CHAPTER THREE

ZANE

Asterin stood stiffly, her hands fisted in her skirt, as if she would rather be anywhere else but here. A sentiment I could well appreciate.

A fifty-something man stepped up beside Asterin. Rigel, her handler, for lack of a better word. His light brown hair was brushed back from his forehead, revealing dark brown eyes and skin that was more ruddy than tan, as if he’d spent just a few minutes too long in the scorching summer sun. His short, muscled body was poured into a dark brown tailcoat that made him look like a mushroom desperately straining to catch a ray of Asterin’s radiance.

For the last several weeks, Rigel had been negotiating with my grandmother about which events Asterin and I would attend, if we would sit at the same table, how many times we would dance together, and the like. All our interactions were planned and preapproved, right down to our favorite refreshments. Fun fact: Asterin hated coconut and rhubarb, as did I.

It was all common practice among Imperium Regals looking to officially tie their offspring together, but these negotiations had been much slower and far more delicate and detailed than most, since Asterin was a member of Erzton society.

Marriages and other alliances were not all that common between the two groups, and if Beatrice and Rigel managed to force Asterin and me together, we would be a blueprint, of sorts, for other Regals and Erztonians to follow. Something else that soured my stomach. Regal marriages were often little more than business transactions between Houses, but a small part of me had always hoped that I would at least care about whatever woman I eventually married.

You are totally mad for her, aren’t you? My own mocking voice drifted through my mind, along with Kyrion’s earnest reply: Mad doesn’t even begin to describe it.

Kyrion had said that about Vesper when he and I had been taking the elevator to the Crownpoint throne room before the midnight ball. At first, I’d scoffed at his confession. How could Kyrion Caldaren ever truly care about anyone other than himself? He was an Imperium Arrow, a moon-cold killer, a bloody proper villain, the same as me. But the certainty in his voice had made me reconsider everything I thought I’d known about my old enemy.

Then, later, in the throne room, I’d seen Kyrion’s desperation when he’d been trying to reach Vesper. Even after Dargan Byrne had severely wounded him, Kyrion had done everything in his power to protect Vesper as the two of them had fought their way through the palace. Most people probably would have chalked up his concern to their truebond, since the common theory was that if one person in a bond died, the other person would also soon perish. But Kyrion’s raw emotions had hammered against my telempathy again and again, like a throbbing toothache I couldn’t ignore, and I’d realized the truth of the matter.

Somehow, some way, Kyrion Caldaren had stumbled into a truebond with someone he genuinely cared about. The fact that he was connected to my sister was the bitter icing on a tea cake of sour irony.

Perhaps it was our perpetual rivalry, but a tiny part of me couldn’t help but want what Kyrion had—someone who was willing to do anything, risk anything, for him. Although given how much Asterin openly despised me, and my mutual dislike of her, the chances of the two of us forming such a connection were as remote as the blue moons rising in the evening sky.

Beatrice spotted Rigel. She waved at him and started skirting through the crowd toward the handler, who headed in her direction. Asterin watched the two of them for a moment, then spun around and hurried in the opposite direction.

A reluctant smile tugged at the corners of my lips. My sentiments exactly.

Asterin glided through the crowd, nodding and smiling at everyone she passed, but she didn’t engage anyone in conversation. Instead, her eyes narrowed as she studied the groups of Regals, as if she was taking the same mental notes about who was talking to whom that I had cataloged earlier. She also paused to study the guards stationed around the lawn, just as I had done.

Asterin Armas might be an Erzton lady, but I had the sneaking suspicion she was also a spy.

But whom she was spying for? The Erzton? Someone else? Or did she devote her intelligence efforts to further her family’s House, position, and fortune, as I did mine?

Either way, I didn’t—couldn’t—trust her, which further fueled my dislike and disdain. I already had enough enemies to deal with. I didn’t need to willingly invite another one into my House and my family, much less into my bed. I’d voiced such concerns to my grandmother numerous times, but so far, Beatrice had refused to listen to reason.

