Page 99 of A Crown of Deceit & Ruin

Nic struck a chord, and the brothers all belted out the samedrawn out note before the melody picked up again. Quickening. Chasing itself.

It reminded her of a game she and Thom used to play when she was little. He would start with his eyes closed and Kestrel would try to hide somewhere in the tower without him finding her. Whenever he’d get too close, she’d move somewhere else. But each time he heard her giggle, he got to open his eyes a little more and hasten his step. Soon he’d be chasing her around every corner of the tower, and she’d be laughing so hard his eyes were wide open and she could hardly breathe.

Kestrel watched Leighton throw an arm around Efrem and Micah. She wanted desperately to ask him what he had learned. It had been plaguing her all day.

But seeing him so happy, so carefree and joyful, she decided she didn’t want to interrupt. Her questions could wait.

The song slowed and sped up and slowed again, and the next time the melody hastened, Micah and Efrem were up on the table. They tapped their shoes and clanged the silverware. Kestrel’s heart lurched, worried that they might knock over every dish in their path and waste so much delicious food that she hadn’t even had a chance to try yet. But to her amazement, they danced around the table, dodging every platter and bowl with precision.

Singing the entire way, Micah pranced to the end of the table where Barnabus and Kestrel were sitting.

“Please go away!” Barnabus yelled, leaning forward to clutch his bowl and spoon to keep them from rattling. “It’s unsanitary what you’re doing.”

“I’ll leave as soon as the lady agrees to dance.”

Blinking and mid-chew, Kestrel looked up to find Micah’s hand outstretched toward her.

“Oh, I couldn’t. I don’t knowhow?—”

“Nonsense!”

She had held her hand out in protest, but Micah seemed to take it as an invitation. He yanked her up onto the table. Her tart fell from her other hand, lost to the ground.

“Dancing comes from the heart, so everyone can do it.”

Kestrel grinned, feeling the music trill inside her as if it was its own source of magic.

At Micah’s encouraging smiles and nonverbal coaching, Kestrel bobbed and swayed along in time with the beat. But her cumbersome skirts made maneuvering around the food much more challenging than either of the twins made it seem. She made a mental note to talk to Marion tomorrow about procuring different attire, if at all possible. Something more similar to what the princes were wearing, except maybe Leighton who always seemed a bit more extravagant than the others.

Eventually the song ended, but the merriment had only just begun.

“This next one is a song I wrote about my brothers and the time I had to drag them out of a moat.”

Efrem groaned, pointing an accusatory finger at Micah. “If you had just let me handle them, I wouldn’t have spent that night pulling seaweed from my arse.”

Micah bellowed with laughter and skipped back to the other side of the table to throw an arm around his twin. Nic started playing and singing again, the twins dancing together, one arm over each other’s shoulders.

But Kestrel had been left standing there, unsure of what to do from atop this high table.

“Need a hand?”

When she glanced down, two sky-blue eyes stared up at her as if they were gemstones dazzling among the stars.

Her traitorous heart fluttered, but she was starting to realize her attraction toward Leighton wasn’t as real as she had oncebelieved it to be. That maybe she had only fallen for him because his was the first charming face she had ever seen.

Still, Kestrel was trapped on a table, with a dozen trays of food surrounding her. And the gown she was wearing made her feel like a walking, bumbling tumbleweed. She didn’t know how to get down.

Kestrel accepted his hand. “Thank you.”

His other cradled her waist, and before she could ask him what he was doing, he lifted her up and lowered her back down to flat ground.

“Better?” he asked, gazing down at her.

“Yes,” she said, tucking a nonexistent strand of hair behind her ear just to try to conceal her blush. “Believe it or not, that was my first time dancing on a table.”

“Could’ve fooled me,” he laughed, and then changing his tone to something more sober, he tugged on the hand that he still hadn’t let go of. “Come on. Let’s find somewhere quieter to talk. I believe I have some news to give you.”

Nothing else could’ve made her heart stammer more.

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