Forbidden Honor (Dragon Royals #1)(69)

“You know, I don’t even remember now. But nothing feels the way I thought it would.”

He pulled one rose loose, turned to offer it to me, then dropped it on the stone walkway and stuck his bleeding finger in his mouth. He’d been pricked by a thorn. “I don’t think anything ever feels the way we expect it to be. Life is always kind of disappointing.”

“Well, that’s something I expect to hear from Arren.”

He laughed. He was telling me so much about how the dragons saw the world. What else could I weasel out of him tonight?

Before I could decide how to play my next move, a servant scurried out to see me. The look on his face was dark and worried.

“Honor,” the servant said. “Your mother would very much like to see you.”

“Stepmother.” And even though I was a powerful dragon now, something in my stomach still curdled when I had to face the woman who had mistreated me for the last several years.

It felt as if I were a child again, about to be punished for some stupid childish misdeed.

Maybe Lynx read something in my face because he said, “Do you want me to go with you?”

He distrusted me and yet he was so willing to be a buffer when I went to see my stepmother. That unexpected kindness certainly made me think they didn’t hate me at all.

But I didn’t want anyone to see me dealing with Alis. She’d always had a knack for humiliating me, and I couldn’t stand to lose what little power I’d regained tonight.

“It’s all right. I’m sure she wants to have a private conversation. She’s just so happy to be getting engaged. I’ll catch up with you later.”

He half-bowed in answer. I left him behind and followed the servant back through the maze of night-blooming flowers toward the bright lights of the house.

“She asked you wait in here,” the servant said, escorting me into an unused drawing room at the back of the house, in the one-story addition built at the end of the hall. This room was next to the conservatory, where she’d grown all sorts of rare flowers smuggled from the other isles. My father had added the drawing room to the castle for her collection of lutes and harps and fiddles. These rooms had been so full of life—greenery and music and Mother.

There were new signs of life in this room, as if Henrick were beginning to take it over as his own drawing room. I realized with a jolt that he was moving in here, that Alis wasn’t moving out.

I wandered around the room, curiously, studying the new furniture. There was a giant wooden cross along one wall with leather bonds hanging loosely from it.

A shiver ran down my spine. This shouldn’t be here. It looked out of place in the sunny drawing room where my mother used to play the piano and sing with me. If Alis and Henrick had commandeered her rooms for games they played between the two of them, then it should be private—not something they wanted me to see.

I was feeling doubly disquieted when the two of them finally entered behind me. They were laughing gayly, deep in conversation, always performing for someone.

The second the doors closed behind them, the laughter cut off. Alis turned her furious gaze on me, and some childish part of me deep inside lurched.

“Where have you been?” Alis hissed at me.

“Dancing with the dragon royals.” Surely she’d appreciate that. It made her look good that her stepdaughter had the heirs’ attention.

“You’re late.”

“I was unavoidably detained at the academy.”

Henrick scoffed. “You should quit that ridiculous job. I don’t want my daughters working.”

My heart dropped. I wasn’t his daughter, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t force me to do as he wished—especially when he was in the same house as Hanna.

“Alis appreciates me bringing in the extra money, don’t you?” I asked, purposefully trying to make my stepmother sound pathetic. Since after all, she had stolen my money.

“You’ve disappointed me.” Alis ignored anything she didn’t like, as usual. “I’m so unhappy that I’ve had to delay my announcement this evening until you finally arrived, finally ready to act like part of our family.”

“I wouldn’t exactly say I’m ready to be part of the family,” I said, since she’d done all she could to exclude me for years, once she’d realized she couldn’t win me over with sugary smiles, “But I am ready for the announcement.”

My stepmother went red in the cheeks except for the tight strained white lines around her eyes. It was a familiar look. I was always able to bait her and make her crazy so easily. Maybe that shouldn’t have been my hobby. But to be fair, she was pretty heinous to me.

But Henrick merely looked amused.

“Such a spirited little thing,” he mused, stepping closer to me. “It’s strange to think that you and Hanna are only half sisters, because you have so very much in common. So much spirit.”

There was something strange about the way he was talking, something that gave me a bad feeling. He talked about our spirit as if it were something that was fun for him. Something that he enjoyed. And yet I didn’t get the feeling that he was the kind of man who appreciated girls speaking our own mind, forging our own paths.

“Thank you,” I said uncertainly.

He made me feel thrown off and uncomfortable in a way that I very rarely felt.