The Prince's Vow: Starian Cycle #3 by Iris Foxglove

Author:Iris Foxglove [Foxglove, Iris]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Belladonna Press
Published: 2021-06-22T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

In the muddy water at Adrien’s knees, a man with dark hair and black eyes lay in a bed of flowers, pale pink blossoms pushing up against his hands and face.

“All right, that’s enough,” Summer said, and Adrien winced as she grabbed his ear and pinched just hard enough to startle him out of the vision. For a woman well past two-hundred, she had a fearsome grip. “Hektor. Take the silks inside, and do not try to meddle with the tea. I recall what happened last time. And if I find your little creature has eaten a single page from one of my books, you’re banned from the library.”

“He won’t,” Hektor said. The fox demon scrambled up to his shoulders and curled around his neck. “I swear.”

IT IS NOT MY FAULT YOUR BOOKS ARE DELICIOUS.

“Flick!”

BUT I WILL EAT THE SALTED FISH INSTEAD.

Summer gave him a superior, disbelieving look, and both Hektor and the fox bobbed their heads in a little bow before they grabbed the silks and went scurrying up the stairs. Summer watched them go, eyes narrowed.

“His demon is a menace,” she said. “It eats the words off the page and hoards them like a dragon. That boy is a walking library, but there’s no order to it. Gods save us when he learns how to tidy his mind.”

“Do you think that might be why he—you can let go of my ear, ma’am.” Adrien winced as Summer released him. “Why he might be a little…talkative?”

“No,” Summer said. Her mouth twisted in a deeper scowl. “That’s his father. A kicked puppy will fawn over anyone who shows him affection. Bought children are always eager to please.”

“That’s horrible,” Adrien said, and Summer looked at him sharply. His voice had come out harsher than he meant it to, tighter. “Holding the threat of being cast off over a child.”

Isiodore lay a hand on Adrien’s back. Adrien knew what he was probably thinking—what everyone thought when they saw Adrien standing meek and quiet in the shadows of the council chambers or crowded ballrooms. The fact that Adrien’s father hadn’t disinherited him yet was just another sign of his eccentricity, which would be overruled by the time Adrien was married off and carted to the de Guillory country estates or to his mother’s vineyards. But it wasn’t the same. Adrien had a life of bored, idle luxury to look forward to. Hektor had the threat of the pleasure houses.

“The Archmage has many uses for a boy who can memorize a book in less than the time it takes to make a pot of tea,” Summer said. “Hektor will be fine so long as he keeps that curiosity of his in check. It’s you I worry about, boy. How often does this happen? Caught like a fly in the web.”

“Rarely,” Isiodore said.

“Always,” Adrien said at the same time. He glanced at Isiodore. “Lately, anyways. Tanis was, uh, talking to me about it.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Isiodore raising a hand to his face.

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