Asterin turned away from the guards and moved over to a refreshment table near the edge of the lawn. She glanced around for a few seconds, then picked up a fluted glass filled with dark purple liquid. Elderberry punch. Despicable stuff. The syrupy-sweet drink always reminded me of the homemade cough syrup that Wendell had forced me to drink whenever I had the slightest hint of a mild cold as a child.

Asterin sniffed the drink and crinkled her nose, but she didn’t set the glass down. My eyes narrowed. Elderberry punch wasn’t on the list of her favorite refreshments, but she had deliberately picked that glass out of a row of far more palatable punches. I would have bet every single credit in my trust fund that her grabbing that particular drink was a signal to someone. What was Asterin plotting?

Two women sidled out of the crowd and headed over to Asterin. The first woman was wearing a tight gold-sequined gown that brought out her ebony skin, along with her dark brown hair and eyes. Tivona Winslow, the new head of Quill Corp, Vesper’s company.

The second woman was much shorter, with light brown skin, hazel eyes, and a sleek bob of black hair that glistened like polished onyx in the evening twilight. She was wearing a feminine version of the traditional Regal tailcoat in a pale, rosy pink, and a stormsword with a gold hilt dangled from the thin gold belt cinched around her waist. Leandra Ferrum, a strong psion and one of the best warriors from House Ferrum, which produced high-quality staffs, crossbows, and other old-fashioned weapons that were often enhanced with lunarium and other minerals.

Tivona and Leandra were clutching glasses of the same foul elderberry punch as Asterin, although all three women set their untouched drinks down on the refreshment table and started speaking in low voices.

Ding! Holloway messaged me again. Have you started questioning people yet? I want answers, not excuses.

Well, Holloway wasn’t the only one who wanted answers, and for once, I was going to do exactly as he commanded. I stowed my tablet away, plastered another smile on my face, and strutted over to the three women. Party crashing was one of my favorite pastimes as a Regal, right up there with ferreting out information.

“Ladies!” I called out, swaggering my way in between Tivona and Leandra. “So lovely to see you all here tonight.”

Tivona let out a derisive snort and crossed her arms over her chest.

“Zane,” Leandra drawled, her sardonic tone making her crisp Corios accent more pronounced than usual. “You’re looking as ostentatious as ever.”

I held my arms out wide and spun around, making my tailcoat flap against my legs. “Is there any other way for such a glorious creature as myself to look?”

“Not if you’re a blasted peacock,” Asterin muttered.

“I’ve always been extremely fond of peacocks. We have a whole flock of them in the gardens at Castle Zimmer. They’re so delightfully proud and colorful.” I smirked at her. “They can also be quite vicious if you don’t know how to properly handle them.”

Asterin arched an eyebrow. “Oh, I think I could handle you with ease, Lord Zane.”

“Perhaps we’ll find out, Lady Asterin.”

My voice came out a little lower and huskier than I intended, and an unexpected spark of heat flared deep in my chest. Asterin blinked, and for a moment, a bit of awareness, of interest, seemed to flicker in her silvery eyes, but the emotion vanished as quickly as it appeared. In an instant, she had morphed back into a cold, remote moon goddess.

I turned to Tivona. “I’m glad I ran into you, Ms. Winslow. I wanted to speak to you about your former boss, Vesper Quill.”

All three women stiffened as though I’d just dropped a solar grenade at their feet. Tivona’s arms plummeted to her sides, Leandra’s fingers curled around the golden hilt of her stormsword, and Asterin slipped her hand into a pocket hidden in her voluminous skirt.

I cranked up the wattage on my smile, as if I didn’t notice their sudden tension—or weapons. “As the new head of the Arrows, I’ve been tasked by Callus Holloway to track down Vesper, along with Kyrion Caldaren. I was hoping you could help me with that.”

