Page 89 of The Kingdom's Crown

"No," Owen said.

"No. But this will change things."

I shifted back, sitting up and smoothing my skirts around me, my mother's eyes widening briefly at the transformation. "I think it's a good thing to embrace the different kinds of magic that make up Kimmery. I think magicisKimmery's prosperity."

"I'm not sure how the farmers and the merchants would feel about that," Mother said drily. "But perhaps you're right. The council will have to be informed."

"I ran through the castle as a tiger. I suspect they already were," I said.

"You weren'treallygoing to eat your sister, were you, darling?" Mother asked, brow furrowing as she gazed at me.

I might've if Owen hadn't intervened. It was hard to read myself as a tiger. My hunt for Camellia might've been a game of chase, or it might've been the intent of a predator. The two weren't so different for the animal.

"Of course not, Mother," I lied.

She sighed happily, and Cosmo let me crush his hand in mine. "I didn't think so," she said. "Now let me see you as a tiger again."

I sat up just as a throat cleared in the doorway. Aric stood there, a folded letter pinched between his fingers. "A note from our friends in the north."

I shot up from the floor before I remembered myself. "Oh, I'm sorry, I—"

"It's fine," my mother said with a laugh, taking Owen's hand for him to help her up. "Another time. I'm glad you made such friends in the north while you were there."

I wasn't sure what my mother would think of Griffin, Sam, and Mistress Sanders if she met them, or what she would think of my being crowned King of Thieves, for all I'd neglected that title. It was better not to find out.

"Another time," I agreed, escorting my mother out of Cosmo's studio and through the suite.

"You've made your changes here," my mother said, admiring the strange landscapes that had appeared on the walls of the hallway.

"My magic did," I said with a little shrug.

My mother's eyes lit up. "Like in the ballroom!"

I blushed, recalling the game Daniel and Aric had made of my first dance, and nodded.

"You know," my mother whispered, leaning in close. "I tried that myself the other night with my Chosen. Nothing quite as impressive, but we did change the drapes. How funny to learn something new about myself after all this time. I wonder what else I've done without ever noticing."

I kissed my mother's cheeks at the door to my suite, barely waiting for the lock to click shut before I whirled around and leapt toward Aric. "Who wrote? What does it say?"

"How did your mother handle your tiger?" Aric asked, holding up the letter high above our heads. I jumped for it, and his arm wrapped around my waist.

"Aric!" I snapped. He arched an eyebrow as the others watched and hid their chuckles poorly. "It went fine, I think. She warmed up to me."

"You're very soft," Aric said, grinning and drawing down the letter by a mere inch. "Although your huffing is louder than Owen's snores."

"I will turn into a tiger right now and bite your hand off if you don't show me that letter," I growled.

"There's my girl," Aric said, and he ducked down, nibbling at my throat as I snatched the letter from his fingers.

"Why are you distracting me?" I hissed, squirming in his arms as he laved and sucked at my neck. I held the letter behind his head, ignoring my rising Hunger from his kisses as I tore it open. "It's from Griffin!"

"Do you two have to do that here?" Morgan called from the corner of the room as Aric's now free hand squeezed my bottom.

"I agree with her, what are you on about?" I gasped as Aric lifted me from the floor, his laugh vibrating against my skin as he carried me backward to the bedroom door. It was an effort to keep my eyes open at his assault, but it was even more of a challenge to focus on the words on the page.

The situation as it stands in your northern court can't continue, Bryony. I'm on my way south to speak with you in person, and this letter will likely arrive at the same time I do. Meet me in the southern thieves court at the edge of the capital on…

"Aric, she's here! She's in the capital! Aric!" I nearly dropped the letter altogether as we reached the bedroom, the door still hanging open behind us. Aric had done some trick of his on the back of my dress, laces unraveling, and his hand was already down in my skirt, clutching and squeezing roughly at my ass.

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