He felt his mouth quirk as he looked back to Eirik and Calder, dropped his finger from her lips but lifted the hand he was holding and folded it into his chest, drawing her nearer.
“You fail to grasp your position here, father,” Frey noted and Eirik looked to him.
“I fail to do so because it’s beyond unseemly to escort the Head of a House to his own dungeons,” Eirik shot back.
Calder’s back shot straight and his face turned cold.
“I will repeat, you fail to grasp your position here, father, and it would appear you do it in more ways than one for you have not been Head of this House for some time,” Frey returned.
“Can I ask at this point,” Valeria cut in in a bored voice, “if someone will bring me a chair? I’ve been dancing all night and my feet are killing me.”
“Holy cow.” Apollo heard Maddie breathe in disgusted shock and he squeezed her hand but did not take his eyes from the players on the stage.
“It would seem, mother, that you too are uncomprehending of what is transpiring in this room,” Frey noted.
“We have been informed of what occurred this night and really.” She shook her head in mild rebuke. “My dear son, you know my husband, nor I, would conspire with malevolent forces to bring down the powers that be on two continents. Not with a son who is The Frey and The Drakkar. A son married to the Winter Princess and a grandson who inherits the crown to this realm, a realm that is vast in size now that it’s rightfully reunified.”
“Too true,” Frey allowed and his eyes dropped to his mother’s throat. “Though I must take this moment to compliment you on the ice diamond you wear.”
Apollo watched Valeria pale as her hand started to snake up to her throat but she wisely thought better of bringing more attention to the stone at her throat, an extortionately costly one.
“But I must admit confusion,” Frey continued. “Seeing as in his last message to me, Calder explained he had to curtail your allowance, along with father’s, as your spending was unduly extravagant and it was threatening the livelihood of every member of the House of Drakkar. Can I take it that jewel is an indication of what my brother was referring to?”
Valeria lifted her chin but her face briefly exposed a crack in her bravado that Apollo knew Frey would detect. “Your father purchased this stone for me before Calder assumed Head of the House.”
“How odd, considering the condition of the Drakkar House’s finances were in disarray prior to Calder assuming Head,” Frey shot back instantly. “So, although Calder’s revitalization of Drakkar family funds has been dramatic, my father would have had less resources when he was Head to provide you such a gift. Or perhaps gifts such as these were the reason the Drakkar assets were in such disarray.”
Eirik had turned to his wife and Apollo saw his eyes narrowed on the diamond at her throat.
“That is not a gift from me,” he told her. Then he looked to Frey and repeated, “That is not a gift from me. She got that elsewhere. She’s addicted to her fripperies and finds her ways to get them. But it is most definitely not a gift from me.”
Frey didn’t take his eyes from his mother. “Perhaps you’d like some time to formulate another lie. You’ve five seconds.” Only then did he move his eyes to his father. “Even as she stands there, lying when treason is in question, it warms the heart how swiftly my sire so staunchly champions the woman who birthed me.”
“As you say, treason is in question,” Eirik returned, puffing out his chest.
“Yes, indeed,” Frey replied. “And on behalf of my wife, this realm’s princess, I thank you for your swift incrimination, no matter if only implied, of your own wife for our country of ice.”
Eirik’s face suffused red just as there was movement at the door and everyone turned to see Draven and Thad bringing Franka in.
Her eyes instantly scanned the room and stopped on Frey.
“We must stop meeting like this,” she remarked cattily, a derisive smile on her face.
“Yes, Franka,” Frey said low, his voice ominous. “We must.”
It was almost imperceptible but Apollo caught it.
She swallowed.
Missing this, Eirik demanded of his wife, “Who bought you that jewel?”
“It was you,” she returned, her voice cold, her eyes level, but she couldn’t completely mask her fear.
“I believe I would remember buying you an ice diamond of that size,” Eirik returned.
“I’ve been dragged from my bed, and the company in it, to witness a domestic?” Franka asked, performing the remarkable feat of sounding both astonished and bored.
“I advise you keep quiet,” Calder clipped at her.