Page 162 of Of Nine So Bold

My brother’s jaw clenched. He shrugged off Dex’s grip, but he didn’t start toward Norbert again.

Norbert smirked.

But that wasn’t what made me pause.

All around my idiot cousin, discomfort and maybe evenembarrassmentflashed over the faces of the other giants. These were Deter’s henchmen. His honor guard of bullies. Yet not a single one of them seemed eager to join in Norbert’s mockery. For gods’ sakes, Brock looked like he’d just bitten into a lemon.

Well, that was… different.

“We should return to the surface,” Ignatius said. Lifting his robes to step over the fallen chunks of rock, the scholar started back down the tunnel. “The lake will be filling again, and the others will likely want to know what happened.”

“Indeed.” Norbert smirked, his supercilious tone like a snide imitation of his father.

Ignatius’s face tightened, but he didn’t say anything, simply continuing past us on his way to the surface.

“Oh, and scholar?” Norbert called. “Best you start planning my father’s coronation. He’ll be your king before the end of the day.”

Ignatius didn’t respond.

“Not fucking likely,” Clay muttered.

Gods, I hoped my brother was right.

42

NIKO

Iraced back into the temple with Gwyneira at my side, and I wondered the whole way whether I was making a mistake.

Not where she was concerned, of course. Being with her was the only thing in my life that still made sense.

But everything else…

Dex and my friends emerged from the hall leading to the tunnels just as Gwyneira, Roan, and I reached the main room.

“Everything okay?” Roan asked them immediately.

Behind us, a murmur rose. I looked over my shoulder.

Water trickled from the fountain, the flow growing stronger with every passing moment.

“Fine, freak.” Norbert strode past, bumping into Roan and making him rock to the side.

A quiver went through Roan. Quickly, Gwyneira put a hand to his forearm with a cautioning look.

One that was probably meant as much for the demon as my friend.

When no one responded to his jibe, Norbert cast a glance back. An intrigued look flashed over his face to see Gwyneira’s hand on Roan. His eyes raked over her body, a cruel smirktwisting his lip like he was imagining doing unspeakable things to her.

My fingers curled into fists, my magic seething to lash out and make him pay for looking at her that way.

The princess didn’t deign to notice that bastard in the slightest. “What happened?” she asked, directing the question at Ozias.

“Nothing we couldn’t fix,” Dex said briefly before Ozias could speak—assuming he even would have. Barring a brief glance of reassurance to Gwyneira, my bearded friend kept his eyes trained on Norbert like he wanted to rip the guy’s throat out.

“I’ll fucking kill that bastard if he doesn’t stop looking at her that way,” Clay growled in a low voice, his eyes locked on his cousin too.

This brought Gwyneira’s attention around. At the sight of Norbert, her brow arched and she drew herself up, every bit of her radiating royalty.

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