Page 36

Morgana

I gape at Lady Naia as she storms toward me. Will this woman really not let it go?

“You,” she says, thrusting a finger at me. “You didn’t find a proper partner.” She looks around her, searching for support. “She stole that shadow from the statue of King Dionis. She’s a cheat!”

She doesn’t get the encouragement she’s looking for, though. Most of the nobles don’t want to meet her eye and look away with uncomfortable expressions. Encouraged, I stand up taller, giving her the most disdainful look I can muster.

“I don’t believe it says in the rules that I must use the shadow of a living thing. Please calm yourself, Lady Naia. It’s only a game.”

“And you’ll address her as Your Highness ,” comes a hard voice from the crowd. I look over to see Damia glaring at Lady Naia. “I shouldn’t have to remind you you’re talking to the Princess of Trova.”

I give the dark-haired woman a quick, grateful smile before looking back to Lady Naia.

It doesn’t feel safe to keep my eyes off of her for long.

And indeed, as it seems to dawn on Lady Naia that no one here agrees with her accusation, her pretty face undergoes a horrible transformation as she goes white with fury, her bright eyes sparking.

Then she charges toward me with a shriek, her long nails snatching at me like claws.

Leon steps out of the crowd and in one smooth movement seizes her wrist, yanking her away from me and throwing her back so violently she stumbles and almost falls.

“Enough,” he thunders. A storm rages in his eyes as he advances on Lady Naia, who suddenly looks more afraid than angry, even as she still desperately tries to justify herself.

“But she cheated! She deserves a humiliation, and?—”

“The only person who will be humiliated tonight is you, Naia Delafier, and you have managed to do that all on your own,” he growls as she shrinks away from him.

The crowd doesn’t give her anywhere to hide, putting distance between themselves and the disgraced lady as she tries to back away from Leon.

“Now get out,” he snarls.

With a scream of frustration, Lady Naia tosses her hair and storms from the ballroom. Her fellow nobles only stare after her, shocked, for several moments afterward.

“Let me be crystal clear,” Leon says, addressing the stunned crowd. “From here on out, anyone failing to show Trova’s future queen the respect she deserves is someone who doesn’t value their life.”

I keep my face utterly neutral as he speaks, acting as if people threaten to kill for my honor every day, as hundreds of wide eyes look in my direction.

“Now play some music,” Leon orders the band, who hastily start up a new, jaunty tune, quite at odds with the atmosphere in the room. It seems to work to break the tension, however. The crowd collapses into chatter, leaving the dance floor in droves to discuss what just happened.

Leon approaches me. Anger’s still rolling off him in waves, all the unspent force of it ablaze in his eyes.

That energy could so easily turn, hanging on the edge of becoming hungrier and more passionate.

The sight of it makes me take a sharp breath , wondering if he’s about to grab me and do exactly what he threatened earlier—drag me off somewhere to have his way with me.

The crazy thing is I want him to, desperately.

Yet Leon stops a few feet away from me, the distance feeling like a hundred miles.

“I wanted to dance with you again,” he says, his voice much calmer than he looks. “But now I’m afraid I have other matters to attend to.”

I nod, and he bows deeply to me, a gesture that isn’t missed by the other lords and ladies in the room. Disappointment knots my gut as I watch him stride from the ballroom.

“That woman is totally insane,” Tira says, appearing at my side. “I thought she was going to claw your face off. I tried to get to her before she reached you. I wanted to rip that pretty blonde hair off her head…but Alastor wouldn’t let me,” she says.

“I’m getting very tired of holding people back so they don’t do stupid things,” he says wearily. “If you could all develop some self-control, that would be grand.”

“Tell that to Lady Naia,” Tira says darkly.

He shakes his head, bemused. “I don’t know what’s gotten into her.

If she wanted to stake her claim on the captain, she couldn’t have chosen a worse course of action.

Everyone knows how he feels about you now.

She completely sabotaged herself. I’ve never seen someone so jealous—it must have driven her mad. ”

I color, not sure how to respond. Is there something going on between Leon and me? Or is that all in the past? Leon seems to think that’s for me to decide, but I’m not the one with the commitments elsewhere.

