A Beast's Tale

Chapter 34

Ivetta woke me up at eight o’clock again. Her voice was a siren call, irresistible and dangerous. Especially since she had returned my embrace. Especially since she hadn’t wanted it to end. Dangerous.

“I hate getting up early,” I mumbled irritably from within the safety of my cocoon of blankets.

“My apologies, your highness, but I wasn’t sure if you wanted to eat breakfast with the foreign princes again,” she replied.

I groaned at the prospect. I never wanted to eat breakfast with them ever again. “If they even show up,” I grumbled.

“Maybe there will be a better turnout today, your highness. There wasn’t a party to keep people up late last night.”

I heard her opening and closing the bureau drawers, and I resisted the urge to push back the covers and look at her. “When are they leaving?”

“Five more days, your highness. If you would like to sleep in, I can always come back later.”

I finally emerged from the sheets, allowing myself a single glance at her as I stretched. “You can go. Gilbert is probably at breakfast already, and I’ll be there soon.”

“Um, I…I need to talk to you about something first,” she said hesitantly.

“What is it?” I asked irritably, sitting up quickly. Her green eyes were nervous, and she bit her lip. Had something happened to her? Again? She was wearing the usual uniform, though, with no visible marks on her slender arms or shapely legs…

“You don’t have to worry about Prince Gilbert anymore.”

Her words restored focus to my wandering thoughts, but I forced myself to stay seated in bed. “What happened?”

“We had a talk last night,” she said carefully.

“He came to your house?” I growled, narrowing my eyes as I stood up, my stomach twisting. How did he evade palace security? Why did I have to keep failing so miserably at protecting the person who mattered the most to me?

She stepped quickly in front of the door, guessing my intentions.

“Yes, but he didn’t hurt me. Even though I…kind of lost it on him.” She shrugged and smiled sheepishly. “You know what that’s like.”

I stopped in front of her, a reluctant smile drawn from my lips at the sight of hers. She didn’t appear to be in any distress, and she was better rested than yesterday, but she was still too tired to really hide anything from me. And she was trapped between me and the door, though she didn’t seem to realize that. Looking down at her bright green eyes, the rays of sunlight bringing out the shine of her silky black hair…

What were we talking about again?

“I do know.” I slid a finger under her chin, surprised and pleased when she shivered at my touch. “And you think that he won’t go after you again, because he let you get away with that last night.”

“I know he won’t,” she said nervously, her cheeks flushing as her wide green eyes watched mine. “And he’ll be out all day with Prince Yves, so you won’t have to worry about him, either.”

I chuckled, swiping my thumb lightly across her chin just below her lips. “They’re cousins.”

There was something new in her eyes as she dropped my gaze to stare at my lips. Shy nervousness was melting into unmistakable desire. “I didn’t realize,” she said absentmindedly.

I felt like I was on fire. Just a few inches between her lips and mine, just an apparently open invitation to kiss her. But, if I did, I wouldn’t be going to breakfast. Unless she said no. And she didn’t look like she could even think the word no.

The choice was hers.

“You’d better go now,” I said softly, closing the distance between us.

She swallowed hard and pushed my hand away. “Excuse me, Prince Chevalier,” she stammered, and then she disappeared.

I should have just kissed her. When did I become such a gentleman? I sighed and turned away from the door. Time for another cold bath. She was going to kill me before the gala was over. If Gilbert ever found a way to weaponize her-

I sighed, sinking into the cold water. I’d allowed passion to cloud my thoughts. Gilbert had slipped out of the palace last night, found out where she lived, visited her, talked with her. And that was just what she told me. The way she’d blocked the door…she knew how angry I would become, and she hadn’t told me everything. If it were anybody but her, I may have even suspected that near kiss was an attempt to distract me. There could be no more effective distraction.

Five more days. If I could wait that long.

“Hey, Chevalier, you made it!” Jin greeted me enthusiastically when I arrived late to the breakfast table. “Thought you were gonna miss sending me off to battle!”

I glanced over at Silvio, who shrugged.

“Don’t expect any sympathy from me,” Silvio muttered. “I have to deal with her a lot more often than you do.”

Leon laughed. “C’mon, she’s your cousin, isn’t she?”

“As if that means anything. Right, Yves?” Silvio asked, smirking.

Yves glared at him.

“You don’t have to pretend, Yves,” Clavis commented. “Gilbert knows you hate him.”

“I don’t hate him!” Yves protested.

“Oh? How would you describe our relationship, dear cousin?” Gilbert prodded with his innocent smile.

Yves scowled. “Don’t call me that. My name is Yves, and that is how you’ll refer to me.”

Licht cracked a rare smile. “Better listen to him, Gilbert. He means it.”

“Hey, where’s Nokto?” Luke asked suddenly, looking around the table. “Don’t tell me the sleaze-bag had another late night.”

“I doubt it,” I interjected coolly. “He’ll have no time for dalliances on this assignment.”

Everybody looked at me.

“When did this come up?” Clavis asked, his golden eyes narrowed.

“After our conversation yesterday,” I said with a pointed glare.

Clavis dropped his gaze to his plate.

Jin laughed. “Oh, I get it. His punishment for the ball. Mine’s this horrible day with Silvio’s bratty cousin. What did he do to you, Clavis?”

“The usual,” he muttered.

Not quite. I was harder on him than usual, and I gave him an ultimatum this time.