Tivona huffed out an aggravated breath. “As I have told the Imperium investigators numerous times, I had no idea that Vesper had a truebond with Kyrion, much less that she planned to escape from Imperium custody. As the new head of Quill Corp, I have cut off Vesper’s access to company technology, products, and funds, as ordered by the Imperium.” She lifted her chin. “I have followed all of Callus Holloway’s orders to the letter of the law. I don’t know what more I can do.”

“Letter of the law? Yeah, that’s about right, considering you’ve given the bare minimum of information to the Imperium investigators,” I replied. “But then again, you are a highly skilled negotiator, Ms. Winslow. You’re good at bending the law to suit your own purposes.”

Tivona frowned. “Is that an insult or a compliment?”

“Both,” I continued in a cheerful voice. “Now, do us all a favor and tell me where Vesper and Kyrion are. I’m very good at being an Arrow, and I’ll find them sooner or later. Why not speed up that long, tedious process? Think of the time, energy, and resources you’ll save me and the other Arrows. Why, Callus Holloway might even anoint you a Regal lady for your loyal service to the Imperium.”

Tivona’s features remained smooth, but fury flared in her gaze, and the same emotion rolled off her and scorched my face, as though she was shooting red-hot lasers out of her eyes. My telekinesis was much stronger than my telempathy, so I didn’t usually sense other people’s emotions so vividly. Not like Kyrion did. Perhaps that was why he was such a broody bastard, having to experience everyone else’s feelings all the bloody time.

“As I said before, I have done everything as required by Imperium law,” Tivona replied in a calm voice, despite the hot fury still rolling off her. “If you have a problem with that, file a formal complaint against me.”

“But you don’t agree with Imperium law. You don’t think Vesper and Kyrion should be brought back to Corios.”

Tivona huffed again. “So Holloway can try to siphon off their magic again? Of course not. It’s a barbaric law, one that he engineered to benefit himself, and we all know it.”

She was right. The law that any truebonded couple in the Imperium was to be delivered to Holloway was barbaric, cruel, and evil, and I could understand why Kyrion had risked everything to save Vesper and break free of Holloway’s crushing grip. He hadn’t wanted to be a psionic battery for the greedy siphon the way his parents had been for years. Kyrion might have avoided that gruesome trap for now, but it could still be his fate—and Vesper’s too—if someone captured them before I did.

“It might be barbaric, but it is the law, and as the head of the Arrows, I am duty-bound to follow the law.” I smiled again. “To the letter.”

Tivona’s lips curled back into a disgusted sneer at my quip, and she shook her head. “I still can’t believe that you are—”

She cut off her words, but my telepathy let me hear the rest of her loud, strong thought—that you are Vesper’s brother.

A dagger twisted in my gut. Somehow the words never got any easier to hear.

It didn’t surprise me that Tivona knew my secret, and I was sure that Leandra and Asterin knew it as well, since the three of them had helped Vesper and Kyrion escape from Crownpoint. Asterin had attended the midnight ball as herself, while Tivona and Leandra had dressed up like Imperium soldiers and snuck into the palace, as had Daichi Hirano and his uncle, Touma Hirano, a disgraced spelltech who built, sold, and traded all sorts of illegal products on Corios’s booming black market.

Daichi and Touma were still on Corios, hiding out in the industrial part of the city in an abandoned warehouse they thought no one knew about. I’d found them three days after the midnight ball, and I’d been keeping track of them ever since on the off chance they might lead me to Vesper and Kyrion.

Tivona kept glaring at me, that disgusted look still on her face, as though I was a cockroach who wasn’t worthy of being Vesper’s brother. She was probably right about that.

Once again, everyone knew my family’s secret, but no one was brave or brash or reckless enough to actually talk to me about it. My tongue itched with the urge to ask Tivona what Vesper thought of our connection, but I plastered yet another smile on my face and slipped back into my patented Zane Zimmer persona, donning it like a suit of armor to shield myself from any more verbal slings and arrows that might come my way. Too bad it couldn’t block out my own troubled thoughts.

“Can’t believe I’m what? So handsome? So charming? So utterly irresistible?” I winked at her.

