Theran hadn’t heard anyone but Gray agree to anything, but judging by the look on everyone’s face, that wasn’t going to be mentioned.

Daemon looked at Gray. “There’s still a few minutes before dinner. Why don’t we get some fresh air and discuss that other matter?” And he winked.

Gray’s eyes widened. He started to move, then stopped and looked at the High Lord. “Sir?”

“We’re done here, so you two go on.”

When Daemon and Gray left, Saetan fixed his attention on Cassidy, and Theran felt sorry for her. After all, she’d just wanted to get rid of those awful spots and look a little better. It wasn’t her fault Gray had gotten fixated on the damn things.

“I didn’t know,” Cassidy said in a small voice.

“Now you do,” Saetan said in that implacable voice.

Cassidy brushed her fingers against one cheek. “Maybe . . .”

“Witchling, if you really think that boy isn’t going to notice if a single freckle is missing, then you have not been paying attention.”

The whiplash without the velvet coating.

Theran winced.

Jaenelle squared her shoulders. “If you gentlemen will excuse us, my Sisters and I need a few minutes to settle before dinner.”

Saetan tipped his head in a bow and walked out of the room.

Lucivar kissed his wife’s head and left the room, giving Theran no choice but to follow him to another sitting room.

“I need some air,” Lucivar said. “How about you?”

Theran shook his head.

As Lucivar opened a glass door that led to some kind of courtyard, Theran said, “I guess the High Lord wouldn’t have lashed at them like that if Lady Angelline had still been the Queen of Ebon Askavi.”

Lucivar gave him an odd look. “Then you would have guessed wrong.”

CHAPTER 23 - KAELEER

CHAPTER 23

KAELEER

No sex tonight, Daemon thought as he took off his robe and slipped into bed. Propped up on one elbow, he studied Jaenelle’s face. She’d been broody and unhappy all the way home, and it didn’t look like her mood had changed.

“Well, things didn’t go too badly,” he said.

Jaenelle made a sound that was one part laugh and two parts disbelief. “What dinner party were you at tonight?”

“The point of the evening was to give Gray a foundation for interacting with a Kaeleer Queen, and in that, I think we did quite well.”

Her eyes widened. “I created an illusion spell to give Cassie more confidence about her looks and ended up scaring Gray out of half his wits, and also managed to stomp on Papa’s toes hard enough to have him angry with me twice, and you think we did well?”