The Intergalactic Duke's Inconvenient Engagement by Elsa Jade

Author:Elsa Jade [Jade, Elsa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Red Circle Ink
Published: 2017-09-17T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

Later that night, after settling into their luxurious quarters that echoed the sculpted, formal lines of the courtyard, Trixie refused to go to the Black Hole Ball, and Lishelle backed her up.

“Something’s not right,” Lishelle said. “They’re playing us. Not just as pawns, but fools. Like they think we were born yesterday.”

Rayna grimaced. “Not yesterday, but just last week, basically.” Had it only been that long since she broke out of the glass coffin? It seemed like a whirlwind of forever.

She knew that their troubles had been drafted into a wider disagreement of some sort that had nothing to do with them. But now that they were mixed up in it, she wasn’t inclined to let others decide their fate while they were trapped in their pretty, passive rooms at the estate.

She’d had enough of that under Blackworm.

So when the dowager arrived the next morning with a small army of staff, Rayna sequestered her friends in the back bedroom, blocked the door, and told the old woman only she would be going to the ball.

The dowager eyed her. “You are not as appealing as the little one nor as striking as the tall one.” Her lips pursed disapprovingly, and Rayna wondered if all mothers across the universe made that same face. She wouldn’t know, since her own had walked off before she’d been old enough to really understand disappointment, regret, and sorrow.

Although she’d learned those quick enough afterward.

She raised her chin. “Maybe, but I’m all you’re going to get.”

The dowager snorted. “You are very forward for a pawn.”

“If you studied the Earth chess set as you said you did, you’d know the pawn always starts in front.”

A few short, sharp inhalations from the staff sucked a bunch of the air out of the room, but Rayna just stood there with one eyebrow raised.

After a moment, the dowager waved her people forward. “This one, then. But don’t thwart me anymore, girl. I’ve a solar system to manage, a space station to maneuver, and a son to marry off.”

Rayna stiffened. Marry off a son? Meaning Raz?

No wonder he’d been off touring the far edges of his inheritance with this old woman managing and maneuvering behind him. He’d come home to the tragedy of his father’s death and now his mother was marrying him off.

Not that it was any of her business. Even if he had kissed her with a power that would’ve awakened her from any enchanted sleep.

She forced herself to focus on the dowager. Letting her attention wander around this one was probably a good way to find herself in trouble. Maybe not trapped in a glass coffin kind of trouble, but still.

“I’ll be a perfect Black Hole Bride,” she assured the woman, “for whatever your schemes demand. Meanwhile, you swear to keep my friends safe until the Earth envoy arrives to make this all go away. Deal?”

The dowager stalked a quarter way around her, forcing Rayna to twist her head to keep her in sight. “The God of Oaths is my son’s patron, not mine, but I will pledge on his behalf.

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