Page 52 of These Vile Hearts

I scan the room around us. The image of tiny ears implanted into the walls sends a shudder across my shoulders. “I don’t think there are any ears in here.”

“You don’t understand.” His breaths come faster, like he’s on the edge of a panic attack.

“It’s all right, Archer.” I squeeze his ankle gently. “You don’t have to say.”

I realize my mistake right after I make it.

His tree-sap eyes snap to me now, scanning my face in a new way. Like he’s just seeing me. “How did you know my…” His expression shifts from searching to discovery.

“You were at the masque.” He sits up abruptly, dark green hair stuck to the sweat on his forehead. “Golden girl.I knew you looked familiar. Your spots. Your red hair. I danced with you before you were swept away by—”

The sound of a knob turning meets my ears. Seconds later, Archer’s mouth and the door to the room open in unison. A dryad’s form darkens the threshold, unrecognizable until he steps into the candlelight to reveal twisted black horns, a jaw sharper than my dagger, and brown eyes that look like unlit coals in the shadows.

The king’s mouth curls into a pernicious sneer. “I am not interrupting, am I?”

17

Castor

Before me lies a revolting scene.

A pile of gold coins glitters on the bedside table. The lighting of the red room is dim and romantic. Candles in the fireplace, roses on the bureau, chocolates, and untouched wine on a serving tray. Maddox with bloodred lips, wearing a glittering bodice of sapphires, black garter belt and garters clipped to thigh-high stockings.

I feel a flush move over me and rip my gaze from her legs to the sycophantic man who works for my brother, seconds away from blowing my cover.

Archer scrambles to his bare feet faster than a lizard wriggling free of a hawk’s talons. He folds forward into a low bow. “Your Highness.I wasn’t— I didn’t—”

“Leave,” I grind out. “Now.”

“Y-yes, Your Highness.” He bends to snatch his shoes off the floor.

“Leave them,” I say. Archer’s reddening face snaps up, pupils engulfing the amber. I swallow the rancorous laugh crawling up my throat.“Go.”

Relinquishing his shoes, he nods. Maddox watches our exchangefrom the bed with a measured gaze. Then Archer ducks past me, running barefoot through the parlor, past a startled Daisy.

With Tamarind at my heels, I step inside the room, closing the door behind us and casting vines of silence across the threshold. Maddox sits slowly up, brushing her hair back from her forehead. Either she thoroughly re-dressed after whatever they’d just done, or she never removed her clothes in the first place. I resist the urge to ask. After all, she doesn’tknowshe’s meant to fall in love with me.

Her forehead smooths. “I wasn’t finished with him, you know.”

“You never should havebegunwith him.”

Mild annoyance builds to burning fury in her eyes. “Need I remind you a second time that you are not my pimp, Your Majesty?”

My chin lifts at her audacity. If I were Durian, her head would have already left her body for speaking to a king this way. But I am not Durian, so of course I’m just busy forcing my face into anything other than intimidated and uncertain.

And, still, she continues, “You have no say over who I do or do notbeginwith. I’m repaying my debt to you by working for Madam Debray. That was the only stipulation.”

I don’t believe her for a moment. As a self-proclaimed lover of dryad parties, she likely jumped at the chance to play with us even longer. One of those mortal thrill seekers who thrives on adrenaline and danger. That could either help or hinder my endgame.

“I don’t believe that your duties include pleasuring the man my brother hires to capture innocent mortal women—women Durian has his way with before he wipes their memories and leaves them dazed in the forest.”

“Yourbrotherhires?”

My stomach plummets at my own blunder, avoiding Tamarind’s belated warning glance. Yes, I know I’m bad at this. I don’t need to be reminded.

Luckily, I have not drunk quite so much wine as usual, and mymental faculties are able to configure a decent explanation. “Yes…my brother. I may be king, but the prince has his own games he likes to play. None of which are illegal in this kingdom.”

The blood in her cheeks drains. “It’s not illegal to have mortal women brought to your door like they are nothing more than a pizza delivery?”