Page 71 of Draekora

By the end of her speech she was on a roll, nearly yelling the words as they blended from one into the next.

“You know,” Alex said thoughtfully, “aside fromkregon, I’m pretty sure most of those words all mean the same thing, give or take.”

“Argh!” Kyia cried, throwing her weight back in her chair and shaking her head in annoyance.

“But let no one say she lacks an extensive vocabulary,” came the highly amused voice of Roka as he strolled out from behind one of the shelves. “I particularly liked the combination of puffed upandbigheaded. Poetry for the ages.”

Alex was horrified on Kyia’s behalf but she couldn’t repress her totally inappropriate snort of laughter. In her defence, the prince’s timing was atrociously hilarious, as was his light-hearted reaction to the vicious slander.

“Please don’t hold back next time, sweet Kyia,” Roka finished, his lips twitching while his eyes sparkled with mirth. “Otherwise Aeylia might continue believing that we are, ahem, ‘made for each other’.”

Poor Kyia looked like she was at a loss as to how to react. If it were Alex, she’d be wishing for the power to spontaneously combust, but Kyia had more backbone than most. That, and she’d grown up with Roka, so this wasn’t their first experience trading insults.

“You didn’t hear anything I wouldn’t have said to your face,” Kyia said, crossing her arms and folding one leg over the other, her position casually apathetic.

“But so rarely do you favour me with your undivided attention,” Roka replied, not missing a beat. “I thought I was beneath your regard, but I now see that you’ve thought long and hard about your passionate feelings towards me. I’m touched, Kyia. Truly.”

Alex bit down hard to keep from laughing again at Roka’s unbridled sarcasm. But she still must have made a squeak of noise, since Kyia turned narrowed eyes in her direction.

“I can see exactly why you think so highly of him, Aeylia,” she said, her sarcasm just as clear. “He’s a real charmer.”

“You can add that to my long list of virtues,” Roka said with a wink. “Slot it in before ‘kregon’.”

Must not laugh, must not laugh, Alex chanted, with little success. She only half managed to turn her amusement into a cough and quickly spoke before Kyia could throw a book at her head.

“I thought you were busy with the king until later tonight?” Alex questioned Roka, switching over to the common tongue out of habit.

“It turns out Father has no need of me for the rest of the day, after all,” Roka answered. “I thought perhaps you both might like to take the afternoon off as well.”

Alex perked up at that, happy for any excuse to set aside the never-ending lessons about the Meyarin High Court.

“Aven sought me out earlier,” Roka went on. “He suggested we could all benefit from a break and that we should spend some time together away from the palace. Get away from it all.”

“This is Aven’s idea?” Alex asked. When Roka nodded, she said, “Are you, um, okay with that? With spending time with him, I mean. After everything that went down last week when—”

“I know what you’re speaking of, Aeylia,” Roka interrupted gently. “I may struggle to understand his fervent opposition towards mortals, but no matter what grievances Aven and I hold, he’ll always be my brother, my closest confidant.”

Alex had to turn away so that he wouldn’t be able to read the look in her eyes.Oh, Roka. If only you knew.

“Besides,” the prince continued excitedly, “cliff jumping is the perfect way to bring people together.”

“Cliff jumping?” Kyia repeated, and even she sounded uncharacteristically eager. “Why didn’t you say so sooner?”

“If I’d led with that, I would have missed out on your ebullient recitation of my vastly underrated personality traits.”

Kyia opened her mouth but Alex got in first.

“At the risk of cutting off what I’m sure would be a perfect example of scathing wit,” Alex said, tipping her head with mock respect towards Kyia, “can I just say, Roka, that I’ve known this language my whole life and not once have I heard anyone use the word ‘ebullient’ in a sentence. I’m not sure if I should applaud you or to tell you to stop reading the common tongue dictionary in your spare time and get a life.”

Kyia burst out laughing, and even Roka let out a chuckle, proving yet again that he truly was the perfect prince by not taking her words to heart.

“I’ll keep that in mind, Aeylia,” he said in a humour-filled voice. “Perhaps right when I’m about to push you off the Golden Cliffs.”

“Actually, I’m glad you’ve come back to that,” Alex said, standing to her feet. “What exactly did you mean by ‘cliff jumping’?”

Not at all liking the gleam that entered Roka’s eyes, Alex didn’t have the chance to retreat as he reached out to pull her closer to him. Kyia took that as her cue and jumped up as well, moving alongside them. One of the two—presumably Roka— activated theValispathand it took off from beneath them.

“I’m not entirely sure I’m comfortable with whatever is going on here!” Alex called over the howling wind, but all she received in response were matching grins full of anticipation.

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