Tivona narrowed her eyes, even more fury sparking in her dark gaze, the emotion hot enough to make a few beads of sweat pop out on the back of my neck.

“Humdrum, perhaps,” Leandra drawled. “Condescending, certainly. Arrogant, absolutely.”

I gasped and clutched a hand to my heart. “Humdrum? You wound me, fair lady. To the core.”

“Your rotten core.” Leandra gave me a thin, sharp smile. “Besides, if I ever truly wounded you, then you would know it, Zane.”

I grinned and gestured at her stormsword. “Anytime you want to spar, my training ring at House Zimmer is always open. Why, it would be an honor to host such an accomplished warrior from House Ferrum.”

Leandra studied me with suspicion, but my compliment was quite genuine. Leandra Ferrum was one of the best fighters I had ever seen, and her stormsword and psionic abilities made her just as dangerous as I was.

“Don’t invite me to your training ring unless you want to be thoroughly beaten,” she warned.

I winked at her as well. “It’s a date, fair lady.”

Leandra rolled her eyes in response.

I turned to Asterin, who was still studying me with cool detachment. I winked at her too, but her expression didn’t change, and a strange urge rose in me to think of just the right thing to say to crack through her ice-queen persona.

“Asterin! There you are!” Rigel joined our group.

“Hello, Rigel!” I clapped him on the shoulder as though I was absolutely delighted to see him and not silently cursing his presence.

Despite my hearty gesture, Rigel didn’t move a single inch, as if I hadn’t even touched him. He smiled at me, his face a benign mask, but his dark brown eyes were cold and assessing, and his arm flexed as though he wanted to snatch my hand off his shoulder and break my fingers one by one.

Rigel might ostensibly be a social handler, but I was willing to bet that he was also a Hammer, one of the Erzton’s elite fighters. Asterin’s mother and stepfather, Verona and Aldrich Collier, were among the leaders of the Erzton, and they wouldn’t send their daughter into Imperium territory without some sort of protection. Although I got the sense that Asterin was more than capable of taking care of herself.

Her hand was still firmly entrenched in her pocket, and I was willing to bet she had some small weapon squirreled away in there. Perhaps she would whip out a blaster and end our unwanted engagement before it even began. Being shot dead by one’s potential fiancée would certainly be humiliating, but on the bright side, it would put an end to all my problems, especially what to do about Vesper and Kyrion.

Rigel raised his eyebrows at Asterin in a sharp, pointed expression. Asterin’s lips puckered, as though she had just bitten into something sour, but she tipped her head to Tivona and Leandra.

“Lovely to see you both again,” she replied in a smooth voice. “I look forward to continuing our conversation later in the evening.”

Tivona and Leandra murmured their good-byes, then walked away. Tivona glanced back over her shoulder, her worried gaze darting back and forth between Asterin and me.

I reached out with my power, trying to hear the thoughts of all three women. Like many other psions, I was capable of telepathy, although I used that ability far less than my telekinesis, which was my strongest skill. If I couldn’t charm someone with my words or kill them with my stormsword, then I saw no need to listen to their cumbersome thoughts. For the most part, I simply ignored such whispers, although loud, vivid thoughts and feelings could still tweak my psionic senses, like Tivona’s earlier disgusted musing about my being Vesper’s brother.

But right now, I needed information about Vesper and Kyrion, so I deliberately stretched out with my telepathy, studying each woman in turn. All I sensed from Asterin and Leandra was soft silence, but that was no surprise. Most of the time, I didn’t bother trying to eavesdrop on other psions, since they either shielded their minds or their power naturally canceled out my own. But the thoughts of regular humans like Tivona were much easier to sense, so I focused on her.

We’re fine, her thought whispered through my mind. Zane can’t possibly know about our arrangements.

What arrangements had Tivona made with Asterin? Perhaps their little tête-à-tête hadn’t been about Vesper after all. Or at least, not entirely about Vesper. Perhaps as the new head of Quill Corp, Tivona was secretly negotiating some business deal with Asterin and the Erzton.

