Page 10 of Only Hard Problems

You are totally mad for her, aren’t you?My own mocking voice drifted through my mind, along with Kyrion’s earnest reply: Maddoesn’t even begin to describe it.

Kyrion had said that about Vesper when he and I had been taking the elevator to the Crownpoint throne room before the midnight ball. At first, I’d scoffed at his confession. How could Kyrion Caldaren ever truly care about anyone other than himself? He was an Imperium Arrow, a moon-cold killer, a bloody proper villain, the same as me. But the certainty in his voice had made me reconsider everything I thought I’d known about my old enemy.

Then, later, in the throne room, I’d seen Kyrion’s desperation when he’d been trying to reach Vesper. Even after Dargan Byrne had severely wounded him, Kyrion had done everything in his power to protect Vesper as the two of them had fought their way through the palace. Most people probably would have chalked up his concern to their truebond, since the common theory was that if one person in a bond died, the other person would also soon perish. But Kyrion’s raw emotions had hammered against my telempathy again and again, like a throbbing toothache I couldn’t ignore, and I’d realized the truth of the matter.

Somehow, some way, Kyrion Caldaren had stumbled into a truebond with someone he genuinely cared about. The fact that he was connected to my sister was the bitter icing on a tea cake of sour irony.

Perhaps it was our perpetual rivalry, but a tiny part of me couldn’t help but want what Kyrion had—someone who was willing todoanything,riskanything, for him. Although given how much Asterin openly despised me, and my mutual dislike of her, the chances of the two of us forming such a connection were as remote as the blue moons rising in the evening sky.

Beatrice spotted Rigel. She waved at him and started skirting through the crowd toward the handler, who headed in her direction. Asterin watched the two of them for a moment, then spun around and hurried in the opposite direction.

A reluctant smile tugged at the corners of my lips. My sentiments exactly.

Asterin glided through the crowd, nodding and smiling at everyone she passed, but she didn’t engage anyone in conversation. Instead, her eyes narrowed as she studied the groups of Regals, as if she was taking the same mental notes about who was talking to whom that I had cataloged earlier. She also paused to study the guards stationed around the lawn, just as I had done.

Asterin Armas might be an Erzton lady, but I had the sneaking suspicion she was also a spy.

But whom she was spying for? The Erzton? Someone else? Or did she devote her intelligence efforts to further her family’s House, position, and fortune, as I did mine?

Either way, I didn’t—couldn’t—trust her, which further fueled my dislike and disdain. I already had enough enemies to deal with. I didn’t need to willingly invite another one into my House and my family, much less into my bed. I’d voiced such concerns to my grandmother numerous times, but so far, Beatrice had refused to listen to reason.

Asterin turned away from the guards and moved over to a refreshment table near the edge of the lawn. She glanced around for a few seconds, then picked up a fluted glass filled with dark purple liquid. Elderberry punch. Despicable stuff. The syrupy-sweet drink always reminded me of the homemade cough syrup that Wendell had forced me to drink whenever I had the slightest hint of a mild cold as a child.

Asterin sniffed the drink and crinkled her nose, but she didn’t set the glass down. My eyes narrowed. Elderberry punch wasn’t on the list of her favorite refreshments, but she had deliberately picked that glass out of a row of far more palatable punches. I would have bet every single credit in my trust fund that her grabbing that particular drink was a signal to someone. What was Asterin plotting?

Two women sidled out of the crowd and headed over to Asterin. The first woman was wearing a tight gold-sequined gown that brought out her ebony skin, along with her dark brown hair and eyes. Tivona Winslow, the new head of Quill Corp, Vesper’s company.

The second woman was much shorter, with light brown skin, hazel eyes, and a sleek bob of black hair that glistened like polished onyx in the evening twilight. She was wearing a feminine version of the traditional Regal tailcoat in a pale, rosy pink, and a stormsword with a gold hilt dangled from the thin gold belt cinched around her waist. Leandra Ferrum, a strong psion and one of the best warriors from House Ferrum, which produced high-quality staffs, crossbows, and other old-fashioned weapons that were often enhanced with lunarium and other minerals.

Tivona and Leandra were clutching glasses of the same foul elderberry punch as Asterin, although all three women set their untouched drinks down on the refreshment table and started speaking in low voices.

Ding!Holloway messaged me again.Have you started questioning people yet? I want answers, not excuses.

Well, Holloway wasn’t the only one who wanted answers, and for once, I was going to do exactly as he commanded. I stowed my tablet away, plastered another smile on my face, and strutted over to the three women. Party crashing was one of my favorite pastimes as a Regal, right up there with ferreting out information.

“Ladies!” I called out, swaggering my way in between Tivona and Leandra. “So lovely to see you all here tonight.”

Tivona let out a derisive snort and crossed her arms over her chest.

“Zane,” Leandra drawled, her sardonic tone making her crisp Corios accent more pronounced than usual. “You’re looking as ostentatious as ever.”

I held my arms out wide and spun around, making my tailcoat flap against my legs. “Is there any other way for such a glorious creature as myself to look?”

“Not if you’re a blasted peacock,” Asterin muttered.

“I’ve always been extremely fond of peacocks. We have a whole flock of them in the gardens at Castle Zimmer. They’re so delightfully proud and colorful.” I smirked at her. “They can also be quite vicious if you don’t know how to properly handle them.”

Asterin arched an eyebrow. “Oh, I think I could handle you with ease, Lord Zane.”

“Perhaps we’ll find out, Lady Asterin.”

My voice came out a little lower and huskier than I intended, and an unexpected spark of heat flared deep in my chest. Asterin blinked, and for a moment, a bit of awareness, of interest, seemed to flicker in her silvery eyes, but the emotion vanished as quickly as it appeared. In an instant, she had morphed back into a cold, remote moon goddess.

I turned to Tivona. “I’m glad I ran into you, Ms. Winslow. I wanted to speak to you about your former boss, Vesper Quill.”

All three women stiffened as though I’d just dropped a solar grenade at their feet. Tivona’s arms plummeted to her sides, Leandra’s fingers curled around the golden hilt of her stormsword, and Asterin slipped her hand into a pocket hidden in her voluminous skirt.

I cranked up the wattage on my smile, as if I didn’t notice their sudden tension—or weapons. “As the new head of the Arrows, I’ve been tasked by Callus Holloway to track down Vesper, along with Kyrion Caldaren. I was hoping you could help me with that.”

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