Page 59 of House of Mages and Raven

“It vanished,” Louis said in disappointment.

“Hmm, it’s interesting,” Rowan said, looking at me.

Silas and Louis followed suit. And then all three heirs stared at me, studying me.

“Don’t look at me,” I said roughly. “I ain’t the answer.”

The three heirs inhaled again, looking rueful and still somewhat aroused.

Sy peeked out in glee at the mess she’d made, but she was at least refraining from getting too close to the surface now. The three heirs started to growl at each other, not appreciating smelling each other’s arousal in close proximity.

Rowan growled louder and more territorially, as he had intimate knowledge of Sy’s scent.

I needed to defuse the tension, as it was starting to feel suffocating around these alpha males. Their power beat in the air and made my skin tingle.

Killian leaned forward from his seat, observing us and expecting a fight to break out between his rivals. Now and then, I could still read his mood, as if this connection between him and me hadn’t broken, despite his betrayal.

I cleared my throat and let my dark power eat the last trace of scent left by reckless, immature, and horny Sy. “Prince Silas, I have a question for you.”

All three princes blinked at me as if they’d just woken up from a trance.

“Shoot, Barbie,” Silas said, re-collecting himself.

“I was thinking of the beautiful poem you composed,” I said. “The last verse of ‘when that shall fade’ got me thinking.”

“You don’t need to think further,” Louis snorted. “Silas didn’t come up with that sonnet. He stole it from WS.”

A flash of red appeared on Silas’s neck. “Who the fuck is WS?”

Louis rolled his eyes. “Everyone knows that he’s the rightful author ofRomeo and Juliet.”

“Do females really digRomeo and Juliet?” Rowan asked.

He was gathering tips on romancing Sy. The heirs hadn’t needed to pursue women, as they’d always been the ones to be pursued.

I sneered. “Romeo was a pussy.” I ignored the heirs’ stares and carried on. “Does no one realize that he was a womanizer? In the beginning, he had a thing for another chick, but as soon as he spotted Juliet, younger and more beautiful, he dumped his old girlfriend cruelly and went for the new squeeze right away. What a jerk.”

Silas frowned. “Are we reading the same Romeo?”

“Everyone goes for the younger, prettier thing,” Louis said shamelessly. “What’s wrong with that?”

Pigs!I almost shouted out. Males in this realm couldn’t even see what was wrong with that, since that was exactly what they did all the time—always went for someone newer, hotter, younger, and more powerful. Those pigs would argue that it was the nature of male biology, so the most powerful bloodlines would keep producing strong offspring, good for evolution, good for the future of the realm.

I glared at Louis, then at the other two princes, including all of them in my wrath, before I sent a glare upstairs, trained on the chaos prince.

“But Romeo sacrificed himself for Juliet,” Silas said. “He died for her, didn’t he?”

He wasn’t sure. He hadn’t finished the story.

“Suppose the star-crossed lovers got together and even had a dozen children, do you think Juliet would have lived happily ever after?” I laughed drily and viciously, but I took care not to let my spit fly, since the heirs were putting a bit more distance between them and me now. “Do you think Romeo would still fall to his knees to praise Juliet’s beauty and confess his undying love for her after she had crow’s-feet around her now-foggy eyes and flashed her yellow teeth at him? She could have a saggy belly due to aging and having a bunch of kids.”

I hoped Killian would picture Grace with all that floppy flesh in a few years.

The princes winced at the vivid images I’d described for them.

“Thanks, Barbie, for ruiningRomeo and Julietfor me,” Silas said, sighing.

I didn’t feel bad. At least I didn’t have to run from him to avoid his poetry.

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