Page 15 of Heir to His Court

Which made my rejection at the faire all the more unwise, but I couldn't blame myself for that. Not on the heels of what Nayya had revealed.

Baroun stood once my family left. “I have one question, Lady, if you will indulge me.” He spoke behind the impassive mask of a High Lord. “Why did your form emerge? What caused the damage I saw in the District?”

I turned away from them both.

“What happened?” Renaud asked, the question a command.

I could refuse to answer, but I did not want to spend my defiance needlessly. He would find out anyway. “Juhainah sent her Knight.”

Silence sucked all the air from the room, the stillness eerie. I turned to face Renaud again and clenched in instinctive fear; his eyes had bled to pure gray.

“The Knight.”

“I survived the fight.”

“But was that survival due to your will, or hers?” Baroun asked. “I saw the District. I believe Iwillsend you the bill. You should not have been without your guard. Perhaps the financial loss with drive home that lesson.”

I inhaled sharply, fear of Renaud fleeing under aggravation at Baroun. “Why are you even here? Don’t you have a cage of small creatures awaiting your special attention? Pixies with wings to tear off? Howdoyou amuse yourself in your free time, High Lord?”

Darkness crawled behind his sharp smile. “If you beg prettily enough, I will show you how I tear wings from delicate things.”

“And if you beg prettily enough, I will demonstrate how I ripped the head off Juhainah’s Knight.”

His smile vanished. “Such gratitude to one who saved your life, little Darkling.”

“She is mine,” the Prince said, still not moving. “You will not claim a debt.”

Baroun nodded, though technically Renaud did not have the power to forbid his cousin a claim of debt. We were bound by laws far more ancient than one Old One.

“I don’t need you to protect me,” I said.

“You need far more than mere protection, my halfling. Leave us.”

Baroun bowed. “I will draft a suitable response for the attack on the Princess, if it please you. They will know not to behave so again.”

Silence the same as permission, Baroun turned.

“Wait!” I said, starting after him. Renaud held up a hand, and I stopped. “Montague, you don’t take any retaliatory measures I don’t approve. They did nothing wrong. They were afraid.”

“Fear is not an excuse, cousin,” he said before closing the door behind him.

“Are you going to let him do this?” The aching in my heart rose and vomited up through my throat.

He walked past me to the open glass doors and looked out. “The best lessons have the highest stakes. Or else we have no reason to learn. You do not even know what he will do.”

“Don't give me your horseshit!”

I curled my hands into fists, then forced them to relax as I took a deep breath. Losing my composure would get me absolutely nothing.

“On that subject. There are a hundred other ways you could have chosen to address the brawl, and my reaction to Nayya. You picked the most aggressive.” My voice broke. “Don't you care that you murdered innocents?” Memory stirred in the recesses of my mind. “You had a sister once. You loved her. Whose sister did you kill today?”

He stiffened, the line of his shoulders rigid. He turned, pinning me with a cold, even stare, his expression impenetrable. He held himself with the air of a veteran warrior braced for another blow. I recognized the posture. I had seen it before and held it myself.

“Damn you, stop using silence against me.”

“What excuses or regrets can I offer you, Aerinne, that you would accept? That would make you feel better about what I have done? Now, or in the past?” He smiled, thin and humorless, though perversely, there was an edge of kindness in it. Sympathy, almost. “I refuse to offer you meaningless platitudes. I respect you too much.”

“This is respect? Creating a mess in the city I'm going to have to clean up after you? It's not you they're going to come to, it will be me. I’m the lesser threat. I’m the one they can safely vent their anger with.”

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