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Lori stands tall, a set of shadow daggers flickering to life in her hands.

“You’re trespassing on the Shadow King’s lands. Identify yourself.”

“I’m Seth. Who are you?” Even though he’s asking her the same question he asked me, he no longer looks like a horse connoisseur looking for his next ride.

“Lori.”

Purple thunderclouds thicken Seth’s irises, and I grip Lori’s arm out of instinct. Now that he’s seen her, the Fae doesn’t even spare me a full glance, looking her up and down like he’s just won a terrible prize.

He licks his bottom lip, the sight of his tongue almost indecent. “Now that we’ve all been properly introduced… Where are you from, Lori?”

Lori grunts at the personal question, but before she can answer—or tell him off—One slithers in from the shadows. He comes running in like some magic warned him of the newcomer’s arrival, and his presence causes the glow of the moon over the gardens to vanish.

“Seth. You know better than to come here unannounced.” His body creates a barrier between Lori and me and the unexpected visitor.

Seth barely acknowledges the arrival of the Fae, his gaze still fixed on Lori. “I have urgent news to share.”

“Leave us. Now.” One dismisses us, and we obey at once, the urgency in his tone making my heart thud in my ribcage.

Seth buries his hands inside his pockets and flashes us a dashing smile. “Goodbye, ladies. I’ll see you again soon, I hope.”

We climb the stairs to the third floor and spy through the stacks. The wide gaps in the mezzanine’s railings allow for a glimpse at the two men as they chat.

“Who is that?” I ask, the man’s smile still imprinted in my retinas, my hand still pulsing where he touched it.

“Judging by the look on One’s face and the man we saw… I’d say the prince of nowhere at all.”

“Prince of what?”

“Oh, he’s infamous. There’s an entire chapter about him in A Taste for Crowns. He was born out of wedlock, and his birth created quite the stir, given that his royal parents were both married to other people at the time.”

I rub down the warmth leftover by his lips on my knuckles. “That explains why I let him kiss my hand.”

“Believe me, we both would have done worse without our masks on to protect us. He’s a man whore, that one. A rake,” she adds for my benefit, but I understood her meaning perfectly.

A sudden burning sensation pierces my leg. “Ow.”

“Are you alright?”

“Just a cramp. Sorry.”

My heart hammers, and I excuse myself to my room with a hint of sweat at my brow. The pain is almost numbing. Esme is tugging on the head of her matching pin in Demeter, and she’s tugging hard.

One did mention that the king wanted me to hide in Demeter until Morheim, so I can probably afford a quick trip back home.

Chapter 37

Little by Little

Seth grins at the women’s retreating backs. “Lori’s gorgeous. She reminds me of someone?—”

“Lori’s off limits.” I cut him off, knowing exactly where this conversation is going. I’m not in the mood to entertain Seth’s crazy conspiracy theories. Not today.

“Don’t you see? If Elio’s harboring Morrigan, you’ve got the perfect Trojan horse for the Yule pageant?—”

“Everything’s fair game for a son of love and war, isn’t it? Why do you care so much about Morrigan, anyway?”

On St-John’s Eve, I thought Seth was just trying to stir trouble and sow dissension and paranoia in my heart, but he’s motivated by something else. Still, he doesn’t answer my question, and impatience thickens in my blood.