A Girl in Black and White (Alyria 2)

“Looks like you,” he commented nonchalantly, but I didn’t like the tone behind it. His eyes hardened. “Keep sharing secrets that aren’t yours, and I will go find out some of your own.”

“I don’t have any secrets,” I blurted.

When he raised a brow, as if accepting the challenge, I grabbed his wrist to keep him from seeking out my mother. I didn’t know if she was strong enough to keep him out of her head or not, but I didn’t want to risk him searching for things about me that I didn’t want to face yet.

“Let’s just keep all of our secrets to ourselves,” I said like I had come up with the notion myself.

“Good idea,” he said wryly.

He tried to pull away and go who knew where, but I held tight onto his wrist. He flicked his gaze down to my grip, then met my eyes with an amused expression. Ugh, why did he have to be so handsome it made my stomach flutter with one look?

I bit my lip to keep a smile from growing, but it was just too damn hard. “I’ve forgiven you for trying to banish me from the city, you know. We must just learn to ‘coexist’ better, don’t you think?”

“I think we coexist too well. That’s the problem.”

My brows knitted, remembering what he told Henry: that he hoped he wasn’t here for ‘pleasure.’ I sud

denly wanted to find out the reason he was. “Would you like to play Five Stones with me?”

He only watched me for a moment. “You’re serious.” It was voiced as a question, but not.

“Quite.”

“Five Stones . . . you know you have no chance of winning, right?”

“I do expect you to be a gentleman about it,” I replied primly.

The king’s guards were deathly silent. The complete uncertainty I’d brought into their lives, it was a diverting amusement to my complicated life.

Weston raised a suspicious brow. “Why do I have a feeling that ‘be a gentleman about it’ means let you win?”

“Because that is partly what it means,” I said seriously as I linked my arm through his. I felt high on Midnight Oil at the contact, and the mere comparison of his tan skin and brand against my own unblemished arm was intoxicating, as if taking another hit of smoke, filling my head with sweet, light air.

“I know just the place to play,” I said as I directed him through the crowd. “Unless you have prior engagements, of course?” I glanced up at him meaningfully. “Like courting a princess wearing clothes, maybe?”

His eyebrows pulled down in confusion, while my heart thumped too heavily in my chest.

“How much have you drunk?” he questioned.

“Enough,” I muttered. Right on cue, we were walking by his men, only a foot away from Archer. I gave him a passing smile. “How do I look? ‘As stunning as the sun?’”

Jaw tight, his stare hardened, but it flickered with uncertainty seeing me walk with his cousin. How much I loved playing with Titans. I sighed, realizing it would probably be my downfall. We all gotta go some way.

Weston flicked his gaze between us, but before he could ask any questions, I said to him, “Or are there too many princesses in clothes to count?”

“I told you I don’t do princesses,” he said, indifferently.

“Forgive me if I don’t believe you because you also told me you were taking me to an imaginary city.”

A sly grin pulled on his lips, and for some reason, I couldn’t even find ire in the situation. The amicable moment was intoxicating, firing off all kinds of happy signals in my chest.

“So, would you court a princess without clothes, then?”

He let out a breath of amusement as we entered the hallway; not even entertaining the idea of taking a naked princess to a party.

I took a turn, pulling on his arm to direct him down the sconce-lit hall. The red carpets looked like freshly dripped blood under the light. Or maybe that was just the dark talking.

“Do you know where you’re going?” he asked.