“Chevalier, you can’t go threatening your brothers with death all the time,” Leon scolded, although his amber eyes were twinkling with amusement.

“I don’t,” I said coolly.

“I wish he’d done that rather than set me up on this date,” Jin groaned. “And I can’t even drink the whole day!”

“Hey, just what I needed, a good excuse to go out drinking tonight,” Silvio said. “First round’s my treat.”

“You got a deal,” Jin said, grinning again. “There’s this great tavern down in town, the Rose and the Thorn. Full of busty barmaids who are eager to please, if you know what I mean.”

“I think everybody knows what you mean,” Yves said with disgust, rolling his eyes. “You’re such an old pervert.”

Keith didn’t say a word, of course, as the conversation continued raging loudly around the table. Gilbert was unusually quiet.

“I need a word with you before you go,” I said to him, keeping my voice low enough that nobody else could hear.

“I thought you might,” he replied.

We went to my office after breakfast. I rounded on him as soon as he closed the door.

“This stops now,” I snapped angrily.

His trademark smile slipped into a scowl. “I’m disappointed in you, Chevalier,” he spat back, his blood red eye narrowed dangerously.

“Is that so?” I asked venomously. “Perhaps you’d rather feel my blade than continue this dance of words?”

“Do you know what she was doing when I found her?” he demanded. “Or do you even want to know? Maybe you’d rather not know what her life is like outside of these walls.”

“Don’t you dare try to talk to me about her life,” I growled, my blood boiling in my veins. “You’ve known her for two days, and you’ve been torturing her every chance you get. I’ve known her for a month, long enough for me to know full well what her life is like, inside and outside of the palace. Long enough for me to see her fall apart after she was nearly raped just walking home to take care of her dying mother. Long enough for me to find out that she’s been attacked multiple times over the past five years by that same man. I killed him, but I have restrained myself from killing you, even though you have reminded her of the worst night of her life just to get under her skin, even though you trapped her in your room and did who knows what to her until she broke free and came running to me. And you have the gall to say I don’t know about her life. She puts up with all this abuse because she needs the money to pay her mother’s doctor bills. Every second of her life is dedicated to caring for a dying woman, and she accepts help from nobody because she has never been able to trust anybody. And yet she still looks for the best in everybody, including you. Just this morning, she was blocking my path so I wouldn’t take care of you once and for all. You know nothing about her.”

The silence following my tirade was deafening. Gilbert met my eyes the entire time without even flinching, without even changing his expression. I was not so composed. Anger surged through my veins, my fists were clenched so tightly that I couldn’t feel them, and the only reason I hadn’t drawn my sword was Ivetta. The last time I’d felt like this was the day I’d confronted my father about Bloodstained Rose Day. He’d been cowering in a corner by this point, not standing calmly in front of me with a slight frown.

“So that’s why,” Gilbert finally said, and then he turned to go.

I grabbed his arm and spun him around, throwing him back into the wall. “This is my final warning. You will leave her alone, or you will die. Do you understand?”

He brushed my hand away like it was an annoying gnat. “Perfectly.”

I let him go this time, against my better judgment, and took my seat behind my desk. Leon would be here soon to discuss our next steps with Obsidian. I needed to cool down so I could think clearly for that. At least most of the important business with Benitoite and Jade had concluded yesterday. Rhodolite’s friendly relationship with Benitoite had been reconfirmed, as had Jade’s neutrality with Rhodolite, Benitoite, and Obsidian. But Gilbert had been evasive and vague, so nothing really changed regarding Obsidian. Yet.

Leon entered my office only a few minutes later, as I expected. He took one look at me, leaning back in my chair seething, and dropped heavily into the chair across from my desk.

“It’s a bit early to be this worked up, isn’t it?” he asked.

“Gilbert went to her house last night,” I growled.

Leon’s amber eyes narrowed. “I’m surprised you let him live.”

“He left with Yves?”

Leon nodded. “As far as I know, but I’ll check it. Is she okay?”

I sighed. “She says so. And she says she handled him herself.”

Leon sighed, too. “Of course she did. Well, what are we going to do about him?”

“We?”

“Yes, we,” Leon said firmly. “We now have solid proof that the first prince of our most dangerous enemy has been striking deals with our barons along the border, selling arms to rebels within the anti-war faction here and to rebels within Benitoite and Jade, and manufacturing new weapons for a planned invasion. That’s more than enough reason to imprison him here, without the added provocation from his harassment of Yves and his infatuation with Ivetta.”

“If we imprison him, we give Obsidian a reason to invade,” I said coolly, the facts I already knew grounding me from the foreign world of emotions to the political dance that was mere rote.

“Exactly. But we can’t just let him waltz out of here, either. So?”

“So you and I have a private, off-the-record conversation with him tomorrow,” I said.

“The outcome of which will determine whether or not we go to war,” Leon continued.

I stood up. “I’ll be training with my troops today.”

Leon stood up, too. “It’s supposed to be a fun day, Chevalier. No politics, just socializing.”

I snorted. “And what will you be doing?”

Leon shrugged. “Training with my troops. Julius and Gilbert haven’t crossed paths at all, by the way.”

“See that it stays that way. I’ll be tightening palace security as well.”

“And Ivetta?”

I stopped at the door and turned back to him. “What of Ivetta?”

Leon’s amber eyes glittered mischievously. “Well, if we’re going to war, you’re not going to see her for a while.”

I turned back to the door and left without responding.

He was right.