The Shadow Queen (37 page)

“Well enough.”

“Is Gray all right?”

Theran made a sound that might have been a laugh. “Better than I am.”

“You hurt?”

He shook his head. He didn’t want Talon to be alarmed; he just didn’t know if he should repeat what he’d been told. Wasn’t sure he wanted Talon to agree with the High Lord’s assessment.

“Gray is like them,” he said, swirling the brandy so he wouldn’t have to look at Talon. “He fit in like he was just another piece of an intricate pattern. The way he talked with them, listened to them. If he decides to emigrate to Dharo, they’ll help him.”

“If he decides
what
?”

Theran winced. Of course Talon didn’t know about it. Gray hadn’t mentioned it until this morning.

“I didn’t know him tonight,” Theran said. “He had one of his . . . scares . . .”

“Damn,” Talon muttered.

“. . . and they handled it, Sadi and the High Lord. Soothing spells and power. They got him settled in minutes.”

“Did you think to ask about the spell?” Talon asked. “Sounds like a handy thing to know. Hell’s fire, I’ve tried everything I know and couldn’t get him settled when he was having a bad night.”

“The High Lord took me aside after dinner and taught me the soothing spell he’d used. He considered it a basic spell and was surprised that it wasn’t part of our usual training.”

Talon studied him, then sat back in his chair. “You’re circling around something.”

“Theran’s blade,” Theran said quietly. “Gray and I used to joke about him being my great protector. But Jewels only measure one kind of power, don’t they? Two men can wear the same Jewel, even have the exact same depth of power, and one might be a dominant male, while the other is better as a follower. If Gray hadn’t been captured twelve years ago, if we’d both grown up as we should have, he would have been my defender. He would have stood in front of me. Overshadowed me. Because he’s a Warlord Prince like they are—like Sadi and Yaslana—or he would have been. I could almost see him changing, hour by hour, as he talked with them. The High Lord said that even with his emotional scars, Gray won’t have any trouble settling in Kaeleer if that’s what he decides to do.”

Theran drained his glass and poured himself another. “Gray remained a child all these years, so I had to become a man.”

“You would have become a man no matter what,” Talon said. He shifted in his chair, a restless movement that wasn’t like him. “So you don’t fit in with Sadi and Yaslana. There aren’t many who could.”

“Guess not.”

“Go to bed,” Talon said. “Things will look different after some sleep.”

Theran rose and lifted his glass in a salute. “I’ll do that.”

 

Talon waited until Theran left the room before he got up to pour and warm a glass of yarbarah.

Talon raised the glass and studied the blood wine. “Theran, my boy, I’ll never say this to your face, but you’re right about Gray. He would have overshadowed you. Not deliberately. He’d been taught from the cradle on up that he was your sword and your shield. Had been raised to believe it was his duty to protect and defend the Grayhaven line. Men have followed you because of your name, but being a leader is still an ill-fitting coat on you. For Gray, being the dominant Warlord Prince of Dena Nehele would have been as natural as breathing.”

He took a swallow of yarbarah. “You might have ended up hating him for being what everyone expected you to be. And as much as my heart aches to say it, and as much as I wish he’d never been harmed, maybe it’s just as well he’s waking up now when you’re old enough to hold your own.”

Talon drank the rest of the yarbarah and sighed. “Maybe it’s just as well.”

 

Gray leaned against the outside wall of the stone shed and studied the glow of witchlight coming from his window. Soft light, Daemon had said. Enough so nobody was stumbling around in the dark, but not so much to spotlight desire. It was easier to yield just a little more in the dark.

And wasn’t that a wonder? he thought as he waited for Cassie. Talking to Daemon was like having an older friend who not only knew things about women but was willing to
tell
you things.

Was willing to do more than tell.

Then Daemon had shown him. . . .

“Gray?” Cassie called softly. “Gray, are you in there?”

“Back here,” he called.

Realizing a tactical error, he shifted so his back was against the shed. That way, once she was standing in front of him, it would be easy to shift so she was in the soft light and he was in the shadows.

She came around the corner, hesitated a moment, then hurried to reach him.

“Is something wrong?” she asked, sounding like she was braced for bad news.

“Why would something be wrong?”

“You’re outside.”

“It’s a soft night in early summer,” he replied, smiling. “The air is deliciously scented with all the things that are growing.”
And I was waiting for you.

“Gray, I’m sorry about the illusion spell. I didn’t know it would upset you. I just wanted to look . . .” She pressed her lips together.

He shifted away from the wall and put his hands on her waist, holding her lightly. “How did you want to look?”

“Pretty. Or as pretty as someone like me can look.”

He heard pain and bitterness in her voice, and he suspected someone had inflicted a deep wound at some time in her life, but he didn’t understand what that wound had to do with her using that stupid illusion spell. “Why do you want to be pretty when you’re already beautiful?”

So vulnerable.

She didn’t believe him.
Couldn’t
believe him.

She drew in a breath, probably to deny what he’d said. Instead, she looked at him, and he saw the moment she realized his hands were on her, realized how close they were standing, realized what the brush of her body was doing to his.

“Cassie,” Gray whispered.

He placed the first feather kiss at the corner of her mouth and worked his way along a cheekbone up to her temple. “Cassie.”

