A Queen of Gilded Horns (A River of Royal Blood #2) - Amanda Joy Page 0,107
out last night. They were fools to—to go and get drunk.” Eva finally tucked her wings in and set the book down on the table. “I should have kept an eye on Isa.”
“To be fair, neither of us could have anticipated those two would get along,” Aketo said, practically falling into a seat at the table. He tried to remember the last time he’d gotten a full night’s rest.
“They were at each other’s throats the first time we found them. The next time, there were two dead bodies. I don’t even want to think of what will be next,” Eva said. She flipped the other chair around—they were too high backed to accommodate her wings—and sat. “Isa sneaking about with a khimaer Prince. What will Mother think of her?”
Aketo smiled. “Arguing is how Dthazi shows affection.”
“And how do you?” Eva asked, the beginnings of a grin on her lips. “Show affection, that is?”
“Oh,” Aketo began, tipping his chair back, “I’m even worse than he is. I just brood and teach you how to fight.”
Grinning in earnest now, Eva said, “You do realize Anali was my instructor for years before you came along.”
“I do. And thank goodness, else it would’ve taken much more to teach you.”
She reached across the table, poised to flick his nose, but Aketo laced his fingers through hers instead.
“Very well,” she said. “No more of the brooding, though. From either of us. It’s up to us to keep our family safe.”
“Speaking of that,” Aketo said, “what do you think of asking Isa to keep an eye on Daischa and Otho when we attack the manor? Just in case.”
Eva was silent for a long moment. “You trust her.”
It was not a question, but he answered nonetheless. “Not in all things, but yes, in this, I do.”
“All right, then,” she said. “I’ll do it. How is she . . . feeling about everything?”
He usually avoided sharing the emotions of others, but Eva needed to understand her sister. If they couldn’t find it in them to communicate, this was the least he could do. “Overwhelmed, I think, and sad. But not as unhappy as she was on your nameday.”
“Because she lost,” Eva guessed.
“No, when we first met at the ball, she was upset.”
They both fell silent, still hand in hand.
“You should go to sleep,” Eva said a few minutes later when his eyes fell shut. She held up the journal. “And I should get back to this. I’ll be more useful if I can shift at will.”
He read the title. On Mutable Flesh. It had been written by a past Queen and ancestor of Eva’s. “Does she explain how to shapeshift?”
“There are bits and pieces, but nothing explicit,” Eva said.
“Maybe you’re coming at this the wrong way,” Aketo said, walking to the pallet. He lay on his back. “Our magick should be . . . instinctual. It may be that this is how one Queen experienced her gift. It could be different for you.”
Eva rolled her eyes, but within, frustration warred with disbelief. “Why would Queen Assani have written this if not to understand Khimaerani’s gift?”
Aketo shrugged. “She may have tried to unlock its every secret, but came up short. Or she just loved it so much that she wanted to write about it. I think you should try conjuring the need to shift. Imagine it in your mind. Something will resonate eventually.”
“That’s very helpful, Aketo.” She stood at the edge of the blankets, glaring down at him.
“Apologies,” Aketo said with a yawn. “You’re welcome to join me, you know.”
She crouched and gave him a chaste kiss. “I know. Rest well, Prince.”
He was asleep before she made it to the door.
Chapter 27
Eva
We were gathering in the caves, hours before nightfall two days later, when Dthazi found me. I sat cross-legged on a quilt, fifty feet from the tunnel door that led out to Sher n’Cai. Aketo was next to me, mid-conversation with a youngish khimaer woman whose name I couldn’t quite recall.
The two days had passed in a blur of introductions, meals around Daischa’s kitchen table, and trying to persuade Otho to add my name to his short list of words.
Aketo, Dthazi, and I went back and forth from the Aerie to the caves nightly to speak with General Mateen, who was not at all pleased to find the timing of their plan accelerated. His squadron had taken shelter deeper in the cave network, and like us, when morning came, they would leave to attack.