he’d been when his background hadn’t mattered to me, even though the opinion of a simple maid shouldn’t have mattered that much to him, and I remembered the whispers behind his back at his own estate. A little confidence boost probably wouldn’t hurt anything. And he was back in the conversation before too long, teasing and laughing with the rest of the princes.
I relaxed as the lighthearted atmosphere washed away the lingering tension of the day. Silvio, Keith, and most of the remaining guests were leaving the next day, and the princes had spent the previous day being genial hosts while Chevalier and I were gone, so there was nothing wrong with me hiding here with them for a little while. I needed to talk to Nokto and Licht, anyway. Although I’d wanted to talk to Nokto first, see how he reacted, and then talk to Licht…
Either way, I wasn’t looking forward to that conversation.
“Well, I’m starving,” Leon finally announced, standing and stretching his arms over his head. “How’re we doing this? Twos and threes again?”
I giggled at that. As Jin had explained it, they’d approached this escape strategically, getting enough work done before they snuck away so Chevalier wouldn’t get mad at them, moving in small enough groups to evade detection.
Strangely enough, Licht came up with the plan.
“I’m not sneakin’ around anymore,” Silvio said, sounding as cranky as ever, even though he looked more relaxed than I’d ever seen him, sprawled against the backrest beside me and swirling a glass of wine the color of Jin’s eyes in his hand. “Ain’t your guards out there?” he asked, turning his sharp sea-blue eyes on me.
I shook my head. “I told them they could go, since I was with Clavis. Couldn’t two of you go to either end of the hallway and be lookouts so everybody can leave at the same time?”
“You trust that nut too much,” Silvio muttered.
“He’s at his most harmless around her,” Jin said, setting his glass down and pushing his hands off from his thighs as he began to stand. “All right, partner, let’s go be lookouts.”
“No!” Yves exclaimed, leaping to his feet before Jin reached his full height. “Not you two, or we’ll all end up with buckets of water on our heads or something!”
“I’m hurt,” Clavis said, feigning a crestfallen expression. “To think you would suspect me of such a childish, simplistic trap that's so lacking in creativity when I was clearly too busy keeping Ivetta entertained in a room full of dullards to step away for even a moment—”
“Okay, okay, we get the picture,” Nokto interrupted. “It’s safe to leave.”
Leon turned his back on us and headed for the door. He didn’t see Clavis throw his arm around my shoulders and hug me to his side, but everyone else did. The shouted warning came too late. One loud whomp and three sharp clangs later, Leon fell to the ground, his curses muffled by the tapestry over his head, bound about him with three metallic restraints.
The room erupted in chaos.
Keith bolted to the open doorway to help Leon, whose movements resembled an angry inchworm; I clapped my hands over my mouth to hide my laughter at Leon’s expense; Jin fell back against the sofa opposite me, making no such attempt to hide his mirth. I knew others were laughing, too, but I wasn’t sure who, because Yves was advancing on Clavis with sky-blue eyes as angry as a freak summer thunderstorm, and Clavis dragged me onto his lap as a human shield, surprising a squeak out of me. Silvio shouted something about him being insane. Yves froze, his fists clenched at his sides, and Clavis stood, pulling me up by my upper arms and holding me in front of him as he side-stepped toward the door.
I was laughing too hard to put up a fight. But I didn’t have to, because Silvio grabbed me and yanked me back down to the sofa, and Clavis took off as Yves lunged for him, leaping nimbly over Leon and Keith with his clumsy younger brother hot on his tail, tripping over the two princes on the floor and eliciting more curses from Leon. I had a split second to realize I’d fallen on top of Silvio before someone else pulled me off of him and back onto my feet, and at that point, I’d lost track of who was in the room. It really didn’t matter, anyway. The only person in any danger was Clavis—if Yves could catch him.
I could barely breathe for laughing so hard.
“There goes the secret room,” Licht muttered.
“I’m sure Clavis knows of another place like this,” Jin said, standing up and wiping his eyes. “If he doesn’t, I do. And he’s not invited.”
