Page 80 of Cathmoir's Sons

The demon’s reaction was the most interesting. Before the Holly King arrived, the demon was out in the meadow with the other twin, showing her how to skip rocks in the stream. It involved very little skipping and a lot of plopping; I’ll admit to becoming a little wistful about the day I might play games with my own kit as I watched them.

As soon as the door opened to admit the King and Regent, the demon’s head lifted. His horns unfurled above his crimson mane. He returned to the dinner table, keeping the girl-twin on his lap, feeding her and speaking to her in a language I don’t recognize. She and her brother answered him, switching back and forth seamlessly from English to his language. Caileán also spoke to the demon in his language. Just a word here and there, but enough to be clear she’s following the conversation.

They are on alert. It makes my fur bristle and my tongue catch on my fangs.

I could snap off the king’s horns in two bites. And then his head.

The Holly King tries to draw Caileán into conversation. Evidently, he’s been doing his homework. He asks about her Winter Study class, questions which make my brother eye him. Caileán answers politely but without elaboration. Luca steps in more than once to expand on her answers, allowing our mate to lapse into her observant silence.

Finally, the Holly King works up to the question that brought him to this family dinner, I sense, uninvited. “The UnbloodiedPrince has announced a carnival for the Wolf Moon. Would you do me the honor of attending with me?”

Caileán watches the fae for a long, spine-ruffling moment. Her eyes have never been icier. She might beat me to snapping his head off.

Then she nods. “It would be my pleasure.”

There’s not a drop of enthusiasm in her voice.

“My invitation extends to your Cait and human, of course,” he says.

“Of course,” she responds.

He reaches into his green robes and withdraws a slim box. He offers it across the table with a small flare.

Caileán’s smile grows fangs almost as sharp as my own.

“You’ll forgive me,” she says. “High fae offering me gifts has not always gone well. Luca?”

My twin’s surprise flares between our minds, but he keeps his expression neutral. He reaches out and paints a sigil in the Air above the proffered box with his fingertip. I’m familiar enough with his magic to know that’sderu, a rune of seeing and revelation.

When nothing happens, Luca takes the box from the Holly King’s hand and lays it on the table in front of Caileán.

She opens it with her claws.

A circle of starlight lies on a bed of black velvet.

“To crown your midnight mane,” the Holly King says.

She closes the box slowly. “I’ll be honored to wear it at the carnival,” she says. “So long as that’s appropriate.”

“It’s always appropriate to wear my gifts,” the Holly King answers. “I hope to give you many more.”

Caileán nods distantly.

If she showed the faintest enthusiasm for the Holly King’s present, I’d have to find a forge to melt the thing in. But she’s utterly impassive. She’s given him a few cool smiles, answeredhis questions, and listened attentively to him. He can’t complain that she’s ignoring him, but he can’t possibly be encouraged, either. I’d be sulking and breaking things if she was this stony with me. Yes, her anger and hurt were hard to bear, but I always knew beneath them was a deep well of emotion. Caileán regards the Holly King as though he’s one of the revenants she and Luca did unspeakable things to during Fall semester. She’s waiting for him to do something interesting, or perhaps dangerous, but she has no emotional investment in him at all.

For his part, the Holly King seems unfazed. Perhaps this is what he expects from a political courtship.

I feel a surge of gratitude that my parents always insisted Luca and I marry for love. Yes, Dad demanded I put my duty to our people over my pursuit of our mate until I came of age. But he never suggested I court a woman for political reasons rather than emotional ones.

It really would upset him if I bit the Holly King’s head off.

I resign myself to wait for another day.

Good call, Luca thinks to me. Dad really wants grandbabies before you plunge us into a war with the high fae.

Caileán may do that before I do.

True, but Dad already likes her better. He’ll forgive her faster than he’ll forgive you.

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