Leon steps out of the crowd and in one smooth movement seizes her wrist, yanking her away from me and throwing her back so violently she stumbles and almost falls.
“Enough,” he thunders. A storm rages in his eyes as he advances on Lady Naia, who suddenly looks more afraid than angry, even as she still desperately tries to justify herself.
“But she cheated! She deserves a humiliation, and?—”
“The only person who will be humiliated tonight is you, Naia Delafier, and you have managed to do that all on your own,” he growls as she shrinks away from him. The crowd doesn’t give her anywhere to hide, putting distance between themselves and the disgraced lady as she tries to back away from Leon.
“Now get out,” he snarls.
With a scream of frustration, Lady Naia tosses her hair and storms from the ballroom. Her fellow nobles only stare after her, shocked, for several moments afterward.
“Let me be crystal clear,” Leon says, addressing the stunned crowd. “From here on out, anyone failing to show Trova’s future queen the respect she deserves is someone who doesn’t value their life.”
I keep my face utterly neutral as he speaks, acting as if people threaten to kill for my honor every day, as hundreds of wide eyes look in my direction.
“Now play some music,” Leon orders the band, who hastily start up a new, jaunty tune, quite at odds with the atmosphere in the room. It seems to work to break the tension, however. The crowd collapses into chatter, leaving the dance floor in droves to discuss what just happened.
Leon approaches me. Anger’s still rolling off him in waves, all the unspent force of it ablaze in his eyes. That energy could so easily turn, hanging on the edge of becoming hungrier and more passionate. The sight of it makes me take a sharp breath , wondering if he’s about to grab me and do exactly what he threatened earlier—drag me off somewhere to have his way with me. The crazy thing is I want him to, desperately.
Yet Leon stops a few feet away from me, the distance feeling like a hundred miles.
“I wanted to dance with you again,” he says, his voice much calmer than he looks. “But now I’m afraid I have other matters to attend to.”
I nod, and he bows deeply to me, a gesture that isn’t missed by the other lords and ladies in the room. Disappointment knots my gut as I watch him stride from the ballroom.
“That woman is totally insane,” Tira says, appearing at my side. “I thought she was going to claw your face off. I tried to get to her before she reached you. I wanted to rip that pretty blonde hair off her head…but Alastor wouldn’t let me,” she says.
“I’m getting very tired of holding people back so they don’t do stupid things,” he says wearily. “If you could all develop some self-control, that would be grand.”
“Tell that to Lady Naia,” Tira says darkly.
He shakes his head, bemused. “I don’t knowwhat’sgotten into her. If she wanted to stake her claim on the captain, she couldn’t have chosen a worse course of action.Everyoneknows how he feels about you now. She completely sabotaged herself. I’ve never seen someone so jealous—it must have driven her mad.”
I color, not sure how to respond.Isthere something going on between Leon and me? Or is that all in the past? Leon seems to think that’s for me to decide, but I’m not the one with the commitments elsewhere.
“I know I wanted some excitement, but that wasn’t really what I had in mind,” Tira says.
“At least you got a nice dress out of it,” Alastor comments.
Tira’s jaw drops. “I get to keep it?”
“Well yes, what else is the palace going to do with it? You don’t expect some other lady to wear a secondhand gown, do you?” he says, like that should be obvious.
Shaking her head at the decadence of it, Tira looks at me. “I think I might head to bed, but don’t feel like you need to come with me.”
“No, let’s both go,” I say. I’m utterly worn out by this evening, and I can see the shine coming off Tira too. Shehasbeen distracted from her sadness for the last few hours, but reality is hitting her again. When she crawls into bed tonight, her mindwill go straight to her family, and she’ll be dragged back into her grief. I don’t want her to be alone for that.
The corridors of the palace are quiet as we make our way back to our rooms. Nearly everyone is at the ball—except for King Respen. I didn’t catch a glimpse of him all evening. I’m not sure why he wasn’t in attendance, but I’m glad he wasn’t there for the spectacle Lady Naia made of me, even if I’m sure he’ll have spies reporting exactly what happened this evening.
Tira tugs at my hand as we walk down a hallway still not that far from the ballroom. Her hearing must be better than mine, because it takes me a moment to catch the echo of raised voices. Without discussing it, we move closer to the sound until I recognize the speakers, even if I can’t make out their words.
“Is that…?” Tira murmurs.
“Yes,” I say.
Before we can hide ourselves, a door flies open, and Lady Naia sweeps out of it. She stops when she sees us, her face crumpling. She doesn’t look angry anymore. Instead, tears stream down her beautiful face. She sobs, then turns and flees in the other direction, her blonde hair streaming behind her as she disappears around the corner.
Leon leaves the room next, also stopping suddenly when he spots us.
