Page 97 of Onyx Cage: Volume II
The king didn’t look particularly amused either, but I assumed that was more from present company than the actual game.
“Whiskey, Evander?” Queen Charlotte asked, the higher octave to her voice belying the strain she didn’t outright acknowledge.
Yes, please, for the love of every storm in Socair.
Outwardly, I only nodded graciously. “Thank you, Your Majesty.”
“None of that.” She waved a dismissive hand. “It’s Mamá now.”
I opened my mouth to argue, not entirely sure what to say. My mother died shortly after I was born. I didn’t have so much as a single hazy memory of her, let alone an idea of how I would have referred to her.
This felt…overly familiar and entirely foreign to me.
“There’s no point in arguing with her. It’s what Mac called her.” Avani’s tone was practical, but there was something more intentional in her emerald gaze.
It was rare that she mentioned her husband at all. But from what little I had gathered about him, Mac had also never had a mother. Aside from that, she was letting me know that it would be somewhat of an insult when the queen’s first son-in-law had obliged her.
“You don’t have to—” Rowan interjected, but there was no real reason for me to refuse.
It wasn’t like I associated the name with anyone else, and it clearly mattered to the queen. Given the limited time I would have to spend in Lochlann, it would cease to be an issue soon enough, anyway.
I nodded again, though this one was more clipped than I meant for it to be. “Mamá, then.”
She beamed. “And you can call Logan?—”
“Your Majesty is fine,” he barked.
Avani let out a startled laugh, and I couldn’t help but share the sentiment. I had expected no less. Rowan, however, tensed at my side, and the queen…Mamá…Charlotte glared outright.
“Newest member of the family can choose their color first,” Avani said after several silent beats, clearly trying to alleviate the tension.
That, at least, was simple.
“Black,” I answered.
She nodded, handing out the rest of the pieces without asking. Rowan’s were crimson, like the darkest strands of her hair. There were a handful of colors left in the box, but the way Avani’s hands tripped over the white pieces left no doubt as to who had played with those.
The king’s eyes tracked the movement, his jaw clenching before he looked away.
While we claimed sections of the map, Charlotte—which seemed like the most innocuous way to think of her now—presented an inquisition that made the after-dinner brandy evening look relaxed by comparison.
“Does every man in Socair join the military?”
“Every able-bodied man,” I confirmed. “They start training at fourteen for two years and serve for another three, then they are given a choice about whether they wish to continue with their trade within the scope of the military or outside of it.”
“No matter their class?” she pressed, barely glancing at the board as she placed her green figurine in one of the least defensible places.
“Correct.” I chose my spot with far more care, spacing my pieces just far enough that it would be easy to conquer whoever was in between, but not so far that I couldn’t unite the separate fronts.
“So you joined at fourteen as well?” Charlotte’s eyes sparked with genuine interest, and I sensed this was where she was always going, to a general accounting of my life.
What I was slightly more surprised by was the twin expression on Rowan’s features. It struck me how little we knew about one another’s lives, and it must have occurred to her as well. I had gleaned plenty from what I had observed in this castle, but she had spent most of her time in Bear locked away in one of our rooms.
So I answered in more detail than I might have given under normal circumstances, both to satisfy that curiosity and because there were things it would be helpful for her to know about the culture of my clan.
Conversation flowed relatively easily until we landed on my family, more specifically, the uncle who was no longer with us because he had been buried under the rubble of the explosion King Logan had created.
The war our kingdoms blamed one another for.