Page 29 of Crown of Mist and Heat

"I can't believe I missed that," Tavian grumbled. "That sounds incredible."

"It was," Ryze said. "Cavan has plenty of enemies, I'm sure it will happen again soon."

Cavan rolled his eyes. "You're not above suspicion yet."

"You don't think they did it?" I asked him.

"Not for a moment," he admitted. "But we can't talk about what might have here."

"You think it was…" I closed my mouth and pressed my lips together.

"We can talk about it back at the palace." He gave me a light nod. He looked pained, but added, "You three better come with us."

"Us?" Tavian mouthed, his eyes on me.

I shrugged. Just when I thought the situation couldn't get any more complicated, it did. If Cavan was right about the other two courts, they may all have to learn to work together.

Ryze looked from me to Cavan and back again. He seemed tempted to punch Cavan in the face. The fact we were surrounded by Summer Court soldiers and a melted building served as a pretty good deterrent. For now.

"I'll make a portal," Cavan said.

Ryze gestured vaguely. "Be my guest."

Tavian stepped over closer to me and spoke softly. "Do you think we'll get to find out which one of them has the bigger cock?"

I snorted a laugh. "Stranger things have happened recently."

"My money's on Ryze," he said. "But only because I've seen it before."

"It's as good a reason as any to bet on him," I said.

"You're not honestly standing there talking about the High Lords' cock size, are you?" Vayne asked us. He spoke louder than could possibly have been necessary.

Ryze and Cavan both turned to look at us.

Tavian grinned unapologetically. "It's an omega thing, you wouldn't understand."

I could almost feel Ryze and Cavan's temptation to share a mutual rolling of their eyes. Their hatred for each other stopped them. Gods forbid they'd have anything in common. Only, I suspected they were more alike than they thought.

Wornar’s face was pink with the effort to keep from laughing out loud.

Cavan shook his head and made a portal beside us. As before, half of the guards that accompanied us stepped in ahead, and half behind.

I walked between Tavian and Cavan, Ryze and Vayne on our heels. Wornar trailed a few steps behind.

"Don't forget it was you who invited us here," Ryze said. "In case you decide we turned up uninvited and think it would be a good idea to have us executed."

"I'm not sure it isn't a good idea to have you executed anyway," Cavan said. "If I didn't have more questions than answers right now, I might indulge myself."

"Always the charming host," Ryze told him. "We might be lucky enough to get some more relatively good cake."

Wornar chuckled. "We can only hope."

I glanced up at Cavan. "I feel like I should apologise for them. Well, not Wornar. I only met him a couple of days ago."

"Believe me," Cavan drawled, "I'm very familiar with them and their interesting sense of humour. I don't think anything exists in the world they won't make fun of. It's amusing for the first century or two. Then you spend the third and fourth centuries wanting to put an arrow in their eyes."

"The feeling is entirely mutual," Ryze said. "I can't tell you the amount of times I've almost—"

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