Page 110 of Crowned By the Fae King

"Well," Cass said after a moment. He sounded as stunned as I felt. "I suppose we ought to organize a battle."

"And a revel!" Tarra cried, clapping her hand. "Oh! I'm so excited!"

The Misted Duke tugged on her hair. "Grant me a lock of your hair, and I'll lead the enemy army for you, sweet princess, if our gracious King allows it."

"Done," she said, smiling into his face. "Say yes, Xarcassah."

He sighed, but he didn't sound irritated, and he didn't feel unhappy. If I had to take a guess, I would have said the tightness in my gut and the tension down my spine was eagerness—that Cass was looking forward to the chance to fight again. "How could I deny my own sister?" he said with a huffed laugh. "I suppose I'll meet you on the battlefield, your grace."

Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

An event like a mock-battle and associated revel wasn't something that could be pulled off on short notice. That many people would need to be fed, watered, housed, and acquired, and the battlefield itself needed to be designated and prepared for its invasion.

It also wasn't the sort of event that anyone important should be excluded from, so invites needed to go out to everyone rich or titled who could conceivably get their feathers ruffled from being left off the guest list. All those people needed to be housed, fed, et cetera, too—and they weren't the kinds of people who could get put up in any kind of temporary housing. Some would stay in Taeskana, of course, but the rest of them would need to stay in the palace, which meant a flurry of work for everyone in it, Monarchs included.

The princesses were a trial. Nothing seemed to please Yllana, and though she held her tongue about Cass, she was far too buddy-buddy with Pelleas for my comfort; Tarra was only too delighted to immediately become a spoiled brat, and with a great deal of reluctance Cass gave her a staff, a budget, and the ability to plan events. We didn't have to attend all the events, of course, but it would have been super rude not to go to any of them, so we were subjected to social events again.

The rest of the courtiers seemed to like having more activities, though, and I supposed that was useful. It could only help us if the High Court didn't despise us.

Ace – who'd never ended up putting out any commentary on Cass versus Ithronel, negative or otherwise – arrived in tandem with Talien, a week before the big event. That made me way more nervous than any denouncement of Cass fighting Ithronel would have. Of all the dukes, Talien struck me as the most dangerous; hungrier, more ruthless, and more ambitious. Maybe it took one to know one. Ace wanted Sagebrush Court back, but I suspected that Talien would never be content with merely being the King of Flies. I didn't think he would ever be content with anything.

Vad and Dani were dealing with the fallout of a major blizzard and several avalanches, so they weren't able to come, much to our sorrow. That left us with three troublesome dukes, a crown prince, and two princesses to handle for a week, with zero assistance.

For the first time since the Feast of Willows, it was time to divide and conquer. Tech hadn't declared anything officially, but he was definitely courting Tarra, so those two had to be kept together. Cass and Yllana in the same room was a disaster waiting to happen, while Yllana and Pelleas got along well, so it was good to keep them together. Ace liked me—but Talien wanted me, simply because I wasn't his. Keeping him by my side meant he didn't have as much time for mischief.

It made the divisions for small events easy. Cass got to handle Ace, Tech, and Tarra, and I kept Talien, Pelleas, and Yllana out of trouble.

"I'm surprised I haven't seen you wearing opals," Talien said idly one afternoon, watching me while Pelleas and Yllana used me as a mannequin, working on putting together a formal dress for me to wear to the post-battle revel. Cass had suggested it; to my surprise, Pelleas had been delighted for the chance to try to reproduce some of his glamor-work in actual cloth, and Yllana preened under the attention of the prince.

I breathed a laugh, careful not to move as Yllana made tiny adjustments to the drape of the fabric, trying to imitate the fall of glamor-cloth off of Pelleas' arm. "I thought it would be rude to rob you of the chance to give me some," I said with a flirtatious smirk, glad Cass wasn't in the room. "Besides, when I went shopping in Taeskana, there wasn't anything nearly as fine. The jeweler told me it's all but impossible to get fiery opals for reasonable prices these days. Something about the mines selling to private buyers," I said airily, as if I didn't care. "His Splendor lets me buy whatever I want. Maybe I'll buy a mine of my own."

Yllana made a disgruntled sound, but didn't say anything, holding the brass pins between her lips as she worked.

"Mines are such filthy things, and it wouldn't do for such a lovely woman to wear lesser gems," the duke said with smug expression, his teeth showing as he smiled. He reached into his jacket and pulled out a necklace that flashed in the light with orange and green fire. "Wear these instead."

Black opal cabochons the size of quarters gleamed on the backdrop of his dark fingers. The heavy gold setting of the collar necklace was accented with trillion-cut black stones to fill in the gaps between the opals, but I couldn't peel my eyes off of the fiery gems.

I had stones just like them, buried in the back of my wardrobe.

"Those won't match her revel dress," Pelleas observed. His voice was pleasant and his expression didn't change from one of mild interest, but I caught a glimpse of those tell-tale shadow-wings on the floor beneath him. The glamor-mage didn't like opals any more than Cass did—but, then, all of his clothing was glamor, and not ones stored in talismans. He was casting all the time, too.

"They're too gorgeous to wait two days to wear," I said, still staring at them with what I hoped would read as greed instead of sharp anger. "I'll wear them tonight. I have a little black dress that will look perfect with them."

Talien smirked and tucked them back away. "May I put them on you tonight, your majesty?"

Oh, Cass was going to hate that.

I lowered my lashes and gave him my best smolder. "It would be my pleasure to accept, your grace."

It took Yllana and Pelleas another two hours to declare themselves pleased with the fit of the dress, most of which I spent flirting lightly with Talien or adding small contributions to the dress proceedings. The Duke of Flies bowed over my hand before we parted ways. Pelleas gave me a sidelong look, one full of assessment, and turned away with the tiniest of smirks to offer his arm to Yllana.

Cass was already back in our suite when I returned, sprawled facedown on a backless couch in the sitting room with his wings taking up most of the available floorspace.

"Bad day?" I asked.

He groaned, not moving. "I might threaten to jump off a building if I have to hear my sister refer to Kettekh as 'Kitty' one more time, except that I do that routinely."

I snorted and shook my head. "Well, I'm afraid that's going to be the least of your worries tonight."

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