Crush the King (Crown of Shards #3)(58)
“Allow me to escort you, highness. After all, it is my duty as your consort.”
“Duty?” I sighed. “You make it sound exactly as miserable as it’s going to be.”
“Well, there are other, private duties I enjoy far more.” His teasing tone and the wicked glint in his eyes made my stomach clench in anticipation, as well as cut through some of my dread and worry.
I stepped closer to him and stared up into his blue, blue eyes. “Perhaps we can discuss those duties in greater detail later on tonight.”
His eyes brightened. “Count on it, highness.”
As much as I would have loved to drag him into some shadowy corner of the castle and kiss him senseless, I had my own duty to attend to, so I plastered a smile on my face and strode forward.
My meeting with Driscol must have attracted more attention than I’d realized, because sharp whispers and sly comments surged through the ballroom, trailing after us like sharks racing after a school of fish.
“Look! The Bellonan queen is here!”
“Wasn’t she attacked earlier?”
“I thought she was dead.”
That last comment made me grimace, but I forced my smile back up into place, and Sullivan and I walked on.
A few feet away, Eon and Ruri were talking and sipping champagne. Eon was wearing a short-sleeve, floor-length green robe, along with gold sandals. Gold bangles set with emeralds, rubies, and other gems were stacked up on his wrists, and a gold machete dangled from his wide gold belt. My nose twitched. The scent of magic wafted off each and every one of his jewels. Emeralds to increase his speed, rubies to augment his strength, and so on. The aromas swirled together into one thick blanket of power, but the strongest one was the scent of Eon’s own fire magic, which smoldered like a hot ember.
Instead of a gown, Ruri was sporting black boots and tight black leggings that showed off her strong, slender figure, along with a ruffled white shirt topped with a knee-length emerald-green jacket covered with dragons done in gold thread. An exquisite gold ring shaped like a flying dragon stretched across all four of her left fingers, and her inner dragon’s face of emerald-green scales was once again clearly visible on that same hand.
The Vacunan king and the Ryusaman queen were both loosely surrounded by nobles from their own kingdoms, as well as their consorts. Eon’s wife, Jari, was a beautiful woman with a shaved head, hazel eyes, and ebony skin who was almost as tall as Eon was, while Ruri’s husband, Riko, had silver hair, gray eyes, and golden skin. The dragon’s face on his neck had a combination of silver and golden scales.
I tipped my head to the king, the queen, and their respective consorts. “King Eon, Queen Ruri. So lovely to see you again. As well as your stunning companions. Jari, Riko.”
The two consorts smiled at me, and I returned the gesture.
“It’s lovely to see you again as well, Queen Everleigh,” Eon rumbled in his deep, gravelly voice. “We weren’t sure whether you were going to attend.”
“Especially after that unpleasantness down by the waterfront earlier,” Ruri added in a much lighter tone.
I was getting tired of everyone referring to the assassination attempt as mere unpleasantness, but I forced myself to smile even wider. “Yes, well, it takes more than a bit of unpleasantness to keep me down for long.”
Eon had one of his servants fetch a glass of champagne for me, as well as one for Sullivan, and we chatted with the two other royals, along with their consorts. We talked about the Regalia, the weather, and all the other usual polite, inane chitchat one would make at a ball.
“I wish to extend my condolences on the deaths of Queen Cordelia, Princess Madelena, and everyone else who was lost at Seven Spire,” Eon said, finally getting down to business.
Ruri murmured her agreement.
“Thank you.” I drew in a breath to steady my nerves, then launched into my verbal attack. “I wanted to speak to you both about the massacre. Namely, how we can prevent it from ever happening again.”
Ruri frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Maximus was behind the Seven Spire massacre. His relatives carried it out on his orders. In a single afternoon, Mortan assassins almost wiped out the entire Blair royal family, and Maximus tried to do something similar to the Ripleys in Andvari a few months ago. It wouldn’t surprise me if he turns his attention to Vacuna and Ryusama next.”
Both rulers blinked in surprise. They hadn’t expected me to speak so frankly, so harshly, at a royal ball, but I didn’t have time to tiptoe around and follow proper protocol. I needed to secure their help as soon as possible before Maximus tried to kill me again.
“Surely the attack at Seven Spire was an unfortunate, isolated incident,” Eon said, trying to be diplomatic.
I gave him a flat stare. “I was there, Eon. I witnessed that horrible day, and there was nothing unfortunate or isolated about it. The Seven Spire massacre was a carefully planned attack on the Blair family, on Bellona. And for the most part, it succeeded. The Mortan conspirators and their turncoat guards slaughtered my cousins with no hesitation and no remorse. Men, women, children. No one was spared.”
Eon didn’t have a response to that, but Ruri gave me a thoughtful look, as did the green dragon on her hand.
“We’ve all heard about the Seven Spire massacre,” she murmured. “I imagine that’s one of the reasons why you tried to have Maximus killed right after he landed in the arena.”