Page 51 of Wingless Crow: Part 1

I was supposed to charm the king.Hewas the man in charge of my future.

The king stared at me. Was I supposed to say something? What was he expecting?

I lost focus, feeling too flustered to gather my thoughts. I heaved a breath and forced my lips to stretch into a smile, tossing a glance across the room in search of a distraction.

The courtiers had mostly finished with the dinner by now. A few of them still leisurely picked at their dessert. But the rest seemed to be ready to move on to whatever was next on the king’s busy entertainment schedule.

“Is there something else planned for the evening?” I batted my eyelashes at the king.

As I had hoped, the question diverted his attention from studying my face. He swept his gaze across the table.

“Oh yes. We shall move to the games room now.”

“Can I come?”

I proved to be a lousy dancer. Now, it looked like I wasn’t that good at kissing, either. Maybe I could at least learn the games the king liked to play and become a worthy opponent for him?

I didn’t choose this life. But if I had any choice at all, I’d rather be King Tiane's game partner than his mistress or his breeder.

He grimaced. “You’d be bored.”

Dove and Libelle got up from their seats. Lord Petuh, the one whose chair I’d almost ended up taking earlier, seemed especially eager to go wherever they all were headed.

And I was being left behind.

“What games will you play tonight, Your Majesty?” I asked.

“A round of War of Kings, for sure,” he replied animatedly. “I’ll be playing with Lord Petuh. He defeated all his other opponents the last time.”

“He did?” I threw a quick glance at Lord Petuh, who puffed out his chest, beaming with pride at the mention of his name. “Is that why he’s strutting around ever so proudly, like a cock in a chicken coop?” I said softly, only for the king to hear.

The similarities between a rooster and the lord with his meticulously styled red hair and his brightly colored shirt with a sea of ruffles on his chest were impossible to miss. The way he strolled around the table—his chin hiked up, his chest rolled out, the most arrogant expression on his face—only strengthened the resemblance.

The king squinted at Lord Petuh, then suddenly erupted into laughter that startled everyone around the table. The courtiers stared at their king. Some had tentative smiles flickering in and out of existence, unsure whether they should join him in his merriment even as they had no idea what had caused it.

“Lord Petuh!” the king announced loudly. “My little human thinks you look like a cock strutting his stuff in a chicken coop after winning the game last time. Not for long, though, my lord. I fully intend to beat you at it tonight.”

I froze in mortification. The joke I’d blurted to the king in private wasn’t meant to be heard by the entire room. I didn't mean to embarrass the lord in front of everyone. But it was too late to do anything about it now. Everyone joined King Tiane in laughter.

Lord Petuh glared at me. The next moment, however, he was laughing, too, to my relief.

“How about anyone else, Sparrow?” he challenged. “Surely, I’m not the only one who inspires your wit.”

King Tiane eagerly shifted in his chair.

“What say you, baby chick? Anything else?” He stared at me expectantly.

Everyone laughed. The mood seemed cheerful, all in good fun. And I had plenty to say on the topic. I’d been watching them all evening, memorizing their names and faces, while comparisons had been popping up in my brain.

I turned to a man who’d been trying to impress the woman sitting next to him at dinner. Right now, he was standing up, fluffing his thick wavy hair with his fingers, and straightening the wide sleeves of his shirt.

“Lord Ara is preening and cleaning his feathers. I wonder if he’d break into a courting dance next in hopes of winning Lady Eleene’s heart.”

The lady seemed to be aware of the lord’s advances and very much welcomed them. So I didn’t feel like that would insult either of them. Both laughed, with the lady blushing slightly.

The king’s eyes sparked with delight. “What else?”

I tilted my head up to the couple under the ceiling. The man held on to the vines up above, with the woman hovering in front of his crotch. Her brightly colored wings fluttered rapidly as she reached for the laces of the man’s pants, eager to free his erection that swelled thickly behind the lacing.

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