A boing signified Keith finally releasing one of the three restraints holding the wriggling Leon. Judging by the black boots protruding from the tapestry cocoon throwing a wild, angry kick, that was the restraint holding his legs. Keith apologized profusely as he released the next two restraints in quick succession.
“Guess the show’s over,” Silvio said, standing up and striding toward the door as Leon threw the tapestry off and scrambled to his feet. Silvio’s billowing blue cloak blocked Leon’s undoubtedly angry expression from my view.
“Ivetta, breathe,” Nokto said behind me, chuckling.
“Sorry,” I gasped, trying to do just that.
“You didn’t have that bad of a time with the man-eaters, did you?” Jin asked. The note of concern in his voice matched his fading smile and the slight furrow of his brow.
I shook my head. “No, I’ve just had a lot on my mind.” I took a deep, steadying breath and continued, “I’m fine. Really. But, um, would you mind giving me a minute to talk to Licht and Nokto? Alone?”
Licht looked over my shoulder at Nokto for one of their wordless conversations.
Jin shrugged and headed for the door. “Undisciplined brats,” he muttered, kicking the discarded tapestry aside so he could shut the door.
Leon, Keith, and Silvio were long gone, probably chasing Clavis and Yves. I would have preferred to join them rather than have this conversation with the twins, but I’d put it off long enough, and the chaos would still be in full swing for a while longer. We could catch up for another laugh later. We’d need it.
“Um, I…this won’t take long,” I began, turning to face them and trying to collect my thoughts in the time that it took to draw a single breath. “This probably isn’t the best time, but I don’t know that there really is a best time…”
“I told you about Mama, didn’t I?” Nokto asked abruptly. “When I had a fever.”
I nodded, and they both retreated. Not physically. Physically, they didn’t move a single step. But I saw it in their eyes, in the crimson that darkened almost to black in the flickering candlelight, and in their posture, in the set of their shoulders and the tension in their jaws. Nokto still met my eyes. Licht didn’t. He averted them to the side as all the subtle signs he felt comfortable around me vanished, leaving him blank and cold and hard as stone. As if he directed all his emotions inward and sealed them off, just like Chevalier said.
Nokto sighed heavily, closing his eyes briefly. “I thought so, but I was hoping…” He sighed again and looked back at me. “How much did I tell you?”
I bit my lip. How was I supposed to know that? I didn’t want to rehearse the entire story to them now. They knew it by heart.
“Most of it, I think. Chevalier and Sariel filled in the details for me. I don’t know if you remember what I told you, Nokto, but…I guess it doesn’t really matter. It’s nothing you haven’t heard before. So…I just wanted to let you both know I’m sorry, for what it’s worth, and if you ever need to talk to somebody, or—Theresa will kill me for this—if you’re up late with a nightmare, chances are good I’ll be up, too, so just come get me instead of trying to deal with it alone.”
Licht’s eyes snapped back to mine. “You’re still having nightmares?” he asked, his flat, expressionless voice belying the obvious concern in the question.
“Of course I am,” I replied, a little surprised. “Those don’t go away just because things are better now. Why did you think Theresa moved into my room?”
“Why do you think I prefer not sleeping alone?” Nokto asked, cracking a smirk that didn’t reach his eyes. “Thanks for the offer, Ivetta, but you’re forgetting your fiancé. I don’t think he’ll take kindly to you spending your nights in other men’s rooms.”
“I didn’t say—”
“But while we’re standing here talking, we’re missing dinner and a show,” Nokto interrupted, his light, smooth tone the same one he used when we first met and he wanted to keep me at arm’s length. He put his hand on my shoulder and steered me toward the door. “Leon’s probably caught Clavis by now.”
I bit my tongue to keep from arguing the point and glanced back at Licht. He was following us, but his eyes skittered away as soon as they met mine. Knowing I shouldn’t take their rejection personally didn’t ease the sting. They’d been blaming themselves and refusing help for fifteen years, and I knew exactly what that felt like, and how hard it was to even consider thinking there might be another way. I’d told them what I thought, and all I could do now was be there for them.
A muted explosion shook the hall.
“He hasn’t caught him yet,” Licht noted.23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVS1FrbXU3T
