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A waiter placed a fresh glass of wine in front of Adalet as she gracefully deposited herself in the newly vacant seat. Taly’s glare would’ve incinerated him if not for the anti-flame enchantments woven into his suit.

“You’re putting me in a lot of danger right now.”

Adalet looked around for the reason, her eyes finally landing on Taly. Never one to cower, she smiled and waved.

“And now you’re trying to get me killed.” Through the bond, Skye could feel Taly’s ire rising to new, impossible heights.

“Oh, I’m doing quite the opposite. She’s going to come to you tonight filled with jealous fury and looking to stake a claim.You’re welcome.”

The idea alone was enough to make him shiver. And presented enough of a temptation to make him want to flirt with danger.

“She cleans up well,” Adalet said, sipping her wine. “I don’t feel quite so slighted now seeing who you’ve decided to replace me with in your bed.”

This was a different tune than the one she’d been singing when they last parted. When he’d cut their night short after realizing just how monumentally he’d fucked up.

“Why are you being so quiet?”

Skye sipped his wine stiffly. “I’m afraid you’ll throw another shoe at me.”

Adalet rolled her eyes. “So dramatic.”

“You put adentin my forehead.”

“I was in a bad place,” she insisted. “Achard… well. You know what happened with Achard. He ran off with my dowry. I mean, literally. When the shades came, he grabbed his little human bitch and barricaded himself in our rooms. Wouldn’t letme in. I was still pounding on the door like a lunatic when one of those monsters grabbed me by the hair.”

Skye grimaced and wondered if that was the reason she’d cut it. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. The only thing worse than being left to die by the man you love is being pitied for it. And I did love him, you know.”

“I do.”

Adalet took a long, shaky breath and an even longer sip of wine. She finished the glass, held it out, and the waiter was instantly there to replace it with another. “Enough with bad memories. That’s not why I came over to talk to you.”

“I thought you came to save me from Ruilla.”

“Well, yes, there was that. Poor thing, you looked like you were falling asleep. But I… I don’t like how we left things.”

“I don’t either,” Skye admitted.

“What I said about your friend, I—well, I’m sorry. I was so terribly miserable that night, and then there you were. Yet another man I was losing to a humanbreeder.” Skye’s lips thinned. “Sorry,” she said. “I still have some bitterness I’m working through. And I mean, it’s not like I didn’t know what I was walking into. Even from across the room, I could see the way you looked at her, like she was the center point of your gravity. I knew who she was immediately.”

One corner of Skye’s mouth twitched. “I don’t talk about herthatmuch.”

“Youreallydo. All these years, it was like watching one of those tragic plays unfold right before my eyes.”

Denial, thy name was Skylen.

He was a very dumb man.

“Can we please be friends again?” Adalet pleaded.

There had never been anything between them that went beyond sex. But after so many years, perhaps…

“Friends.” He could live with that.

“Oh, thank the Shards. You’re the only person here worth talking to. Let’s gossip. Starting with, can you believe this party?”

“I know, right.”