Family night.
Feeling queasy, she reached for her own goblet, a light sniff revealing it to be mulled apple juice. She took a large sip just as Oriel bounced in his seat and turned to the captain.
“Uncle Veris —”
Kiva nearly spat out her juice.
“— Mother says I can start training with you when I turn twelve. Can Tipp join us?”
“I don’t see why not,” Veris answered, spearing some beans with his fork. “As long as you both take it seriously.”
“We will,” Oriel said, with Tipp nodding eagerly beside him.
Kiva, however, couldn’t keep from looking at Veris and wheezing out, “Uncle?”
The captain’s brown eyes lit with humor, making it clear he hadn’t missed her shocked reaction. “Not by blood.”
“Veris and I grew up together,” King Stellan told Kiva, passing her a bowl of roasted potatoes. “My parents died from river fever when I was young, so Veris and his family took me in. When he became a recruit with the Royal Guard, he invited me to his graduation ceremony, and that’s where I met the love of my life.”
The queen blushed — blushed! — at the way Stellan looked at her, before taking up the story, “My parents weren’t thrilled that I was being courted by a young man without title or rank. And an orphan, no less. Veris had to get creative in helping us sneak out to see each other. If not for him, who knows where we might all be today?”
“Ari’s parents eventually realized what a catch I was,” Stellan told Kiva with a satisfied smile. “And we lived happily ever after.”
The words settled heavily in the room. Tipp and Oriel were oblivious, stuffing their faces and giggling as they snuck scraps to Flox beneath the table. But everyone else . . .
They knew the king was sick, that his happily ever after was coming to an end.
Clearing her throat, Kiva acted as if she couldn’t feel the sadness that had come over the table. “That’s a lovely story,” she said.
“It is, isn’t it?” Caldon said with mock disgust. He speared some glazed pork and pointed it at Kiva. “But I promised you entertainment. So it’s my turn to share a tale now, and I know just the one.”
Caldon, Kiva was quickly realizing, wasn’t just a pain in the ass. He was a smart pain in the ass. He’d read the room, sensed the mood, and understood that something was needed to lighten the atmosphere. She wondered how often he did it, his attention-seeking used as a means to distract his family when they needed it most.
She considered it further as she ate her meal, listening to him recount the details of a diplomatic trip he and Jaren had taken to the desert kingdom of Hadris in the far west of Wenderall. The moment he’d begun his story, Jaren had groaned quietly and begun shoveling food into his mouth, avoiding Kiva’s eyes. She knew why when Caldon came to the end of his wild tale.
“。 . . and of course he had no idea I’d spiked his drink, but if anyone needed to get sloshed after fourteen straight hours of fending off arranged marriages, it was our Jaren. How was I supposed to know he wouldn’t sleep it off like a normal person, but instead he’d go running into the Midnight Markets and dance until dawn?”
“It didn’t happen quite like that,” Jaren said dryly. “And as I recall, I wasn’t the only one who went to those markets.”
Caldon didn’t seem to hear him. “They still call you the Pantsless Prince to this very day,” he said, grinning widely.
“It’s better than what they call you, cousin,” Mirryn cut in, a smirk on her face.
Kiva looked at Caldon. “What do they —”
“Nothing!” he said quickly. Stuffing his mouth with carrots, he repeated, “Absolutely nothing!” Only it came out more as, “Abforooty nuffingk!”
The look he shot both Jaren and Mirryn made it clear there would be consequences if they dared to answer.
Deciding to play nice, the princess launched into a new story, one from when she, Jaren, and Caldon were children. The three of them had snuck out of the palace one night, having overheard a diplomat from Nerine talking about visiting a Red House before traveling back to his kingdom. In their innocence, they’d assumed he’d meant a literal redcolored house, and so they’d followed him to the docks. What they’d seen —
“We were grounded for a month,” Mirryn shared. “But not because we snuck out — because of how embarrassed Nerine’s royal ambassador was when he found us in all our wide-eyed horror and had to return us to our parents. I’ll never forget how red his cheeks were when he stammered about how important it was for him to experience all the hidden depths of our culture.”