Page 8 of A Court of Truth and Thorns (Royal Scout #2)
KALI
“ L ianna.” Wil lengthens his step to walk beside me. We are on day three of the hike, and if everyone else gets quieter by the step, the prince won’t stop talking. Usually Luca, Calvin, and Alexa bear the brunt of the chatter, but apparently today is my turn.
“The others are calling me Kal,” I say, glancing down at myself to ensure that my breeches and tunic haven’t suddenly morphed into an evening gown. They haven’t.
“Not all others.” Wil sticks his hands into his pockets. “Trace is calling you nothing at all, it seems.”
I grind my teeth. “Is there—”
“Are you my sister?” Wil asks, the question spilling from his lips as if held under pressure. “I thought Lady Lianna was my cousin. If you are her... Was it true, about the relation? Or just something my father made up for the courtiers?”
I rub the back of my head. I hadn’t considered the now-obvious question before, which means I must stumble through an answer on the spot.
When all else fails, try the truth. “I am the bastard daughter of the late Lord Firehorn, your father’s younger brother.
But any possible claim I might have to the throne has been legally dissolved, if that’s a concern. ”
Wil laughs without humor. “It isn’t. In fact,” he waves his hand in the air, “consider it undissolved.”
“I don’t think you can just undissolve it, Wil.”
“I’m the uncrowned king of Dansil,” he says darkly. “I can do whatever I want.”
I snort.
A corner of Wil’s mouth twitches. “So you are my cousin.”
“Bastard cousin, if you’d like to be technical.”
“I wouldn’t like to be technical,” Wil says. “I’d like to be family.” He gives me a shy sideways look. “If you’ll have a dethroned ruffian for a relation.”
A tickle of unexpected warmth spreads through me and I squeeze Wil’s shoulder, stopping suddenly with my fingers still digging into his flesh. “Wait. If I recall, when you thought Lady Lianna was your cousin, you spent a good deal of time positioning buckets atop her slightly ajar door.”
Wil kicks a stone down the path. “No wonder you never fell for it. Kal was bloody standing right next to me.”
I chuckle, letting go.
“You said you had a sister,” Wil says, his voice quiet now, and I realize that, unlike me, the little bugger gave this conversation a bit of thought beforehand. “The one you wanted to go back for when the coup happened. Can you tell me about her?”
I bite my lip, my chest tightening to suffocation. “Her name is Leaf.” The words hurt as they come out. “And she might be dead now.”
“She might be alive too. Tell me about her?” he says again. “I’d like to imagine I have a big family, even if just for a little while. ”
The evening comes quicker than I expected, my voice slightly hoarse from speaking as we settle around a fire, Trace sitting as far away from me as the space allows.
Despite the past days, the forsaken kiss still encircles my heart like a thorny collar, threatening to bleed me dry if I make a wrong move.
I wonder whether he blames me for his forced return to Everett, since he was about to run when I waylaid him in the woods and unknowingly led Luca right to him.
Every time I gather myself to ask, however, I find the moment not quite fitting.
Drawing a breath, I get up to feed the fire and find a place right beside Trace after placing the log in the crackling flames.
Trace rises. “I’m going to gather some poles to make a litter for Jasmine,” he says, looking away from me. “I don’t think she will be able to walk much longer.”
My chest clenching, I mirror Luca’s nod as if I’m somehow a part of this decision and smile weakly at the rest of the party, who remain sitting.
“So, what are you two fighting about?” Wil asks once Trace walks out of hearing range. He pokes the fire with a stick, waiting patiently for my answer.
My face flames and I quickly raise a canteen to my lips.
Alexa elbows the prince in the ribs. “Don’t ask that,” she says with all the deep knowledge of a twelve-year-old. Calvin coughs quietly and excuses himself to check on Jasmine.
“Why not?” Wil twists to the girl. “It’s not like they are being subtle about it. Why should I feign being an idiot when they really are idiots?” Wil frowns, scratching the back of his head, his voice suddenly serious. “Am I supposed to beat Trace up?”
The water in my mouth expels in a sudden fountain, and Luca pounds my back as I reclaim my airway. “What the bloody hells are you talking about?” I ask Wil, once I can breathe again .
Wil frowns. “Isn’t that what brothers do? I wasn’t a very good brother to Violet, and I want to get it right this time.” He pokes the fire again. “It’s just that I’m rather certain Trace would kill me if I punched him.”
“You aren’t her brother,” says Luca.
“Given the lack of familial availability, I think cousin is close enough,” Wil replies.
Luca extends his long legs toward the flames, crossing one ankle over the other. “If Kal were my cousin,” he drawls, “I’d tell her that a man who follows her into Viva Sylthia’s clutches and kisses her like Trace did cares about her very deeply.”
I squirm in my seat, weighing the option of burning the lot alive against the effort it would take, and finally deciding to surrender instead. “And what would you tell this cousin about why this man might insist on ignoring her after said kiss?”
Luca grins. “I’d say said man is likely trying very, very hard to keep his cock in his breeches.” His grin widens to match my blush. “Maybe too hard.”
“Or maybe,” Trace’s low voice behind us makes Luca and me both jump, “said man is aware that we will cross the Everett border imminently, at which point he will become an entirely different person from the one you all think you know.” Dropping the poles he found onto the ground, Trace stalks to an empty place by the fire and sits down.
“Now, if you all are so intent on philosophizing this evening, we should cover a few points more relevant than my cock.”
Luca is the first to speak, blinking innocently at the thunder incarnate now sitting beside us. “What in the world could be more relevant—or interesting—than your cock?”
Trace growls. “We can start with Bishop Bahir being a mage, Kal being a magical anomaly, and Alexa being able to tell us what the Order of the Goddess does with the whisperers it captures. Let us exhaust those topics initially and then go from there.”
We are still on that discussion three days later when we cross the stream that demarks the Dansil–Everett border here and find ourselves held at sword point by a well-armed patrol.