Page 6 of The Night Prince 6

“It’s never just a party, Elasha.”

“Look, I’ve become friends with Cara. She and I… talk. To smooth things over when… you know… our fathers act rashly. You can’t deny that our father sometimes does that when it comes to the Separatists.”

He couldn’t.

She continued, “Well, Cara and I recognized that sometimes cooler heads should prevail. So the two of us have been working together to get the results that are best for everyone. While Duke Rohannan might come off as bombastic, arrogant and unreasonable at times, Cara is nothing like that and…”

It was only then as she burbled on that he realized that he shouldn’t be discouraging her from going to this party. After all, if she left to go to Hope, he highly doubted that anyone would check where he was that day either. In fact, no one might notice he’d left at all and that would be ideal.

“Perhaps you’re right,” he interrupted her flow of words.

She blinked. “What? You think… really?”

“I mean Father has been quite high-handed with the Separatists–perhaps with good reason–but it hasn’t worked so maybe a softer approach may be better,” he answered.

“Oh.” She pinked again. “Well, I think you’d actually like Cara. She’s very smart and–”

“You should go then. Spend the day with her. Eat… food and listen to… loud music. I’m not quite feeling up to it, but you should definitely go. Forget Father’s approbation and the threat of exile to the Lieran Plane!” Her face fell at that so he quickly rushed out, “If we’re going to be making friends with Kindreth, why not Separatists too?” He let out a faint laugh.

His sister eagerly clutched onto his words and nodded eagerly. “I’ve been thinking about this a lot too. I mean… After seeing Illithor, aren’t you amazed at the Kindreth? Not to mention what Declan could do.”

He opened his mouth to scoff at her again and risk her not going to the party. But really how daft could she be?! Kindreth as their friends? Admiring those monsters? She wouldn’t have to imagine how humanity felt if the Kindreth marched to war against them. But then he bit back his sour words as he knew it might delay or even stop her from leaving. He wanted his sister to go to Hope so that he could leave too. But he couldn’t completely hide his concerns.

“I admit it makes me glad that the Kindreth’s focus so far has been on going down into the Under Dark rather than coming up here,” he stated and the urge to learn the Luminerian’s secrets crested within him. If the Kindreth were going to return, the Aravae would need to be able to protect themselves. Again, humanity was the cautionary tale.

“Well, it has been, but now with Prince Declan here… not to mention how connected he and Uncle seem to be–”

“What do you mean?” He asked more sharply than he intended.

She lifted her eyebrows, but then shook her head. “Oh, Darcassan, I guess I shouldn’t expect you to notice these things as love is never on your mind, but–”

“Wait, are you saying that Uncle Aquilan loves the Night Prince?” His voice dropped lower as he said Declan’s title.

“Ah, yes.” She looked at him with amusement mixed with pity.

“How do you know? I realize he made a deal with… with him, but he’d do that for most anyone to save them. Our Uncle is like that,” he insisted.

If Aquilan had feelings for Declan beyond friendship–if he loved Declan–that would be disastrous. Wouldn’t it?

“He is heroic and selfless like that to be sure.” His sister tapped her chin. “But it’s so much more than that. How he looks at Declan. How tender he is when they touch. The way his voice lowers to be soft and sweet.” Then she gave him an almost saucy smile. “Not to mention that Declan is sleeping in Uncle’s bed. If they are sleeping much, I do not know.”

His mouth closed as his arguments against finding such tentative connections were wiped away by the last piece of information. “You held out on me there, sister.”

She giggled. “Yes, well, I wanted you to see that the other things I noticed foretold the latter.”

“You know that Declan and our uncle being together romantically is not a good thing, don’t you?” He cautioned her.

It was her turn to blink. “What? Why?”

“You can’t be serious that you don’t know? I mean the Kindreth are our ancient enemy–”

“And our even longer friends,” she cut in, lifting her chin defiantly.

“You saw what Declan could do!” he pointed out.

“Yes. And?”

“He’s the son. Can you imagine what the father can do?” He shook his head at her innocence.