“I know I wanted some excitement, but that wasn’t really what I had in mind,” Tira says.

“At least you got a nice dress out of it,” Alastor comments.

Tira’s jaw drops. “I get to keep it?”

“Well yes, what else is the palace going to do with it? You don’t expect some other lady to wear a secondhand gown, do you?” he says, like that should be obvious.

Shaking her head at the decadence of it, Tira looks at me. “I think I might head to bed, but don’t feel like you need to come with me.”

“No, let’s both go,” I say. I’m utterly worn out by this evening, and I can see the shine coming off Tira too.

She has been distracted from her sadness for the last few hours, but reality is hitting her again.

When she crawls into bed tonight, her mind will go straight to her family, and she’ll be dragged back into her grief. I don’t want her to be alone for that.

The corridors of the palace are quiet as we make our way back to our rooms. Nearly everyone is at the ball—except for King Respen.

I didn’t catch a glimpse of him all evening.

I’m not sure why he wasn’t in attendance, but I’m glad he wasn’t there for the spectacle Lady Naia made of me, even if I’m sure he’ll have spies reporting exactly what happened this evening.

Tira tugs at my hand as we walk down a hallway still not that far from the ballroom.

Her hearing must be better than mine, because it takes me a moment to catch the echo of raised voices.

Without discussing it, we move closer to the sound until I recognize the speakers, even if I can’t make out their words.

“Is that…?” Tira murmurs.

“Yes,” I say.

Before we can hide ourselves, a door flies open, and Lady Naia sweeps out of it.

She stops when she sees us, her face crumpling.

She doesn’t look angry anymore. Instead, tears stream down her beautiful face.

She sobs, then turns and flees in the other direction, her blonde hair streaming behind her as she disappears around the corner.

Leon leaves the room next, also stopping suddenly when he spots us.

“We were just going to bed, and we heard a commotion,” I say, trying to explain our presence without looking like eavesdroppers.

He nods, an unreadable expression on his face.

“Lady Naia won’t be bothering you anymore,” he says. “I’ve officially broken off the betrothal.”

I don’t know what to say as a complicated mix of emotions swells up in me. I’m happy, I think, but I still have a lot of questions.

“Good riddance,” Tira says, filling the silence. “She’s a real piece of work.”

“She can be difficult, but her behavior this evening was abnormal,” Leon says. “So much so that I started to suspect it wasn’t entirely her doing. Someone was working sensic magic on her.”

“What do you mean?” I ask, finally finding my voice. “Whose magic?”

“You’ll remember my grandfather’s power allows him to sow paranoia,” he says.

It comes together for me now, as I remember the manic look in Lady Naia’s eyes all evening.

“You think he’s responsible?” I whisper.

“I think King Respen also likes to play games,” he says darkly.

When I wake the next morning in my bed at the palace, I stretch out and nearly jump out of my skin when my hand touches something warm and furry.

I squeak and sit up to see the korigos has snuggled up to me in the night, curled up beside my hip.

It opens its dark, intelligent eyes and blinks at me, its saucer-sized ears perking up.

“You scared me,” I say, reaching my hand out tentatively. The creature lifts its fox-like head to meet my palm, as if inviting me to pet it. I let my hand sink deeper into its fur and grin when I find a spot behind its ear that pulls little chirruping noises from the animal when I scratch it.

“I need to come up with a name for you, don’t I? I can’t keep just calling you ‘the korigos.’ Maybe you already have a name though…”

I give the animal a questioning look, but its tongue lolls from its mouth, exposing its teeth in a kind of grin.

“I guess that’s a no,” I say. “Alright, and I get the sense you’re a… boy korigos?”

The animal waves its tail. Somehow, I feel that’s a yes.

I look it over, hoping for inspiration to strike as I take in his pointed face and reddish coat, examining him down to his four flicking tails. “If you’re from Agathyre, you’ll want an Agathyrian name,” I say. “So how about Dotsera? It means four tails.”

The korigos eyes me impassively.

“We could call you Dots for short?” I add hopefully.

The korigos yips and swishes his tails in unison.

“I’ll take that as a sign of approval,” I say, and feel more convinced when I reach my hand out and the newly named Dots lets me pet him again.