They helped me back to my feet, and I gingerly rubbed the tender spot behind my head. “I need a break. Teller, take my place and dance with Lily.”
His smugness vanished. “Me? I… No. I can’t—I don’t—”
“Lily can teach you. And I learn better from watching. Besides, if I’m coronated, you’ll have to attend all kinds of fancy balls, so you better learn your steps now.” I grinned and gently smacked a hand against his reddening cheeks.
I took his seat on the steps and held his papers in front of my face to hide my prying eyes.
The blossoming romance between them was a balm to my own struggling heart. I adored how their faces flushed when they touched, how their looks always lingered a moment too long, how Teller clung to Lily with an eager tenderness, even as he tried to keep a respectful distance.
My conscience nagged at me in warning. Even with my support, a relationship between them could only ever end in sorrow. There could never be any mating bond, no growing old together. Perhaps it was cruel of me to encourage it.
But watching them laugh and twirl around the room with a glow in their eyes—that joy was real. It was something pure and innocent, a flower on a barren mountainside. Neither of them cared about the other’s title or bloodline or upbringing. They saw kindness in each other, a love that might surpass the walls that divided them. And cruel as it might be, I would challenge the gods themselves to protect it at all costs.
I looked away to give them what little privacy I could. In his notes, Teller had charted the key members of each House, their positions on mortals, the industries they invested in, and old historical rivalries. My focus bounced back and forth over the page in an effort to commit it all to memory, fueling a discouraging gloominess at how much I didn’t know. There were centuries of culture at play, entire libraries’ worth of unwritten rules that the Descended wielded like an old favorite blade.
I pushed back against the feelings of defeat and kept my father’s lessons in my head. Just keep moving. Onward, until the very last breath.
I was so engrossed in my studying that I didn’t even notice when a shadow fell across my shoulders. Even the way the air shifted, turning thick with the thrum of power, didn’t rouse me from my thoughts.
It was his smell, earthy and provocatively familiar, that drew my focus up to find two shimmering pools glowing down at me in the quiet darkness.
I stole a glance at Lily and Teller—still beaming and giggling over their missed steps, blissfully unaware of who now watched their unguarded moment.
“They’re helping me learn how to dance for the ball,” I blurted out guiltily. “I’m only taking a short break.”
Luther sat beside me, carefully leaving space between us, and silently watched our siblings prance across the room. The same conflict that plagued me was reflected in his eyes—the joy at seeing his sister so happy, the pain at knowing its inescapable end.
“Please don’t make them stop,” I begged.
“I won’t. I’ve decided to take your advice and let it be.”
My brows shot to the sky. “You have?”
“You told me to trust her to make her own choices.” His gaze swept back to mine. His expression looked tired, his hair rumpled and unbound, the look of a man who had tossed and turned but hadn’t slept. “It’s not easy for me to let go when I care about someone. To watch them choose something I know will hurt them.”
“Teller would never hurt her.”
“I wasn’t talking about Lily.”
My heart was a fluttering songbird, beating its wings against the bars of its gilded cage.
“You’re early for training,” I said.
“I came to your chambers with breakfast, but you weren’t there. I was hoping to speak with you.”
“Well… here I am.” Though I tried to put some iciness in my voice, it was a poor attempt at a lie.
He let out a weary sigh. “I owe you an apology. For leaving the dinner, and for the things I said last night. For eavesdropping. For all of it.”
Relief whooshed from my lungs as I felt the wall between us shatter. “I’m sorry, too. What I said—”
“You have nothing to apologize for.” His jaw tightened. “You told me how you feel. I should have accepted it and let it go.”
My instincts screamed at me to correct him, to explain that when I’d said he was nothing to me, I’d only meant we had no formal ties—no shared blood or years of friendship, no advisor roles or obligations. To confess that I couldn’t understand why he trusted me, cared for me, so much more than people he had known his whole life.
And worse, that I felt exactly the same.
And how much it scared me.
But maybe this was for the best. Perhaps it was better if he thought there really was nothing between us.
I was not so in denial that I hadn’t felt the sting of truth in some of his accusations. My betrothal to Henri was built on shaky ground, and it wasn’t just because of the Crown or even my being a Descended. Some difficult conversations loomed in our near future.
But I had begged Henri not to give up on me and walk away, and now I owed it to him to do the same. Whatever existed between Luther and me, it was to Henri I had promised my loyalty. And Luther was not the only one who kept their promises.
Even if my heart was begging me not to let go.
I nodded. “All is forgiven. Friends?”
“Friends,” he agreed. “Advisor?”
“Don’t push your luck, Corbois.”
We shared a friendly smirk, and despite myself, I got lost in his smile all over again. I wasn’t even sure how long we’d been staring at each other when the sudden silence yanked us back to the present.
I looked over to see Lily and Teller watching us, the latter frowning and the former looking as pleased as a cat with a saucer of cream.
I bolted to my feet and down the stairs. “You two should go, Taran and Alixe will be here soon.”
They nodded. Teller and I exchanged a heavy look, an entire conversation passing between us through a series of furrowed eyebrows, pressed lips, and subtle tilts of our heads. At the end of it, he squeezed my shoulder. “Tonight’s going to go great. And you won’t even need the Challenging, because you’ll kill them all with your dancing instead.”
I swiped at him. He grinned and darted out of reach, only for his expression to pale as he approached a stone-faced Luther.
Luther pulled Lily in for a hug and pressed a kiss to the top of her head, all the while holding Teller’s gaze in a fearsome glare. He moved into the center of the stairs, requiring Teller to awkwardly contort his body to squeeze past Luther’s imposing frame. When Teller finally brushed past him, Luther released a menacing snarl, and Teller bolted for the exit.
My lips pursed as I struggled not to laugh. Luther caught my eye and winked. “That was for making fun of my Queen.”
“Uh huh. I’m sure it had nothing to do with his interest in your little sister.”
A guilty smile tugged at his lips as he descended the stairs and stopped a few inches away. “I can help you with the dancing, if you’d like.” He offered out his hands. “I’ve certainly had to do enough of it over the years.”