Page 51 of The Court of Thorns and Wings

After a few tense moments, the prince exited the room. His footsteps were slow and steady, and he and Dad disappeared from sight.

Mother, Father, Mom, and I kept our gazes on the door as if the dragon prince might reappear, but after several minutes, I couldn’t hear the footsteps anymore, and Mom shut the door.

“Are you all right, Lira?” Mother asked, flying over the desk to me. “I can’t believe he treated you so poorly.”

None of the disgust and criticism I’d seen since I’d returned was present in her eyes, and they softened as she examined me.

“I’m fine.” I placed my hands on her shoulders to reassure her. “He tried to manhandle me, but I didn’t let him.”

Father tilted his head. “Manhandle? Did the prince believe you were a man? Did he check to see if you had a penis?”

I blinked, processing if I’d heard what I thought I had.

“She meant thornclutched.” Mom chuckled and patted my shoulder. “Despite forgetting our fae heritage, Brenin and I took protection jobs on Earth and trained Eiric and Lira on suchmeasures. Now that things are getting settled, we can begin training Lira with a sword again.”

Little did she know I’d already been brought back up to speed with a sword, but I suspected informing them of that and why would make things worse for Tavish. Instead, I focused on something of much more importance. “How long until he comes back with his parents and other dragons?”

“It’ll take two days for him to travel back to his land, and then he’ll need to rest and inform his father, so about a week.” Mother nibbled on her bottom lip. “His desire to take you before your wedding is completely preposterous. He should know that we don’t want you to leave our side until then.”

“He doesn’t believe we’ll follow through on the agreement. You heard the beast.” Father crossed his arms and frowned. “In the meantime, I want guards on watch at all hours. He could return, hoping that we won’t expect him. The dragons are not to enter our kingdom until I invite them. I won’t tolerate the disrespect of them showing up at our door again without notice, which brings us back to the larger problem—the veil is partially down due to the Unseelie presence here because we didn’t feel the dragon’s arrival.”

I took a slight step back. “The dragons were blocked from coming here too?”

“No, but we included magic in the veil so that if a dragon crosses into our land, we’ll be alerted. That didn’t happen, which is why Pyralis showing up at Caisteal Solais’s door surprised us.” Father rubbed his temples like he had a headache coming on. “We’ll need to do something with the nightfiends if their presence is impacting the veil that much.”

“But we can’t kill Tavish.” Mother placed a hand to her mouth. “Otherwise, Ardanos magic will become unbalanced—unless he’s borne an heir since the Unseelie’s exile?”

My anger and resentment toward them slammed back into place. “He doesn’t have an heir. After waking up to find that his parents had beenmurderedby Seelie and he’d been kicked out of their home, he’s been trying to prove himself to his people and help them survive.”

“Murdered by Seelie?” Father scoffed. “Is that what he’s told you? That we’re the evil ones who killed his parents? How absurd.”

Here we were again, playing with words to evade the truth. Did he truly believe I was ignorant enough not to have caught on, or was it second nature, and he wasn’t aware of what he was doing?

“Not only that, dear, but he’s got you believing you have a fated-mate bond with him. I doubt he’d be honest about an heir. Did you ask him directly about that?”

I wanted to stomp my foot, but the impact wouldn’t be strong, seeing as I’d already broken both heels. “When he and I completed our bond, he told me he was a virgin. He said those exact words.”

“Then we need to determine an alternative. We don’t want to release him so he can regain the throne at the ruins. We need the Unseelie to stay disorganized.” Father headed back to his desk and removed a map of Ardanos from the bookcase. “Hestia, go coordinate the patrols and guards while I determine another location to keep the nightfiend.”

I swallowed, unsure what to do next.

“Lira, I need you to remain in your room until we know the ashbreath has officially left. I don’t want you out in the kingdom until patrols are in place and we’re certain it’s secure.” Father gestured to the door. “We won’t have as many guards here, so I need you to stay in one place.”

Even though I hated to be controlled, I didn’t want to argue with him. In my room was exactly where I needed to be to getTavish out before they moved him. With every breath I took, things got worse for us. But at least the guards’ presence would be thin, allowing us an easier way to escape.

Father watched with an arched brow. He expected me to fight him.

“Of course, Father.” I bowed slightly, listening to what Mom had recommended earlier. I needed to lull them into a false sense of security.

The corners of Father’s lips rose, and he exhaled with relief.

“Aw, there’s our little girl.” Mother sighed and kissed my cheek. “Once your father and I are done strategizing, we’ll make sure the three of us spend more time together. Just give us a day or two, and then we’ll make sure to focus on you.”

The last thing I wanted was their full attention. Still wanting to play along, I nodded. “I understand. I’ll leave you to it.”

I spun around, and Mom left the room with me.

At the intersection where she’d split off toward the prison and I’d go back to my room, she took my hand and said, “I was proud of you back there, Lira. I think all three of you need that time together your mother just spoke about.”

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