Page 84 of The Queen's Line

I was drunk. Abitdrunk. Pretty drunk.

"I'm fiiiine!" I cried, my arms swinging wide, the skewer still in my hand prodding the guard who'd scoffed at me.

"Ow!"

"I wouldn't trust you with that blade right now," Cresswell said firmly.

"Can I be of some help?"

Just the soft, velvety rasp of his voice, and suddenly the Hunger was there, as if she'd been lying in wait the whole time.

"Aric!" I spun, and there he was, standing outside the ring of my guards, the firelight from the torches around the festival catching in his gaze as he smirked at me.

"Princess," he said, nodding.

"Bryony," I corrected. "Come here."

He raised an eyebrow, but the guards stepped back and Aric joined us in our little nest of company inside their bronze ring of armor.

"Where have you been?" I asked.

"Working," he answered, brow furrowing with confused amusement. "And you?"

"Working," I mimicked, crossing my arms over my chest.

"Would you like a little sobriety? Just enough to dance," he asked.

He was beautiful, wasn't he? Strangely so. Grandmother was right, he was too old for me, too rude, too completely uninterested. No, not completely.

"Thank you for my sheath. It's beautiful," I said, reaching down and finding it right at my hip, the gold still warm to the touch.

"You're welcome," Aric said, with the slightest dip of his waist. Not a bow, but a polite answer, and there was a kind of friendliness in his eyes that he didn't show elsewhere. Or at least, that was what I wanted to see. "You didn't answer my question."

"Will you be my dance partner?" I asked.

For a moment, that warmth in Aric's stare shuttered, and I cursed my too loose tongue for even thinking of asking him to dance with me, but then he bowed softly again.

"For one dance," he said, lips twitching as I vibrated with my restrained shout of victory.

I stilled as his hand lifted to my face, fingertips brushing loose strands of hair back before sparking gently against my skin. The familiar tight feeling passed over me, as well as a cool rinse of clarity that made the lines of the world sharper again when I hadn't even realized they'd begun to blur. I looked down and found my dress simplified, and my dagger hidden.

"You've made me plain again?" I asked, grinning.

"Never plain, but safe," Aric said quietly, and the Hunger in me prowled impatiently. He looked up over my shoulder to Cresswell. "Stay close, but not so much so it will make it obvious who she is. I'll return her to you shortly."

I glanced back over my shoulder to find Cosmo wearing his usual knowing smile and only Thao looking irritated by the interruption. Aric's hand found mine and I followed his tug, a sudden sense of freedom hitting me as we left the circle of guards.

"I thought you'd say no."

"Did you want me to?" Aric asked, pulling me closer to his side as we wove through the mingling crowd.

"No, I got what I wanted," I said.Mostly, I added to myself.

I wantedAric, which was terrible because he'd made it clear he found that impossible. Maybe it was worse to get to see him, to call him my Chosen and have him make me beautiful magical charms and give me glamours so I could experience small fragments of a life that didn't really belong to me. Moments with a man I couldn't really possess.

"You deserve to dance," Aric said as we neared the surging mass of dancers, the ground stamped down to mud from the day. "You've given the north its best day in a long time, princess."

The music and the shouts of dancers were growing too loud, making it harder to hear Aric and his scratching soft tone.