“Yes, My Princess,” he chuckled, brushing his lips over mine. “I did laugh at the request as only you have ever caught my interest.”
I bit my finger and ran it over his neck, smirking when he shivered and bit back a moan. “Glad we agree you’re an Inez addict.”
“He’s not the only one, love,” Cerdic reminded me. I nodded and kissed him, doing the same before we moved along. We greeted two more before they got me out of there and to the kitchen, probably knowing where my head was.
“I don’t understand,” I said under my breath. “There were way more than the fourteen princesses I have treaties with. Fine, Olivia makes fifteen but—why is the ballroom so packed?”
We had invited all fourteen, the three that were my in-laws came separate and early, but the remaining eleven, we made it fairly clear there were ten seats on the plane for each coven to fit them coming from one centralized location. Fine, they could all move ridiculously fast, but with luggage and over an ocean was pushing it.
The commercial plane meant for international flights, with the super big and plush seats, fit a hundred and fifty plus luggage. Great, there were over a thousand people in my ballroom. We’d figured some of their people already here would come, plus our people, and probationary coven people as well, but there were way more than expected and at least thirty princesses.
What the fuck?
“Apparently, the apocalypse doesn’t squash all the games,” Cerdic muttered under his breath. “They brought daughters or the previous princesses, along with sons or nobles they want you to pick. Plus, some brought friends. There are princesses here you didn’t invite and Aether didn’t send dreams to come.”
“A few say they had them, but they wouldn’t risk it wasn’t someone’s power luring them away from their coven in these dark times,” Kristof added.
“Mother…” I trailed off, shaking my head as I went right for Nick. “What can we do?”
“We’ve got it,” he promised, nodding he meant it. “Instead of individual veal Wellingtons, they will be portioned in thirds, like posh courses. We’re adding a wild boar and mushroom ravioli since Princess Nora said we could snag some of the butchered ones. They’ve got that going in Salt Lake. We’re splitting salads and adding another one, a blue crab salad in avocado halves.
“We’ve also added more appetizers. There are lovely seared gator bites, salmon cucumber bites, and some turkey cheese ones that we added. The problem is tomorrow and Sunday. I need more hands to make it happen and race all around, so if you could get me that, we’ll be fine. Mostly. We’ll need more plates, glasses, and a new overall plan.”
“We have more tables set up on the terrace off the ballroom, and they can deal with their overflow and uninvited guests to take those places,” Cerdic told me. “The problem is where they’re staying tonight.”
I blinked at him. “They can fucking figure it out. There is over triple what we invited. They got ten fucking seats on the plane, one table per court, and they just bring extras and friends and that’s acceptable? No, it’s not. I’m calling bullshit. No one else would put up with this—they wouldn’t pull it on anyone else.”
“No, they wouldn’t, but they’re playing games to make you look like a bitch,” Kristof said. “You offered them ten seats on the plane, but didn’t specify that was the only way they could arrive or limit them that way. You did say only the princesses invited and their nobles would have a guest room and the rest accommodations outside of the castle. They’re pushing buttons because they can.”
“Un-fucking-real,” I sighed, once again annoyed I had to do any of this. I glanced over to find Sisay helping. “Can you ask Sebastian or Nora on the side what we should do? There’s no way I should reward the bad kids. She wouldn’t.”
“I’ll find out.”
I leaned and kissed Nick’s cheek, thanking him before getting out of their way. More drama was next the second we entered the ballroom.
“You clearly didn’t hear me, Vitor. I said I’m thirsty and wish for a drink from you,” a princess told him with a thick accent I didn’t recognize.
“I heard you, Princess, but as I was saying, Princess Inez doesn’t allow it,” he replied easily, as if it wasn’t super insulting. “Everyone was told to handle their own needs and—”
“The princess of the coven thinks it boorish to treat nobles like walking food,” I declared loudly, deciding to get this out of the way and handled properly.
She pressed her lips in a line, not liking I called her that. “That’s not how things are done, and while you are young, the way things go is—”
“My house, my rules,” I finished for her, smiling brightly. “I couldn’t agree with you more. It’s my coven and I make the rules. If people don’t like them, they can leave. If they don’t adhere to them, they’ll be leaving with bullet holes in them.”
She narrowed her eyes at me slightly. “Be very careful with that as it works both ways, and you might not like the outcome one day.”
I raised an eyebrow at that. “Then I’ll leave. If I don’t like the rules of a coven, then I’ll leave. Unless it’s something insane saying that guests can’t leave until they
