Surah sighed. “Would you twoquit?”
“I told you she would cause trouble between them,” Sajal said. “Daughter of a human anda—”
Malin slammed his balled fist into he table. “Say it so I have an excuse to kill you where yousit.”
Surah’s eyes closed. “It’s always straight to the kill zone with you, isn’t it,Mal?”
“Perhaps we should pause for a moment to allow cooler heads to prevail,” Lavinia said, meeting his eyes. “Are you certain of this path, Malin? You are the eldest. These children don’t fully understand what they’re doing–but you don’t have the excuse ofignorance.”
“Who’s a child?” Surah demanded even as Geza growled, snapping fangs at Lavinia. So…pointtaken.
Malin knew Surah didn’t fully appreciate the ramifications of their relationship. She’d spent too many years protecting her heart from the prejudice directed towards her over her birth. It never occurred to her, even when she was made Geza’s heir, just how valuable she was. Not only politically, and as an heiress, but in her own right as a scientist working on behalf of the Ioveanu’s. So she would be blind to the ripples their mating would cause in court. And that was Geza’s fault, for allowing her to think he’d trade her away to a warrior of moderate status—a game Geza played with his sister, so she didn’t come to understand how powerful her position at court trulywas.
“I am certain,” Malin said, staring at Lavinia. “And I will take the consequences on myhead.”
She inclined her head. “We must all do what we think is right,Malin.”
His smile was wintry. Bowing to Geza, he turned, Surah at his side. Malin paused. “You don’t want to stay for the assembly,Princess?”
Surah glanced at him. “Ahhhh...no. That’s all right. I’m sure they’d be more...uh...productive withoutme.”
They walked to the doors, the low murmur of voices among the assembled increasing as they passed. Out of the corner of his eye, a flicker of movement caught his attention. Malin glanced over casually. Kausar nodded towards him, expression grave. He flicked his fingers in an old battlefield symbol. The symbol to offer support in the face of an approachingenemy.
* * *
Surah waiteduntil they’d lifted off the grounds before speaking. “What was that?” she asked. There was subtext going on between Malin and Lavinia she wasmissing.
Malin’s attention remained fixed on traffic beneath and above them, a tricky business when so many lanes were open this time of night. Or an excuse not to look at her. “You know the signs as well as Ido.”
“I know what it means. I want to know what it means that he gave you that signnow.”
Silence reigned for several moments. Surah held her peace, knowing patience would serve her far better when dealing with Malin. As they descended to the landing pad on the top of Surah’s apartment building, he finally answered. “Kausar has told me of a faction that wants me to take back thethrone.”
“What?”
It was all coming to a head too soon. She’d waited several years for something like this. The closer she came to curing Malin, the more gargoyles would emerge wanting to support the eldest Ioveanu Prince, rather than his still maturing youngerbrother.
“You heardme.”
“And what did you tell him? Malin, what did you tell him? And why are wehere?”
Malin shut down the transport, turned finally to face Surah, irritation open in his face. Irritation and heat. Glittering dark eyes fixed on Surah's face, then traveled along her body like a visual brand, finally meeting her half-frozen stare. Frozen, because suddenly she felt herself the object of an undeniable regard that, until now, Malin had masked. Denied every time their gazes remained locked a little too long. He’d always seemed to be holding back with her–but after his declaration in front of the Council, was that all gone? Had that been the only thing he’d been waiting on to take them to the next level–formal acknowledgment of theirrelationship?
“We’re here to pack you a suitcase. You’ll have to stay with me for awhile.”
Surah didn’t think she liked the tone of that. “Well, excuse me for being an unwanted houseguest. I didn’t askto—”
Malin leaned into her, seizing the back of her neck. “You talk too much,” he said, voice deepening to a gutturalcroon.
Surah blinked slowly, the beat of her heart rising slowly to stifle speech. “What...did you want me to doinstead?”
“Besilent.”
And shewas.