He didn’t waste his breath. He diligently practiced the things he’d been taught that evening and felt her melt against him, caught the intoxicating scent of her arousal, both physical and psychic. When she pressed her lips to his and slipped her tongue in his mouth, he wrapped his arms around her and
almost
ignored the last instruction.

His self-preservation kicked in when he remembered
who
would demand an explanation if he ignored that last instruction.

He waited until she broke the kiss before he eased back—and added the footnote to the evening.

“Everything has a price, Lady,” Gray said, smiling. “You owe me a little something for that illusion spell.”

A jumble of emotions in her hazel eyes, wariness and arousal being dominant. “What do I owe you?”

“The answer to a question.”

She relaxed a little.

“Are the freckles only on your face?”

Her face colored. She swallowed hard and eventually said, “No, they’re not just on my face.”

“I’m looking forward to seeing the rest of them.” He stepped back, not sure if he wanted to snarl or whimper about that particular instruction. “Come on. It’s late. I’ll walk you back to the house.”

She looked a little dazed during the walk back to the house. She looked more than a little confused as he nudged her inside and closed the door.

And he thought the light would be burning in her bedroom for a while longer that night.

Returning to his little room in the shed, he stripped and got into bed. He wanted to write the letter to Lord Burle and ask about the plants, but he didn’t feel quite ballsy enough to write a polite letter to Burle when he was having
these
kinds of feelings about the man’s daughter—and wanting to do things with that daughter that were less than polite.

So he turned off the lamp and lay in the dark, thinking about the evening. He’d made friends tonight. He was damaged, and they didn’t dismiss that, but even though nothing had been said, the High Lord, Lucivar, and Daemon had made it plain that they expected him to live up to his potential. And if he asked, they would show him how.

Saetan swirled the brandy in the snifter.

He should have known about her. Daemon had said the witch wasn’t a girl, and it was hard to believe this incident was the first time she’d flirted that way with a married man—especially because the detail of taking a shirt as a trophy kept tugging at him, making him think the scenario he’d told Jaenelle wasn’t just a scenario. It was also hard to believe she waited decades between her victims, which meant she’d been playing this game while he’d actively ruled Dhemlan.

And no one had told him. Even if the Queens, for some inexplicable reason, had chosen to remain ignorant of the bitch’s activities, at least
one
Warlord Prince should have had balls enough to come to the Hall and inform him.

His conclusion? Some of her prey had helped cover her tracks and hide her games.

He wasn’t interested in the men. Not yet, anyway. But the witch who had dared try to tangle up his son in her petty little game . . .

A flicker of memory, there and gone. A man’s anguish. A child’s face.

Or what was left of the child’s face.

There and gone.

Taking the brandy with him, he went out to one of the courtyards.

“When I stepped away from the living Realms, and Dhemlan,” he told the night sky,“I thought I’d given Daemon a healthy Territory and a clean slate to begin his rule. But it looks like I have some unfinished business after all.”

CHAPTER 24

TERREILLE

S
everal days after the dinner party at the Keep,Theran walked into Powell’s office so soon after breakfast, the Steward wasn’t settled behind his desk yet.

“Did the letter arrive?” he asked.

“The messenger just returned from the Keep with the sack,” Powell replied. “I haven’t even opened it yet.”

“Well, get on with it.”

Before Powell could say what he looked like he wanted to say, Ranon and Shira walked into the office, with Archerr following right behind them.

“Did the letter arrive?” Ranon asked.

“Hell’s fire,” Powell muttered. “The last time this many men were interested in a single letter, it was because all the young men in my village were waiting to see who the prettiest girl had asked to be her escort to the harvest dance.”

“It’s been enough time,” Theran muttered. “How long can it take to write down the names of a few plants?”

Shira rolled her eyes. “Men are so dim about some things. The more it matters, the more time it takes.”

Theran gave Ranon a sharp smile. “So what’s Ranon hurrying that he shouldn’t be?”

Ranon snarled at Theran.

“I wasn’t talking about
him
,” Shira said.

“If anyone is interested,” Powell said, “Lady Cassidy has two letters here—no, three. And there’s a box for Gray. Looks like Prince Sadi’s writing on the label, and that’s definitely the SaDiablo seal.”

“Damn,” Theran and Ranon said.

Theran sighed, then raked his fingers through his dark hair. “Give it to me. I’ll take it out to Gray.”
And try to figure out what to say today when that look of disappointment fills his eyes.

Powell handed over the box.

Breakfast felt like a cold, heavy lump in Theran’s stomach, and it got heavier and colder with every step he took toward the ground Gray was breaking for this new planting.

He’s working too hard, hoping for too much,
Theran thought. These past few days, he had the feeling that Gray had made a blind leap and had broken the life he’d cobbled together, but wasn’t sure of what kind of life he would have in its place. What kind of life he could build.

If he could build anything at all.

“Gray?”

Gray set aside the spade and reached for the water jug. He glanced at the box Theran carried, but he didn’t ask about it. He drank, then pulled a scrap of towel out of the waistband of his trousers and wiped his face.

“No letter,” he said.

There was a flatness in Gray’s voice, a lack of light in his eyes, that worried Theran.

“No letter,” Theran said. “But this box came from Prince Sadi. Gray, it hasn’t been that long since you sent the letter.”

“Long enough for a mother to decide that she doesn’t want a particular man showing interest in her daughter.”

The hurt in Gray’s voice made it clear
exactly
what his cousin was thinking: he wasn’t good enough to be more than a friend.