Page 35 of Onyx Cage: Volume II
She let out a small, satisfied groan before repeating the action more slowly this time.
I swallowed hard, trying to focus on my meal instead of the noises she was making as she ate, and was more than a little relieved when Prince Oliver spoke up.
“Finn and Isla should be here tomorrow,” he announced once the room had quieted down some—although I wasn’t sure this room was ever really what one would callquiet.
Several heads snapped toward him, grins plastered to their faces. I remembered the names from the stories Rowan had toldme back in Bear. Finn was her mother’s brother, and Isla was his wife.
“And the twins?” Davin asked after taking a large sip from his glass of wine.
One of the adolescent redheads cleared her throat—the slightly more reserved one, who had not thrown the roll—and Davin pursed his lips, shaking his head in a placating manner.
“I meant, the much older, much more boring twins, of course,” he assured her.
The girl nodded, a single, regal dip of her chin.
Princess Avani laughed at that, and a beat of silence fell at the table before the conversation picked back up again. The heir to the throne picked up her fork, spearing a piece of roasted potato like she didn’t notice the scrutiny.
She didn’t actually put it in her mouth, though.
In fact, of the small amount of food she had put on her plate, she didn’t appear to have touched any of it. I might have thought no one noticed, with the boisterous activity around us, but nearly every eye in the room had flicked to Avani’s full plate at least once.
King Logan’s emerald gaze lingered there most often, and I wondered whether his grim mood was from more than the Socairans vying for his daughter’s hand. For that matter, I wondered about his coming to Socair himself, rather than sending a trusted guard.
It was clear he was a devoted father. Even now, he bounced the youngest child on his knee, feeding her small bites of food from his own plate.
But I thought of Rowan telling me how she had left to escape the cloud of grief that had permeated the castle, and I couldn’t help but suspect that apple hadn’t fallen far from the tree.
“Yes, and Gwyn and Gal,” the prince confirmed, pulling me from my thoughts.
“Gwyn, the one who’s so good with the sword?” Korhonan offered in a tone only slightly less obsequious than when he had fallen all over himself about Rowan’s council room appearance.
“Right,” Rowan answered, like she was praising a particularly smart puppy.
I took an aggressive bite of my roll just in time for one of the twins to speak up again.
“Does this mean you have two pieces of man-meat now, Row?” So much for that one being the more demure twin.
Though I had told myself I was prepared for anything at this table, I choked on a laugh—and the bread I had just put in my mouth.
Were they truly always this way? I stole a glance at the queen—the Warrior Queen, if the legends were true.
You are no match for anyone in my family, least of all my mother.My lemmikki had spat those words to every duke in Socair in one of her decidedly less charming moments. So for all of Queen Charlotte’s polite smiles, she must be hiding a hell of a lot of chaos to produce the offspring sitting at this table.
To say nothing of the king.
He squeezed his eyes shut, looking from his daughter to his nephew.
“Dav,” he sighed.
“That’s exactly what it means,” Davin said with a sage nod, like the king had been calling on him to supply an answer rather than rebuking him.
King Logan shot him an annoyed look, opening his mouth to speak when an excited, high-pitched voice cut him off.
“Ma-meet!” the child on his lap squealed, the only princess without green eyes.
A booming laugh rang out from Prince Oliver, followed by a slapping sound as Jocelyn’s hand connected with the back of Davin’s head.
I thought idly that theBesklanovvycomparison had been too tame.