Page 76 of Under the Lion Star

“And?” Atlas asked, resting his chin in his hands.

“Fade. To. Black!” Grandma scoffed with fury. “Fade to black! Can you believe it?”

“No!” Atlas gasped.

“I nearly threw the book across my house,” she pinched the bridge of her nose. “They get naked, kiss a bit, and then nothing is described. It’s an abomination.”

“We need to find this author,” Atlas fisted his hand and set it on the table. “Demand that they write the raunchiest scene in all of Fjorn.”

“As much as I love creative freedom,” she raised a brow. “I’d be remiss if I didn’t see if there was something the king could do about this indiscretion. Given we’re family and all.”

“Grandma!” I chided.

“Unfortunately,” Leor tried to hide his laughter behind a cough. “I don’t know that such a thing falls under my jurisdiction.”

“People are being harmed, Leor,” Grandma insisted. “Irreparably!”

“Think of the people,” Atlas frowned at Leor.

Thankfully, Sanna entered with Liras and Orin, and even my grandmother had enough sense to not talk about wolves fucking women in front of the young princess. They each took their seats, and I made introductions while filling their plates.

Grandma spoke at length about how handsome Liras was, asking him if he’d met any of my sisters. As much as I wanted to step in and end his torture, Orin and Leor seemed to be delighting in it.

“I was thinking,” I stated in a lull of conversation.

“That’s probably not good,” Atlas smirked.

I shot him the deadliest glare I could muster. “What if we had a sort of tradesmen exchange with the humans.”

“Send them men of ours to apprentice under theirs and vice versa?” Leor asked.

“Exactly,” I smiled. “Liras’s love of human weapons got me thinking that there are a lot of different crafting techniques. We’re already exchanging goods with the humans. Why not ideas as well?”

“I like it,” Liras tapped his chin.

“You only like it because you want a flail or whatever it’s called,” Orin teased.

“I never said I liked it for altruistic reasons,” he shrugged.

“We could extend it to art as well,” Leor nodded to himself. “Invite human artists to the gallery exhibits we hold in Galvord.”

“Look at you two. Working together,” Grandma beamed.

The rest of the meal went as smoothly as could be expected with my grandmother in attendance. She was mostly behaved, although she managed to recruit two knights to join her on the carriage ride home.

“Thank you for that,” I said to Leor after everyone else had parted.

“Family is important to you. It’s something we have in common,” he smiled, brushing a lock of hair behind my ear. “We live with mine, which makes it easier, but your family is always welcome to the castle whenever you’d like.”

My grin matched his, but the look in his eyes slowly faded in brightness as his mouth fell.

“You did it again,” a crease formed in his brow. “You start all your ideas with ‘I was thinking’ or ‘Maybe we could,’ demonstrating that you have no faith in your own thoughts.”

“Sorry,” I looked at the grass beneath us.

“Don’t apologize,” he hooked his finger under my chin and guided my eyes back to his. “You’re clever. Thoughtful. Far more intelligent than any of the men on the advisory council. Don’t doubt yourself so much. Your ideas are valuable.”

I pressed my mouth into a thin line, recalling how, so far, everything I had suggested had been well received and often allowed Leor to build off of. “Okay.”

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