Page 41 of Heir to His Court

“Prince?”

“Silence.” He glanced at my father.

“Prince,” Baba said, “may I have time to confer with my daughter?”

“No. Not at this time. She will have much to tell you when we conclude, however.”

Thank you, Prince, for that semi you just threw me under.I kept the thought to myself. He probably heard it anyway.

“Allow me to ease your difficulty, Lady Aerinne,” Renaud said, a cruel, slender smile curving his lips and I was never more relieved to see it. “Either you join the High Court, or we will be at war.”

Relief evaporated. The General would destroy me instantly, efficiently, but Renaud would toy with me first. I didn’t know what I would have done, because Numair grabbed my upper arm, pushing me back into my chair.

“Rinne.”

Renaud’s power filled the clearing. “Youdare. I have suffered you for too many years, boy.”

No—but Raniel and Darkan had, while Renaud slept. More evidence the three aspects merged seamlessly at will. So where did the General fit in?

Numair released me, his voice rigid. “Lady Aerinne is not yet yours, Prince. She is neither your acknowledged consort, nor your wife, or sworn—yet—to your Court.” He cut Baroun a vicious glare. “No matter what false, pretty labels you give her when you call her cousin.”

Oh, you fool.

“Chevalier,” Étienne said, his voice cold in a way I had never heard. Numair inhaled, listening for the scuff of his footsteps as he retreated, obeying the dismissal.

The Prince was standing, stepping as if to follow, to hunt, black wings flickering at his back. My chair clattered to the ground as I threw myself against Renaud’s chest. Hard fingers bit into my upper arms.

“I’ll do it,” I said. “Renaud! I’ll swear the oath.” His gaze cut into my face, and I lifted fingertips to my cheeks, thinking to find blood.

“Forhim,” the Prince said, rage a storm of acid and knives in his voice. “Though you believe it will kill you. You would die forhim.”

Renaud lifted me by the arms and for a wild moment I thought he was going to hurl me into the table. With his strength, it would break my back. He set me down again, the power under his skin rising. His hair crackled, and I gasped, strangling the cry in my throat. I wouldn’t give these people the satisfaction.

“Renaud,” I said, gasping because it was becoming difficult to breathe. I struggled to draw in a breath. Red movement at the corner of my eye. Baroun was rising slowly, the caution of someone who understood we were all about to die in his ginger movements.

“My Lord. You will kill her. Her death would not serve you, cousin.”

Was that—what was. . .burning. Constricting. My knees folded.

“Raniel!”

That wasn’t my shout—I couldn’t speak. Then my lungs opened, sweet air rushing in as the hands on my arms gentled. Just a little.

“My apologies, Lord Étienne,” the Prince said. “But she is strong.”

Thisbastard.

When I lifted my head away from a chest that had no right to still feel sheltering, I noticed a lot had happened in those few seconds. Faronne guards stood at ready in the clearing, the White Guard on them warrior for warrior.

As I watched, Édouard entered my field of vision. Baba had risen, his gaze fixed on the Prince and I with the focused calm of someone who had endured several life tragedies, and was looking in the face of another. I would have to tell him about the Vow.

I lowered my forehead to Raniel’s shoulder again, tired.

“That was the last time he touches you,” Renaud said in the awful waiting quiet, “and lives.I do not care if he is yours. I will make his blood mine.”

My father lifted a hand, and Édouard nodded. Our warriors slipped back into the forest. The White were slower to retreat.

“We treasure our only daughter, Prince,” Baba said. “She is young yet, and not grown into even a quarter of her power. We do not know how the other Houses raise their children, but we do not lift hand against ours merely for impetuousness, or strong emotion.” I lifted my head, shocked by his steely rebuke. “If she is threatened, Faronne will respond as warriors ought. Muriel Kuthliele would expect nothing less.”

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