Page 134 of Enchanted Kingdom
I was smiling with her, wondering why annoying Prince Krewan was in her repertoire of skills for securing him. She seemed his frontrunner already.
“Excuse us,” Renna said as she curtsied and interrupted Krew and Layla, another woman dressed in black like Renna.
I remembered at the last moment to curtsy as well.
“May we borrow you?” Renna asked sweetly.
He looked from one of us to the other as if wondering what we were up to. “In a moment.”
Renna beamed. “Great. We will be right over there.”
I bit my cheek to keep from laughing while Krew squinted at me.
“Whatever are we going to tell him we needed?” I asked as we headed in that direction.
She shrugged. “It doesn’t matter.”
I laughed. We walked toward the back windows, but soon Krew strode between us, holding out an elbow for each of us. “Ladies.”
“Your father and Michael are hitting the booze hard, Krew,” Renna informed him.
“I noticed,” he responded.
I hadn’t. My eyes wanted to find the king, but I also did not want to. I had the feeling he’d been watching me more than once tonight. And was Renna some sort of informant for Krew? Maybe they were even closer than I had suspected.
“I’ll wrap things up as quickly as possible,” he added.
She gave him a doting smile. “Thank you.”
I let out a sigh.
He leaned over and whispered to me, “You’re doing great. Keep it up.”
He turned us back toward the mass of people and a flash of silver caught my eye over by the grand staircase. I turned my head and stopped in my tracks.
It was Gwen. And Keir.
Gwen was kissing Keir. Or maybe Keir was kissing Gwen. It didn’t matter. The fact remained that their lips were locked together.
For a moment I thought about how mad Keir had been to begin the night. How frustrated he’d been that I had to wear this gown. Maybe this was all an act. Or maybe she was making a move. Maybe he wanted no part in it.
As much as I wanted to look away, I just could not. I wanted Keir to push her away. I wanted Keir to move. I wanted a lot of things and to be watching this was not one of them.
The other two turned toward me. I had stopped in my tracks.
“Oh no,” Renna stated.
I swallowed hard and closed my eyes, turning back toward them with my fake smile back.
Keir and Gwen hadn’t even noticed us yet.
I opened my eyes, blinking hard, just to see the king was coming our way, and based on the smile on his face, he must have seen it too.
“Dammit,” Krew muttered.
Owen was in front of me, looking a little blurry. “Jorah, I have an urgent message for you.”
The king patted him on the shoulder as he finished making his way over. “It can wait. Whatever it is.”
