Page 68 of Of Song and Scepter

She struck Enna with these hands.It takes all my self-control not to slice clean through her wrist.

I extricate myself from her hold on my arm. “I have other duties to attend to.”

“Too busy for your future wife? This doesn’t bode well for us. We’ll be married in five days. Tell me, will you avoid me then?” There, in her eyes, flashes that familiar lust for power.

At first, I categorized that look as one of a younger princess eager for a throne of her own. But with my mother’s words weighing my mind, I study her with a new lens.

She trails her fingers across my chest, smoothing the silk of my shirt. Her touch is gentle. But the look in her eyes—that’s a feeling I’ll never shake.

I lean in close to her ear. “Tell me, Aris. Did you strike her?”

She throws her head back, crooning as if I just told the most ridiculous joke. “Darling, I haven’t the slightest clue what you’re talking about.”

“The bruise on her elbow. It’s from you.” I curl my fingers around her wrist, and she notes my grip with a flick of her gaze.

“Look at me.”

“She’s still working out her land legs. Poor thing never learned to walk straight.”

“As a royal handmaid?”

Aris squares her jaw.Liar.

I could end her now. Wrap my hands around her throat. Shake her till she admits her fault. Till she screams, as I imagine Enna screamed when Aris struck her face.

But I am the crown prince, and we have an audience. I cannot confront her. Not now.

I release my grip on her wrist.

The scales at the nape of my neck prickle with awareness. I turn away from her, catching a glimpse of a silver skirt, nearly hidden in the dark shadows of a doorway. Enna peers into the room, her gaze assessing me. Her eyes shine in the darkness like beckoning beams, inviting me to a chase.

Found her.The satisfaction of it warms me from head to toe, then twists with a pang of irritation. Why is she over there and not here with me?

And why, when I take a step toward her, does she flinch and drop her gaze? Enna retreats into the shadows, once more slipping out of my sight.

My wicked dancer is afraid ofme? I will not have it.

Chapter forty

Enna

“You’re not gonna stabme just for standing here, are you?” the captain says, blocking my path. She straightens the armor piece I knocked askew. “That’s a little uncalled for.”

I release my grip on the dagger. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Really.” Her eyes flick to my skirts.

I step forward, inching around her toward the hallway that will lead once and for all to my freedom. I don’t have time for this. “If you’ll excuse me.”

She plants her trident, effectively cutting off my escape route. “I don’t think I will,” she says. “You are Enna, no? The princess’s handmaid. Or is it shadow-guard?”

“And you are…?” I feign ignorance, even though I know who she is. My exit plan snaps into place—this corridor winds towardthe kitchen, passing a first-level window. From there, I can make the jump to the streets.

Captain Nara shrugs. “A girl who knows things.”

“I see.”

“If I let you leave now, the prince will have my ass on a pike.” She twirls the trident. “I’m not inclined to let that happen.”