We'd returned home, and as usual, my family wanted a debriefing before seeking out alcohol. I'd come upstairs to strip out of the business attire and into leggings and a cotton shirt. I didn't look forward to another several hours of picking apart every word, every action, every nuance of what had happened today.
“Nora.” I blinked as my great-grandaunt entered my room, shutting the door behind her.
Her silvery fair hair was bound in a long braid, and she wore a gray, thigh-length tunic and pants. Eyes that were normally a grayish lavender were darker amethyst today, their expression focused.
“I wished to speak with you before the others,” she said, coming forward to kiss my cheek. “I’m told your day was not uninteresting.”
I sat on the edge of my bed. “Week, you mean. That male is infuriating.” I didn't have to explain which one.
“That's to be expected.”
“Yes, he's super special.” I rolled my eyes. “A powerful ruling mage, wealthy and politically empowered. Blah blah. Everyone can be killed, even a High Lord who is also a Prince.” Just not, probably, by me, I’d come to grudgingly accept. At least not for a hundred years, until my power and experience grew.
“Can they?” She sat next to me. “He's an Old One, and High Fae only reach that stage if they are very, very dangerous. His being a House Lord and a Prince is incidental, and merely political. We didn't school you children much in the politics of the old realm. We always thought there was time.”
I assumed by children, she meant my brother and I. As a full-blooded Fae, his mental developmental placed him roughly at my age plus a handful of years, though chronologically he was two centuries my elder. Development in halflings was tricky, and almost as individual and unpredictable as Skills.
“You and Maman, you mean?”
“Yes. We've failed you. I chose to take my time wakening once I agreed to accompany your mother through the gate.” She was silent for a moment. “I've slept before, but it's been harder to come back this time. And when your mother died. . .” she sighed. “Well.”
I stared at the floor. Nora didn't often talk about my mother. “What did you want to talk to me about? Renaud, I suppose.”
“Yes.” She picked up my hand, twining her fingers through mine. “Your mother cannot advise you, and your father is hopeless in these matters. It's not his fault; don't bristle, girl. He's human.”
I relaxed. I shouldn't have been so prickly.
“Renaud wants you.”
There went relaxation. “You've heard.”
“Everyone of note in the city has heard, as you say. He was not exactly subtle the night of the ball, or subsequently.” She gave me a keen look. “Tell me what he said to you when you were alone.”
I pulled my hand from hers and stood, pacing. “Gods, this is the last thing I want to talk about.”
“Ignoring the problem won't make the male go away. The exact opposite, in fact. Come. Tell me what he said, his precise words.”
“He was flirting. You'd think he would have other things to think about, but whatever. He asked me if anyone had claimed me, and I sneered at him and asked why he wanted to know, if he was going to stake a claim publicly.” I made a face. “I thought that if I said it like that, he'd feel insulted at the presumption and leave me alone.”
“His response?”
“He. . .kissed me.” My body clenched and heated in memory of that kiss, of his hands on my bare skin. I cleared my throat. “I told him no, and he didn't like that response.”
Her eyes flickered. “What did he do?”
“Got a little snarly. But he backed off.”
Nora sighed. “That is not good news.”
“Why?”
“If he'd simply wanted sex, he would have seduced you. But he allowed your shyness and gentled his pursuit.” She hummed. “He is courting you. Lavendre was a gift he knew you would not refuse. By accepting her return publicly, you agreed to his claim.”
I gaped, sitting up straight. “He was going to release her anyway!”
“But was he?” She lifted a brow. “Is that what he said?”
I opened my mouth, shut it. Because, in fact, he had stated he had no intention of releasing the hostages except as a personal favor for me in return for accepting his courtship.
