“Lord Olivier—” Eli slapped him, and Olivier blinked.
“People call you Lord Blanchet out of courtesy,” Eli said. “Have you inherited the Blanchet estate?”
Olivier was silent for a breath. “No.”
“And what is Sabre de Valois?” Olivier opened his mouth, and Eli let his dominance fall heavy as a hammer on his shoulders. “What. Is. Sabre. De Valois?”
“A duke.” Olivier’s voice was barely a whisper.
“Then get on your knees and admit when you’ve been beaten,” Eli said.
Slowly, glaring at Eli with the kind of hatred Eli hadn’t seen since the last time a hunter tracked him down, Olivier dropped to his knees in the grass.
“I apologize for the insult I gave to Duke de Valois,” he said.
“And by connection, to the crown,” Eli added.
“And to the crown.” Olivier squeezed his shoulder, which was already crimson with blood. “Are we done?”
“I’m satisfied,” Eli said, and stepped back. He bowed to the gathered nobility. “My apologies for disrupting your event.” He turned his back on Olivier to approach Sabre.
“Well,” Sabre said, “I don’t know if I’ve ever been defended so thoroughly before.”
Eli felt his cheeks heat, and he looked down at the sword instead, rubbing the blood off with his shirt. Isidore was hanging back a few paces away, but he could feel his gaze like a brand on the back of his neck. “The nobility is changing. Commoners see that, even in the country. They know what King Adrien and his council seek to do. I’m afraid I may have blunted your sword.”
“I can always sharpen it at home.” Sabre took the sword and sheathed it, then handed Eli his swordbelt. “Knowing Olivier, I can guess what he may have said. The next time someone speaks of my scandalous past, it’s best to let it be.”
“I can’t, Your Grace. I can’t.”
Laurent, who was standing with a hand in Sabre’s hair, gave Eli a curious look.
“Perhaps that’s why you’re a knight and I’m not,” Sabre said. His smile was wan. “It must be hard, not closing your eyes to these things.”
“It is,” Eli blurted. He wanted desperately to ask Sabre what had happened—if he was safe, if Laurent truly cared for him, what Emile had done to him after Eli and Aline de Valois’ bodies were taken away. “It’s…the well, I think. The girl in the well, her father said she was already dead. That it wouldn’t matter if Ifound her, and her body was so cold—but you have to try, don’t you? Someone had to be the one to carry her out.” He drew back, fighting a stinging in his eyes. “I’m sorry, Your Grace. I ruined your evening. I’m sorry.”
He turned to leave, and the crowd opened up to let him pass, their murmurs following at his heels like the whispering of ghosts.
“I knowwhat you’re about to say,” Eli said the moment the front door closed behind him. “And you’re right.”
Rey, who was still trying to take off his boots, looked down at Eli as he started pacing the narrow hallway. “I am?”
“Yes.” Eli gestured with his hands as he spoke. “I most likely destroyed your plan. I lost my temper. I let my feelings get the best of me. I did everything you warned me not to in every minute of practice we ever had, and now Olivier hates me, and you by proxy, and Sabre is paying more attention to me than ever. I wasn’t an invisible servant at all, and you even had to pull some knighthood bullshit out of thin air just so I didn’t get arrested.”
“That wasn’t thin air,” Rey said, finally working a boot loose.
“And I used his sword. I don’t know if you noticed, that was Sabre’s sword I was using.”
“Yes, I was there.”
“And now everyone thinks I’m some kind of—of?—”
“Knight?” Rey asked. Eli nodded, continuing to pace. “That’s because you are, technically. The law I used was real.”
“Of course it wasn’t…” Eli paused again, finally turning to look at Rey. “It wasn’t. That was magic you were pulling, Rey. I could feel it.”
“It can be magic and real at the same time. Eli.” Rey came forward and placed his hands on either side of Eli’s face. “You showed up late to a party, thoroughly decimated a noble in a duel, had your knighthood declared in front of most of the nobles in Duciel, and earned a debt of gratitude from the Duke de Valois, all in ten minutes.”
“I know,” Eli said, in an agonized voice.
