Page 94 of With Wing And Claw

Knowing him, she should probably have someone check whether his new fae gardeners were in fact working for him voluntarily.

She heard Silas’s voice the moment she landed on the beechwood porch – his timbre low and guarded, a marked contrast to Rhias’s ostentatious joviality. Her knock on the front door was little more than symbolic. She walked in before anyone had shown up to let her in, following the sounds of voices and clattering plates to the patio at the heart of the house – closer and closer to where Rhias was contently regaling his visitor with a story of some mutiny he’d ended by flogging the wings of the fae involved.

Bastard.

Was this the sort of ally Silas thought he needed? The sort of ally he thoughtsheneeded?

She tugged a last beaded curtain aside and stepped into the sunlight, where the two males were sitting around a table loaded with enoughcream buns, strawberry tarts, and salmon sandwiches to feed an orphanage. As if the grain stores weren’t running out at an alarming rate. As if the same gods-damned fishing fleet Rhias was responsible for hadn’t suffered a devastating blow fewer than twenty-four hours ago.

It took every ounce of willpower she possessed not to smother the harbour master in his own fucking cream buns when he turned to her, barely rising from the seat in which he lounged, and gave her a lazy grin with not a shred of surprise in it.

‘Your Majesty!’ An expansive gesture at the table accompanied the greeting. ‘What an honour to have you appearing at my humble morning meal. Will you be joining us, by any chance?’

I’d rather share a dinner with a dozen alves out for my blood, she wanted to say.

Instead, she turned to Silas, whose only greeting was a fleeting smile that did not reach his eyes. His simple white shirt didn’t fit in with the extravagance of this home, the lack of colour almost a challenge – a reminder that he did not need any of that gaudy red as long as he had the powers that lay embedded in his very own skin.

Was she imagining things, or had the scattering of marks on his right arm become visibly denser already?

Alarming.

She schooled her face into stony indifference all the same. Alarm was weakness. Weakness was death.

‘I was looking for my uncle,’ she said, choosing not to respond to the invitation at all. ‘Apologies for interrupting your breakfast, Silas, but could we have a word?’

From his nod, she couldn’t tell if he was annoyed or glad to be out of Rhias’s company; the gesture was as calm, as unemotional, as any other of his movements. He rose from the deep velvet seat with the stark composure of a mountain getting to its feet – the sort of composure that made one wonder if there evenwasany inner turmoil beyond.

Miserable, Naxi had said.

She shouldn’t be thinking of Naxi now.

‘Of course,’ he said only when he was already standing, sending Rhias a look Thysandra couldn’t easily decipher. ‘Enjoy the remainder of your breakfast, Captain. We’ll continue our conversation soon.’

The harbour master raised his glass of fizzy white wine in response, that same grin sliding across his face again. ‘I look forward to it.’

Oh, yes.Definitelyalarming.

Neither of them spoke as they made their way out through the maze of silk-lined walls and elaborately carved doorframes. Two of the gardeners had moved to the front of the house, it turned out when they stepped into the sunlight – better not to say anything on the porch, then, either.

‘Beach?’ she suggested.

Silas muttered an agreement as he swept out his golden wings.

They flew past that row of villas, up to the next small bay, where the houses were smaller and had been built farther from the surf. There Thysandra landed, her uncle following close behind. The sand was white and powdery here, the sea so crystal clear that it didn’t even look blue for the first ten yards or so.

Gulls screeched overhead. As good a cover for their conversation as anything.

‘Alright,’ she tartly said, raking her hair back in place as she flattened her wings against her shoulders and turned to the male by her side. Frustration sizzled in her veins, dangerous and utterly useless. Being frustrated at that still, stoic face of his was like shouting at a piece of rock. ‘First of all,Rhias?’

Silas shrugged. ‘I’d rather have him restricted and in my debt than free to cause us whatever trouble he’d very much like to cause us.’

‘Is that why you’re going around making bargains with everyone and their mothers – to try andrestrictthem?’

‘Yes.’ He stuck his thumbs in the pockets of his trousers as he began walking, edges of his wings fluttering in the breeze. ‘What else did you expect me to be doing, Thys? I’m a creature of habit, and my number of useful skills is, frankly, quite limited.’

What else had she expected him to do?

Perhaps the problem was she didn’t even know.