Page 86 of Their Offering

I stepped back out of instinct, and Keir smirked. He’d caught us, and he knew it.

“Keir!” The voice of our father shook the walls of the palace wing we called home. “Get your ass back to the chambers. We aren’t finished.”

Keir’s gleaming eyes changed to wide, empty holes in a second. Today, he’d been training in the torture chambers, the least favorite of his heir duties, especially when our father insisted on sitting in.

“Don’t do anything you’ll regret,” he threatened before stalking down the hall away from us.

I began to feel guilty.

“Don’t let him get to you,” my brother told me, knowing where my head was at. “He needs this distraction. Really, we’re helping him.” Aiden winked and laughed as he turned around and headed towards the kitchens. “Come on! We gotta get this going before he comes back.”

I thought for a moment before deciding to follow my twin to finish our prank.

When Keir found out we’d frozen all his underwear, he’d been furious. Our room took days to put back together after our brother’s anger had been unleashed on it. We had to get new beds and a new bathroom mirror. Those pieces weren’t even salvageable.

It had been hilarious, though, watching him go commando for an entire day. He was so uncomfortable, and few knew the reason why. They just saw a squirmy heir. I’d felt bad about it then, but it was funny thinking about it now.

Lilly was laughing so hard, her pale face was bright red, and tears spilled from her eyes. It warmed my heart to see her happy. The few hours out had done her some good; that much was obvious. I hoped my brothers, especially Keir, saw it too.

“I can’t believe youfrozehis underwear,” Lilly said, laughing through her words.

Aiden snickered beside me. “You bet your ass we froze his underwear. He deserved it, don’t worry.”

“Ideservedit?” Keir challenged him. “What does one do to deserve his entire underwear drawer frozen in a block of ice?”

Lilly, biting her lips to keep her giggles at bay, busted out laughing. “A block of ice?” she sniffled, tears falling down her face. “You poor thing,” she teased Keir.

“Poor thing? Me?” Keir was fighting his own smirk. He rarely let himself let loose, but Lilly was the one most likely to bring it out of him.

She nodded, attempting yet again to contain her laughter.

“He was an ass growing up.” Aiden sat down next to Lilly. “Even at 187 years old.”

I chuckled, amused with Lilly’s pleasure in learning something about our past, a fun memory.

“Iwas the ass?” Keir poured himself a drink and took a sip. “Who pranked who?”

“Hey, there was that one time you bleached our entire formal wardrobe,” I reminded him.

“Iwas truly the one pranked then, boys,” Ida added. “Do you know how long it took me to get those replaced?” She was half teasing, half chastising. “I had never spoken to the tailor that much until that point. He couldn’t take clients for a month, so that poor man was pranked too.”

“Whoops,” Aiden said with a shrug. “Our bad.”

Ida chuckled. “Yes, your bad. I can’t believe the realm survived you three.”

“Three?” Keir inquired with an eyebrow raised at her.

“Yes,” Ida said matter-of-factly. “All three of you.”

“All I did was defend myself,” Keir said, throwing his hands up in surrender.

Everyone was laughing, even Keir. My brothers looked happy,extremelyhappy. Lilly’s eyes were full of, well, something I couldn’t identify, as she looked between us.

I caught Ida’s eyes watching Lilly, too, and then she looked around until she caught mine looking right at her. Her smile grew wider, and she winked. Keeping her eyes on mine, she leaned her head, gesturing toward Lilly.

I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. What did she mean by that? Instead of answering me, Ida gave me a sympathetic smile, like she knew something I didn’t, and it was amusing to her.

“I should go…leave you all to it,” Ida said as she stood and walked to the elevator.

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