"You see?" Yllana said sharply. She turned towards Cass, her expression hard. "Is it the animal in you? The monster? Is that why you've turned into such a beast?" she asked, her words striking him like knives.

I caught flickers of the memories – the sneers and taunts, all the reasons he'd left his old life behind after the war, monster beast animal freak – and had to dig my fingernails into my palms to keep from slapping her. Across the table, Tech looked paler than usual. Even Tarra didn't move, holding herself still, like a rabbit hiding from a fox.

"Well?" she demanded. "It's not even been a century since I saw you last, Xarcassah. You would never have been allowed to be so undisciplined when you were in my home." Her nostrils flared again. "It's shameful."

The memory of that little boy still wept in the back of my mind. Wept because of her.

"Yllana, shut the fuck up," I said with deadly calm, enunciating every word. "You don't get to talk about him like that, ever again. If I hear one more word like that from you, you won't set foot in this palace again."

Yllana's ears lifted in outrage. "I am his mother—"

"The only thing that wins you is my Court's protection, not my affection nor fealty," Cass said in a low growl, his remembered terror transmuting into cold, implacable anger as he leaned into the shield of my rage. The gold in his eyes gleamed. "Don't forget why I became a Fury, Mother. You wanted me to become a soldier when Father died so you didn't have to lose your little luxuries. I became a monster for you, and you were perfectly fine with me sacrificing my body when you gained the honor and income of having a son in the Raven Army's prized strike force." Cass' wings slicked down into a blade with slow menace, the feathers catching the light.

Her hands closed so tightly that her knuckles went pale. The corners of her flat mouth trembled.

"It was the first time you ever said you were proud of me," he snarled. Pain tensed his eyes and made my chest ache, an ocean of it. "I gave you every fucking penny of the King's blood-money so I could hear you say it again, and you never did. The Furies are a better family to me than you've ever been. And now you dare—"

"Cassie," I said, softly, my heart breaking for him.

He snapped his teeth shut so hard my jaw ached. He furled his wings and turned away, the muscles in his temple jumping.

Pelleas smirked and lifted his wine glass to his lips, taking a desultory sip. "Now, that?" he said to the air. "I'd say that's well worth the trial of the journey."

I gave him a sharp look.

He smiled back with the lazy consideration of a well-fed cat, his violet lashes shrouding his ice-blue eyes. "I do so love watching soulmates interact," he crooned to me, as if we were alone in the room. "There's a pair of soulmated enemies in the Raven High Court who are truly a delight to behold. I hope I get the chance to see the Archangels again while I'm under your hospitality. I find Danica's company quite invigorating."

Tarra took a deep breath, as if settling herself, then pouted, slouching forward in a sultry pose worthy of a magazine cover. "Who's Danica?" she asked, making calf-eyes at the prince. "Should I be jealous, Pelly-welly?"

Tech narrowly kept from bursting into laughter, instead coughing sharply into his hand.

Pelleas looked vaguely nauseated, but he said in a pleasant enough voice, "Hardly, Tarra dear. Danica only had eyes for her soulmate."

Downgrade from 'Tarra darling,' I thought.

Cass leaned his elbows on the table. "Oh, I wouldn't say that," he said in a low purr, his anger still burning in my bones. He flicked his tongue across his lower lip. "Dani likes to look, Pelleas. She just didn't like looking at you."

Pelleas didn't move or speak, breathing in the same careful cadence I associated with Cass at his most controlled. The shadow of a pair of batlike wings spread from the foot of his chair in slow, secret menace.

Cass, I said sharply through our mental bond. What the fuck are you doing?

Shame flickered across his face, my cheeks warming as his flushed darker. Cass shoved himself to his feet. Everyone but me followed him up, forced by fae protocol to rise when the King did, like people did for judges in a courtroom. "Why don't we take dessert in the Lilac Room," he said, his wings rising and falling as he breathed. "I could use a change of venue."

"We'll join you there," I said, still in my seated position, holding Cass' gaze. Please, I sent him mentally.

He met my gaze, breathing too hard, and didn't challenge me on it.

Our duke recovered first. "Of course, your majesties," he said, not looking at Cass, but keeping one ear pointed at him, clearly wary. "Would you do me the honor of being my escort, lovely raven?" Tech smiled at Tarra, an expression full of invitation. "I'll only bite if you ask for it."

She laughed, a practiced sound, and dared her brother's wings to go around the table and hook her arm through Tech's. "Of course, Kitty," she said, beaming up at him, then cast a winning smile at Pelleas. "You'll have to be faster next time, Pellyness."

The prince merely smiled and offered his arm to Yllana, who took it silently, moving like an automaton.

Neither Cass nor I moved until the quartet were out the door, and until the sound of Tarra's girlish laughter no longer stained the air.

Playing Nice

Isighed and sagged back against my chair. "Do you want to talk about it?"