It’s real?
“She’s hated you ever since, did you know?” Corvin says quite pleasantly. “She thinks you stole him from her.” Leaning closer, he whispers in my ear, “So I wouldn’t drink anything Lucere gives you tonight, my sweet. Just in case.”
I don’t drink anything that isn’t poured in front of me, courtesy of the drugged wine my mother would give me before she cursed me. “I wasn’t planning to.”
His smile seems a little satisfied. Eris is right. This bastard likes to play games.
But we need his alliance. “I’m sorry for your great-grandmother’s death. My mother betrayed us all.”
“Oh, I’m not.” He tosses a coin in one hand, and I have no idea where he got it from. “Nor is anyone else here in Ravenal. The old bitch starved us for years, and now we can finally feast. She deserved to die.”
I can see the look on Lucidia’s face as the bane sprang upon her from behind, his jaws clamping over the back of her head as he crushed her skull. “Not like that, she didn’t.”
Corvin’s smile holds a wealth of meaning. “Surely the daughter of Queen Adaia isn’t showing her enemy mercy?”
“Perhaps she’s a changeling stolen from her cradle?” I tense as a voice purrs over my skin from behind. “For a true daughter of Adaia would slaver for even the tiniest hint of blood in the water.”
Lucere slinks toward me as though she’s hunting me. I guess the dance is over.
“If you’ve ever been hunted by a bane, then you would know that I would wish such a fate upon no one.”
“Are you having fun with my brother, Princess?” Innuendo drips from her voice.
“More fun, perhaps, than you.” I glance to where my husband is muttering in Finn’s ear.
Her smile shows teeth. “Thiago’s just as… sophisticated as I recall.”
My eyes narrow.
Thiago is many things, but sophisticated? Only when he’s trying to hide who he truly is.
“If you knew him at all, then you would know the sophistication is merely a thin mantle he wears when in public. I prefer him in his darker aspect. Raw. Demanding. No longer playing at… sophistication.”
Lucere’s eyes narrow, but Corvin seems to choke on his wine, as if he’s trying not to laugh.
“And as to my condolences,” I turn back to Corvin, “I wasn’t aware we were enemies. Thiago tells me Evernight has enjoyed a strong alliance with Ravenal for years.”
The siblings exchange a glance.
“The Alliance of Light was created five hundred years ago,” Lucere says, stealing a glass of wine from a passing servant’s tray as if to prove she’s not afraid to drink it. “Five hundred years is a long time, Princess. Ravenal is hungry. For too long we’ve been choked with a gilded leash, but now it’s time to prove the kingdom deserves more than the scraps she’s been fed.”
“And now the Alliance is shattered,” I reply, because this is the entire reason Thiago needed to come here tonight. “My mother betrayed us all, and now we find ourselves little islands in the night, forced to deal with threats from both within and without.”
“Ravenal’s borders are strong,” Lucere counters. “And Adaia’s attention is north.”
“Did you think my mother distracted with vengeance? Did you think her focus narrowed upon Evernight?” I step closer, capturing her hand as if we’re friends. “Evernight is merely the key to the lock. It’s the pretense she needed to shirk the mantle of the Alliance.” I stroke my thumb across her wrist, my voice dropping. “My mother isn’t interested in merely conquering one kingdom. In her dreams she sees herself ruling the southern half of the continent. The entire south. First she strikes at Evernight. If we fall, then she is free to turn her attention south. And although she despises the Prince of Tides, Stormhaven is a difficult beast to swallow. It’s well-fortified out there in the Innesmuch Seas. To strike at Stormhaven and the Kingdom of Stormlight, she needs southern ports and a clear path to the sea.
“We all saw the Queen of Aska strike a deal with my mother. Queen Maren will abstain from interfering, and in return, my mother will leave Aska alone. Which leaves one kingdom between her and Stormhaven. If I were Ravenal, I would start to wonder how it would feel to have the Queen of Aska to the west and my mother to the north, without the knife of Evernight at her back to distract her.” I let go of her hand. “If we fall, then Ravenal is next.”
Lucere clutches her fist to her chest. “How strange then that Queen Adaia promises us peace if we abstain from interfering. We received a letter from her but days before you arrived. It’s almost as if she knew you would come to beg for an alliance.”
Of course, she did. My mother’s no fool. Every move she makes is well-plotted. “If you trust your great-grandmother’s murderer to stick to her word, then you’re a fool.”
Lucere sets her empty goblet of wine down with a clank. “Be careful who you call a fool, Princess. You are talking to a future queen. One who has much to thank the Queen of Asturia for.”
And then she’s gone in a whirl of skirts.
Prince Corvin smiles at me faintly. “There are some who say my dearest sister didn’t even shed a single tear when we received news of great-grandmother’s death. In fact, it’s almost as if she… expected it.”
Fair warning.
“I hope she enjoys her reign then. Because if Lucere expects my mother to concede to any of the demands she makes, then I think she’ll find it… brief. If you’ll excuse me?” I don’t give him the chance to answer.
I’m the fool. I should have foreseen this. My mother knows we need allies, and while the night of the Queensmoot may not have all gone her way, she always has a second plan up her sleeve.
I stalk across the gathering, though I’m only halfway when
