Page 59 of The Lord of Whispers

Since my powers had returned, so too had the whispers of the secret desires and plots. And now I had Alarie to worry about keeping safe. She had not been around—had not even been born—when the plotting and scheming of the High Court had been at its might. I would do anything to keep her safe, even if it meant gluing Luke and his sticky hands to Alarie’s side when I couldn’t be around.

“But you’re the only one getting your powers back, Jay. Not everyone else,” she said.

“We don’t know that, Alarie,” I cautioned.

She looked back at me defiantly, unwilling to give in to my repeated demand that she be escorted when out of the manor, especially at night.

“Ok, what news?” I asked, setting aside the issue for now.

“Cass,” she started, looking up at me.

I clenched my jaw, locking my teeth together.

“Yes, I heard what yourfriend”—I spat the word—“has been up to while we were away.”

“Jay, you have to know that Cass would never, ever go after someone’s family, and if he could help it, he would have stopped something like that.”

I looked back at her coolly.

“Jay, Cass may be a bit of a practical joker. But this… this is not like the statue or the truffle. Do you think it was a coincidence that the head of the statue flew off before the rest of the statue fell? No,” she continued, without waiting for an answer. “That was Cass’s way of clearing the area so that no one got hurt. Cass wouldn’t hurt innocent people,” she pleaded for her friend.

“Your friend was not spotted at House Garaud, but some of his affiliates were confirmed in attendance by House Mouchard agents,” I said.

“And since when have we believed anything they say?” Alarie bit back.

I considered her words for a minute. “We received an almost immediate denouncement of the act and a denial of any involvement from Lord Dumont and his lot,” I admitted.

“Jay, I’ll swear to it. I’ll tell whoever will listen. Cass couldn’t have been involved.”

“Alarie, I’ve told you before about needing to be cautious about the political positions you take—”

“Jay, this isn’t a political position. This is my friend I’m talking about!”

I didn’t want war with the lesser fae any more than Alarie wanted Cass pinned for the Lord Garaud incident. Luckily, Alarie and I had arrived just in time from Breakpoint, before Lila had time to work this into something bigger than it needed to be.

“I need to discuss this with the King,” I said, pushing myself off my desk that I was leaning against.

I grabbed Alarie’s hand as I began to walk back toward the door. “And you’re coming with me,” I said.

Alarie looked disenchanted with the idea of going to House Heroux at this time of the night.

“Don’t worry about the hour, love. Grey’s definitely still awake and, anyway, he knows about us, so he won’t question you being with me this late hour.”

“Ok,” she capitulated, going to grab her heels.

I beat her to them.

“I’ll hold on to these,” I said, her tiny heels hanging off two of my fingers.

“And since your lovely feet are so sore,I’llcarry you to House Heroux,” I said.

We arrived at House Heroux minutes later. I placed her onto the cobbled stones in front of the King’s House and held her hand while she balanced, slipping on her heels. We were immediately admitted to a small private study of the King’s, where I was informed that the King would join momentarily.

“Jay, if you were going to show up this late, why the hell didn’t you just join me for drinks to begin with?” King Heroux asked as he entered the study.

I could blame it on work, but the truth was that I’d been waiting for Alarie to come home.

“Why don’t you come have a nightcap?” the King continued before his eyes drifted over to Alarie.

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