“No,” he said. “They are all pictures of elegance. But mere weeds compared to your beauty and wit.”
“You flatter me.”
“Is it working? Are you ready to abandon Prince Rodric and run away with me? Oh, the adventures we will have.”
Aurora paused, thrown off the rhythm of their banter, and he laughed. “I forget myself, Aurora, of course. You love Prince Rodric. You are destined to live happily ever after and have many golden children to repopulate the throne.”
She looked away, embarrassment and annoyance tensing her muscles. “If you’ve asked me here to mock me—”
“Mock you? What an insult to poor Rodric. I was simply describing the dream.”
A knock on the door saved Aurora from replying. Finnegan moved to open it. A maid stood on the other side, with red hair falling around a pale, freckly face. She clutched a tray of tea and pastries. “I brought breakfast, my lord. If it pleases you.”
“Oh it does, Sylvia,” he said. “Bring it in, bring it in. Such a lovely girl like you shouldn’t be kept hovering on the doorstep.”
The maid blushed from the roots of her hair to the tip of her nose. Finnegan’s eyes followed her as she placed the tray on the table and bobbed into a curtsy.
“Do you always hound all the girls?” Aurora asked as soon as the maid was gone.
“Only the lucky ones.” He sank into an armchair in front of the tray. “Come. Eat breakfast with me. Normally a shared breakfast would imply something quite different, but I am willing to let it slide. Eat. Tell me about yourself.”
She did not move. “I am sure you already know all about me.”
“From the stories? My mother always told me, ‘Don’t believe everything you hear in fairy tales.’ I’d rather get my information from the source. Why do you think I’m here? The chances of Rodric awakening you seemed slim, but I made sure I was close by, just in case. I wanted the opportunity to meet you as soon as I could.” When she did not sit down, he added, “If you do not wish to tell me your story, perhaps you could tell me mine. I would love to know what an honest girl like you thinks of me.”
“I barely know you.”
“Oh, drop the princess act,” he said. “We were having such fun earlier. Why go cold all of a sudden?”
She frowned. “I think you are ridiculous and arrogant,” she said. “Some prince from some foreign land trying to mock and humiliate me for fun.”
“Go on. First impressions are important.”
“You’re frivolous and disrespectful, and I don’t know why Iris wanted me to meet with you.”
“See? Isn’t the truth much nicer? Trust me, Iris thinks the same, and if she had any choice, I wouldn’t be here. But she doesn’t.” He took a bite out of a bread roll. “I’m too important to ignore. And when you’re that important, you can do what you like. A lesson you don’t seem to have learned. Or are you not as important as they claim?”
She forced herself to maintain a neutral expression and slipped into the armchair across from him, her chin pushed high. “I am myself,” she said. “You can tell me whether that is important enough.”
“That would be difficult,” he said. “You haven’t told me a word about who you are. If you want me to understand the real you, it’d be a great help.”
“I’d rather not.”
“Fine. Then I’ll see what I can come up with on my own.” He leaned forward, and his eyes swept over her skin. “You’re fed up,” he said. “You’re forced to act all meek and lovely, but you have fire in you, and brutality too, I bet. You want adventure. The others say no, but you—you want something more. Am I close?”
She swallowed, struggling not to look away. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Lies really do not become you.” He took another bite of bread, and the tension between them dimmed slightly. Aurora looked down at her hands, clutched in her lap. “You’d like Vanhelm,” he said. “It’s nothing like here. Only a little sea between us, and our worlds are so very different. Our buildings tower, Aurora, in a way that puts your castles to shame. While you sprawl out over this land, we build up into the sky, squeezing into tiny spaces, the ones the dragons tend to leave alone.”
“Dragons?” Her breath caught. Dragons were the creatures of books, of legends and dreams from long, long ago. They had not existed for as long as Alyssinia had existed—possibly longer, for who could tell if the myths had any truth in them at all?
“Oh, yes,” he said. “You didn’t know? One day, fifty years ago, they awoke. Rather like you. They came out of the mountains and burned half my kingdom to ash. Why do you think your king and queen fear us? If we ever figure out how to tame the creatures . . .” He grinned. “Does that excite you, Aurora?”
Creatures of legend, ones that should never exist, living and breathing across the sea. Of course it excited her. “Why?” she said. “How did they wake up?”
“No one knows. Would you like to find out? If you came with me, we could make quite a story of it. None of this fairy-tale nonsense. Heart-pounding danger, and a bit of fire.”
The worst part was that his offer sounded tempting. Just leave. Leave Prince Rodric and responsibility, run and see everything she had never seen. She felt a surge of anger, furious at him for intriguing her, furious at herself for feeling intrigued. “Are you so intent on seducing me?” she said. “Or is it that you are so inept you need to bring in fantastical beasts to sway me?”
“Is it working? My mother would be most pleased if it did. We share ancestors, you know. That’s why I’m here, as fun as teasing you might be.” He moved closer. “Unworthy men have ruled Alyssinia since your father died. My family has a much better claim. We want to unite the two kingdoms, bring some of our advances to this backward realm, find some new land to build on. With you back, of course, things change somewhat, but if you wished for such an alliance . . .”
“You mean, if I betrayed my people.”
“Betrayed is such a harsh word,” he said. “If you support King John, we can learn to live as things currently are. We all want to help such a lovely fairy-tale darling. If, however, you ever have any doubts—”
“I support him,” she said as quickly as she dared.
“Your face gives you away. You will need to start wearing a mask, if you want to be more convincing.”
She stood up, her food untouched. “Is there anything else you wish to say to me?”
“Even when storming off, she is polite. The offer is there, Aurora. Come with me, and you will have your kingdom and your adventure, too. Alyssinia is a starving backwater of a land. I can make it better. And you would be able to leave. I know that appeals to you, whatever you might say.”
“You think you can trick me into betraying my kingdom with a few winks and a handsome grin?” No matter how uncomfortable she felt in these walls, she suddenly knew how lucky she was to get a humble boy like Rodric instead of an arrogant man like this. A man who thought he understood everything with a single glance and could say whatever he liked without consequence or care.
“Of course not,” he said. “But I can’t help but notice: you speak of Alyssinia, but nothing of your supposed beloved.” He stood up and reached for her hand. “You have given me much to think about. Thank you for meeting with me.” He pressed hot lips to her fingers in a whisper of a kiss. “I am sure we will see each other soon.”