Page 131 of The Mercy of Dawn

Cyril may have pouted.

“That wasn’t what you were going to suggest, was it?”

“No,” Mikael chuckled. He extended a hand to help her down and ran the other through his hair. “But we shouldn’t be late for dinner. My mother already isn’t impressed with us.”

“…Isn’t impressed with us?”

She tensed, and Mikael’s grimace did nothing to help.

“Yeah…” He rubbed the back of his neck. “She saw us in the hall on the solstice.”

Suddenly, Cyril had no appetite.

Chapter 31

Dinner was less awkward than Cyril expected it to be, and that was unsettling.

She was sure the moment they settled into the small, private dining room inside Runa and Lars’ suite that she and Mikael would both get one hells of a dressing down.

But nothing happened.

Runa hugged them both, got them all seated around the table, and spent their entire meal talking and asking questions about perfectly innocuous things. The family’s hunt before the solstice, Cyril’s trip into Brynnhold, and her first lockmead hangover.

Not a single mention of a certain solstice hallway entanglement.

Now, after a bit of guilt-tripping from the queen, Cyril and Mikael followed her into an adjacent, well-appointed sitting room armed with three glasses and two bottles of wine.

The overstuffed sofa and its periwinkle blue velvet felt like it might swallow Cyril whole, but she wasn’t complaining about it.

“In the spirit of being transparent, I have two things I’d like to offer,” Runa said as she finished pushing open two sets of glass doors, letting the evening breeze sweep in off the terrace. “The first is for both of you, and it’s a bit of advice.”

Mikael paused mid-pour of wine to glance at Cyril, and she was certain he looked as tense as she felt. The damn queen had waited until they had their guard down to corner them.

“And that advice would be…?” Mikael asked warily.

Better him than Cyril.

“Discretion.” Runa sighed as she settled in an armchair opposite them and fixed them both with an unimpressed stare. “Personally, I don’t care what the two of you get up to. You’re both adults, and it isn’t my business. Lars doesn’t care either and, in fact, I think he seemed rather supportive of the entire idea of the two of you. But Dion?” She raised her brow at Cyril and shook her head. “I cannot fathom what would have happened if he had been the one to stumble upon the two of you down each other’s throats that night.”

Cyril’s cheeks burned.

She opened her mouth, but Runa held up her hand. The damned prince just busied himself with his glass of wine.

“I don’t need or want an explanation, apology, or defense from either of you. I would just like the both of you to promise me you will exercise some amount of caution in any of your future…encounters.”

Well, at least all three of them looked equally uncomfortable now.

Cyril and Mikael both nodded.

“Good.” Runa sank back in her chair and took a languid sip of her wine before she fixed her eyes on Cyril. “Now, my second offering. Just for you. When I was giving my son hell yesterday for his deplorable behavior, he mentioned something very…interesting to me.”

In the entire month she’d spent in Reykr so far, Cyril had never seen Mikael look as meek as he did when she glared at him. The prince commander slumped back into his seat, avoiding eye contact.

“What did you—” She looked back at Runa. “What did he say?”

The grin that crept across the queen’s face brought Cyril no comfort.

“My son mentioned that, if given the opportunity, you would have an interest in seeing memories of Malia and Hector?”