“That’s quite the conversational opener.” I sat across from her, even though I didn’t really want to talk. “I would usually stick with things like would you like to go on vacation, what are your favorite books, what do you like to read.”
“Look, I’m sure you’re a very nice girl.” She didn’t sound convinced of that at all. “But Cal has already been through so much. He lost his family, lost his friends.”
“He seems to have found pretty good friends,” I shot back. He’d certainly found protective friends.
“He just doesn’t deserve to get hurt again. I don’t want to see what it would do to him.”
“I don’t have any plans to hurt him.”
“That doesn’t mean you won’t.”
With this dire remark, she seemed to lose interest in talking to me. I made myself busy drinking my beer and watching the dancers and wishing Caldren would come back. I didn’t dare walk back alone; there was always the possibility there was danger out there.
Cal came back, flanked by his two friends, and set a bottle in the center of the table. “Here’s the good stuff. Cheap proprietor always keeps it locked away.”
“Then how did you get your hands on it?” I asked.
He shrugged.
“He may have won this place in a gambling match.” Morick threw himself into a seat. “And that’s how he won me as a best friend.”
“Lucky me,” Cal responded.
I noticed something when he set the bottle on the table: the knuckles on his hand were cut open. He’d been in a fight in the ten minutes between when he left to get the good booze and when he returned to the table.
I leaned toward his ear to whisper. “I want to know exactly what you were doing. And who you were hurting.”
His eyebrows rose as he twisted to face me. “I should have known I couldn’t get anything past you.”
“I think you’d be wise to live life by that assumption,” I responded.
He rose from the table, then led me down the hallway into the office of the proprietor. “I don’t think he’ll mind.”
“I don’t think he will either.”
He closed the door and leaned on it. “You are entirely too clever a girl.”
“Whose face did you break open those two knuckles on?” I caught his hand and raised it between us so that he could see the bloody knuckles.
“I had a spy come around to the Twisted Pines. It happens regularly, and they regret it regularly.”
“Are you in some kind of trouble?”
“No, I’m not in any kind of trouble. But I am trouble. You should probably listen to Jaik and stay away from me.”
“I don’t make a habit of listening to Jaik.”
“You’re so smart.” A smile played around his lips. “It’s sexy as hell.”
I rested my hand on his shoulder, with every intent of having a serious talk.
But the second I did, he leaned in and pressed his lips against mine.
Before I had the chance to process what was happening, I was kissing him back. My body knew what it wanted, even as my brain struggled to catch up. My hands swept up his shoulders, up his throat, my thumb brushing over the stubble across his jaw as I cupped his chin loosely.
The hard planes of his face felt so right against my lips. His tongue teased against the seam between my lips, and I groaned as I let them part. His knee separated my thighs as easily as his tongue parted my lips, the two of us grinding against each other.
I broke away with effort, breathing hard. I wanted more of him. “We shouldn’t be doing that. Not right now.”
“Life is short, Honor. I don’t think there’s any better time.”
“You’re right. Life is short. But I don’t want you and Jaik to fight.”
“I don’t want to fight with him either.”
“Why don’t you two just sit down and talk things out?
“Gods be damned, Honor, I just kissed you and all you want to do is talk about my brother. It must not have been a very good kiss.” He sounded amused, despite his words, but I had no doubt he meant them.
“No that’s not it. I just feel guilty when I’ve already slept with Jaik and he doesn’t know that I’m kissing you.”
His eyes widened in sudden shock. “I see.”
“I’m not choosing him over you.”
“It sounds like that’s exactly what you’re doing.”
“Caldren. No, I do want a relationship with you, I want something with you. There’s no denying the way we feel.”
“What do you want?” Irritation broke through Caldren’s usual relaxed, playful demeanor. “Do you want me to fight for you?”
“I don’t want you to fight Jaik. But if you want to fight to fix the relationship between the two of you, then yes, sure, I want you to fight for me.”
He stared at me for a few long seconds. “I think Jaik should reach out to me first. But for you, I’ll try. I’ll talk to him.”
“Thank you,” I said, feeling a rush of relief.
He nodded, his face shuttered, then steered me out of the room. By the time we reached the dining room, he was joking again.
But no matter how carefree he seemed, it didn’t change the fact that things felt strained between the two of us. All the gaiety and relief of seeing Cal had calcified into something different, something rough.
I couldn’t help feeling like I just made a terrible mistake, even as I wanted to kiss him again.
But was the kiss the mistake?
Or was I just making a mess of being in love with these two princes?
Chapter
Twenty-Three
Arren
Talisyn had called me in to help watch after Honor. I’d watched her from the shadows as she left the Academy with Caldren. Gods, she really was going to destroy us all.
And yet even as I was furious with her, I felt a surge of jealousy watching her with Cal. She almost stumbled on the stairs, and he caught her and pulled her close, both of them laughing. He tucked her hand over his forearm and helped her down the stairs, as if she needed anybody’s help. But that was a lie. She was the strongest woman I’d ever met. Was she pretending to lean on him so they could be close together? Raw anger twisted though my chest, making it tight.
I followed them to the Twisted Pines. I knew better than to get too close.
Partway through my vigil, as I sat on a rooftop of a neighboring building, a shifter cat crept along under the eaves.
It was always hard to tell what was typical nosy cat behavior and what was a shifter spy. Cats tended to have an air of low-key villainy.
Caldren stepped out the back door of the pub, humming. He seemed to be in a carefree mood, and jealousy tightened my stomach, expecting Honor to follow him.
Instead, he suddenly leapt up, grabbed the cat’s tail and yanked it down to the cobblestones. The cat transformed into a man as it fell, then Cal was kneeling on his chest. His hand wrapped around the man’s throat.
The spy tried to throw him and that was a mistake. Cal slammed his fists into the man’s face a number of times until the man was feeling a little more relaxed.
“Who sent you?” Caldren demanded.