couldn’t face you at first. Then, after a while, it was just… easier to not think about it. About you.”
“Yes.” The word hissed out of her on a sigh full of regret and so much more. Gendra was right—she’d let the bad blood with Rhyian affect all of her relationships. “I don’t like to think of myself as a coward,” she admitted.
“That was maybe harsh,” he said with a self-deprecating smile. “I was the coward—among my many failings—and you were rightfully wary of having anything to do with me.”
Her heart had tumbled over so many times this night that she’d grown dizzy from it. “Rhyian… I don’t know what to say.”
He grinned and held out a hand. “Then don’t. Less talking. More dancing.”
She found herself smiling back. “The Tala solution to everything.”
Since she hadn’t yet placed her hand in his, he snagged it and drew her closer. “Always,” he breathed. “Do you remember—”
“Prince Rhyian!” Bethany’s shriek scraped over Lena’s nerves, a pained response echoing in Rhyian’s face as the girl ran up to them, curtseying deeply. “Happy Feast of Moranu.”
“Bethany,” Rhy said smoothly, dropping Lena’s hand to offer it to help Bethany up. “You look ravishing.”
Bethany giggled, doing a pirouette to show off her gown, which seemed to be made entirely of black lace and obsidian crystals. Lena wondered if their mother knew the gown Bethany had worked on in secret was so very… adult. “We match!” she crowed. “Do you see?”
“Indeed we do.” Rhyian seemed bemused, but he also smiled on Lena’s sister with apparently genuine affection. Another surprise, as Lena hadn’t realized the two even knew each other. She’d have known if Rhyian ever visited Nahanau, whether she was there or not. “But how did you guess?” he asked.
“Silly.” Bethany leaned on Rhyian’s arm, swanning in close to him. “You always wear black,” she breathed.
Lena raised a brow at Rhyian, and he had the grace to look chagrined. So far as she knew, Rhyian had last seen Bethany when she was five or six years old. And Bethany had been going on earlier about falling in love and the crystalline moon. Oh, Rhyian had better not!
“I’ve been looking for you everywhere,” Bethany scolded, flashing an angry look at Lena, as if she’d been holding Rhyian captive. “I’ve been practicing the dance steps you showed me. Now you must dance with me for real.”
“Of course.” Rhyian patted her hand where she leaned on him, peeled it off his arm, then bent over it to brush a kiss over it. “As soon as this set ends, I’ll meet you on the floor.”
“But—” Bethany began, giving Lena another suspicious look.
“I must take care of something first,” he said, winking at her. “Even shapeshifters are only human.”
“Oh!” Bethany blushed prettily, then nodded knowingly. “See you in a bit. Don’t be late.” Casting Lena one more smile, this one decidedly impudent, she trotted off to where a group of her friends waited, all bursting into giggles at her arrival.
Rhyian shook his head, turning back to Lena with a smile. “Now, where—”
“Bethany has been coming to Annfwn?” Lena asked, cutting him off.
His expression cooled. “You’re not the only one with friends in Annfwn, Salena.”
“And she’s been spending time with you.” Fury—and maybe a bit of jealousy—burned acid through her stomach. “Dance lessons?” She made the words scathing.
“Yes, if you must know,” he bit out.
“Is that a euphemism?” she asked with bitter scorn. She hadn’t been much older than Bethany when she’d fallen under Rhyian’s seductive spell.
“What? No, I—”
She didn’t want his excuses. “You stay away from my little sister, Rhyian.” Her voice shook with anger. “She is too young for you.”
Matching fury lit his eyes to cobalt, and he stuck a finger in her face. “Don’t you dare accuse me of something like that. I would never.”
“No? That’s not how I remember things.”
His expression froze, skin smooth and eyes fulgent. “Oh, Salena,” he said on a hush. “That seems terribly cruel. It was different between you and me.”
It had been cruel, unfairly so. “You’re right. I apologize. It just… took me by surprise, that you even know Bethany. That you and she… She’s so young, Rhyian.”
He drew back, a world of pain in his eyes, though his face remained icily composed. “She sought me out. She’s a sweet girl, and I like talking to her.”
“I can’t imagine what you’d talk about.”
“She tells me what you’re doing.”
Lena stared at him in shock, once again at a loss for words. He smiled without humor, cocking his