Page 31 of Bleeding for the Prince
“You think I’m batshit crazy?”
He smirked. “I never mentioned bats.”
“Fucker.” He snapped the ring box shut. “Doesn’t mean I’m wrong about Howard, though. Is there a way to find out what he is? He’ll be registered, but that’s not public information.”
“I imagine the police could look it up.”
Gwil scowled. “That’d mean petitioning the Met and getting approval from DCI Dickhead.”
“There are spells, but I’m not going to cast them as if he is a wyvern; he might transform and try to eat me.” Hyax remembered the scanner at Dionysus. “I suppose it depends on how legally you want to go about it.”
“I’m not sure I want to hear what you’ve got in mind,” Gwil said. “I can’t risk my business license.”
There were ways and means. “I’m not on your license, just a happy bystander who happens to be in the right place to help out from time to time.”
“Okay, that doesn’t sound at all dodgy.”
“Coming from a vampire, that’s a pretty low blow.” He laughed as Gwil rolled his eyes. “I saw a scanner used in the fae place I took Simon. It was able to identify me, so I’m guessing it was able to do some sort of recognition system, which wouldn’t be legal in the fae realm, and I’m not sure it’d be welcome here either.”
“The other option is to ask Howard. He might tell us the truth… stranger things have happened.”
Hyax thought a man willing to pretend to be a wyvern to con very rich and important people out of their cash was unlikely to admit to it. “Maybe we can use my idea as Plan B. In case he does want to speak. I’m going to see if I can put out some feelers to track down that scanner. You’re not the only one with contacts.”
Gwil stood and stretched. “I’m off for a shower, then bed. Coming?”
“Oh I will be.” He grinned. “Get your kit off. I’m gonna get you all dirty, then you can have your shower.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
At one point Gwil thought Hyax wasn’t going to leave, but now he was alone with Opali in a small workshop to the rear of Queen Talia’s palace. “There’s no need to look so worried,” Opali said. “Nothing you’ll do with me will be that arduous. If I’m being completely honest, I don’t think you need these etiquette lessons.”
Gwil hadn’t been expecting that response. “You’ve gone to an awful lot of trouble organising everything for someone who doesn’t think they need the programme.”
“I’m hardly going to say no to His Highness or his mother, but I do think we can cover several items that would be far more useful to you than what fork to use and how not to confuse an ambassador with a general, which I think you could figure out yourself.”
“Maybe I’m a clueless idiot,” Gwil said carefully.
“You don’t become the Prince’s Beloved and a member of the Jyndarin Society by being an idiot, clueless or otherwise.” He grinned. “I also did my homework, as I do for all of my students. You were an inspector in the human police force before you were turned, back in the 1840s, meaning you were able to navigate themuch more regimented society of the period. I don’t think you’d have forgotten everything.”
Gwil agreed, but hadn’t pushed his argument as Hyax had seen the need for him to have the lessons because of potential requirements in a future bonding protocol. “Maybe there are other reasons to do this.”
“I gathered as much. Shall I tell you what I think?”
“I’d be interested.”
Opali laughed. He seemed amused. “Prince Hyax would have been expected to have a harem; instead, he married a mummy’s boy from another tribe and made a vampire his favourite, which means he is more than slightly enamoured with you. He wanted to marry you, not Prince Metra and instead gave you the most important title he could to show the fae your worth and importance to him. But he’s not finished, and the only reason I can see why he’d subject you to fae etiquette lessons would be to ensure you met the criteria for bonding.”
Opali was smart and astute. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that someone in your position would be able to read a situation.”
“I wouldn’t be able to do my job if I couldn’t.” Opali’s wings vibrated, and he hovered off the floor for a moment. “You’re not a harem member here to learn which of the other concubines gets the best position, you’re Prince Hyax’s true love, and that’s rare for fae.”
“You’re not wrong in some of the reasoning, but where does it leave us? I’m not keen on wasting my time, but I’ve got to be seen to be doing the lessons.”
Opali handed him a stack of papers. They were blank. “There’s nothing on them.”
“They’re revision pages. I’ve been running etiquette courses for a long time, and my knowledge is preloaded, so think of a question and the answers will appear. They should be able to figure out the context.”
“Okay… expected dress for a formal evening court event,” he said. The picture of a robe appeared on the page along with several bullet points of description. “That is very useful.”