I made a mental note to dig even deeper into Quill Corp’s finances, along with those of Asterin and her family. Beatrice might claim that the Colliers admired the House Zimmer name, fortune, and connections, but the Erztonians’ dogged determination to snare me like a rabbit in a trap made me highly suspicious. Noble games aside, there had to be some deep, dark reason the Colliers wanted to form an alliance with House Zimmer, especially given Asterin’s intense dislike of me.

Beatrice was lurking a few feet behind Rigel. She stared at me, then tilted her head toward the dance floor. I bit back a groan. Suspicions or not, right now, there was no escaping my grandmother’s machinations.

I looked at Rigel. “I was just about to ask Lady Asterin to dance. If that meets with your approval?”

Rigel grunted his assent, so I turned to Asterin and held out my hand. She bit her lower lip, once again clearly wanting to be anywhere other than here, but she reluctantly placed her hand in mine.

Despite the humid summer night, her fingers were cool, and I curled my hand around hers, trying to bring some warmth to her soft skin. Asterin tensed, but she didn’t pull away.

I led her onto the pink tile floor that had been set up on the grass, and a few other Regals who were already dancing moved aside to make room for us. Fergus was dancing with an older woman from House Gonzalo, and he gave me a knowing grin as Asterin and I stepped toward each other. I glowered at my friend in return, but Fergus just chuckled and spun his partner around.

Several musicians were perched on a nearby hoverdais, and their loud, lively reel slowed into a soft, sedate waltz. The bulbs strung through the tops of the honeysuckle bushes dimmed, their warm pink glows fading to a cool white, signaling the official start of the solstice ball.

Asterin stared fixedly at a spot over my shoulder, but I looked straight at her. Delicate eyebrows, high cheekbones, heart-shaped lips. She was much lovelier than I remembered from our last tense encounter after the midnight ball when we’d hurled insults and accusations at each other. Or perhaps that was just the romantic atmosphere rubbing off on me, along with the earlier echoes of my father talking about how much he had loved my mother. I had always been a sucker for a grand love story.

Perhaps that was one of the reasons Asterin annoyed me so much—because we would never have the kind of deep mutual care, concern, love, and respect that my parents had shared. Perhaps it was greedy or selfish or even old-fashioned, but I didn’t want to settle for anything less than complete trust and true happiness, not even to secure my House’s future.

“Why do you keep staring at me?” Asterin snapped, finally looking at me. “Do I have something in my teeth? Is the color of my lipstick not to his lordship’s liking? Or am I not cooing and fawning a proper amount over the high and mighty Zane Zimmer?”

I bit back a sigh. We couldn’t even get through a simple dance in uncomfortable silence. Still, animosity or not, this was a Regal ball, and I had a role to play, even for a woman who hated me.

“You look beautiful tonight,” I said in a cheerful voice. “Then again, you always look beautiful.”

Annoyance flickered across Asterin’s face. “I suppose you expect me to say how handsome you are in return.”

“That is the expected nicety and common reciprocity.”

She huffed. “Reciprocity? This whole thing is reciprocity.”

“Marriages often are, among the Regals.”

She huffed again, the sound even more caustic and derisive than before. “Among the Erztonians too, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

“Then why are you here? Why not tell your parents that you don’t want to enter into a marriage contract? Or find another Regal lord whom you can at least tolerate? Surely you have other options.”

“It’s complicated. And unfortunately, I have only bad options.” She muttered the last few words.

A soft chime of confirmation rang through my mind. I wasn’t a seer like Vesper, but sometimes my psionic instincts whispered that certain things were true or particular events would come to pass, no matter how outlandish or unlikely they might seem. And right now, my power was agreeing that Asterin had only bad options, which made me even more suspicious and wary. What kind of trouble was she in?

I arched an eyebrow. “I’m a bad option? What a wonderful compliment. I can honestly say no one has ever called me that before.”

She rolled her eyes. “Could you try to be serious for one moment?”

“Ah, but there’s nothing more serious than a dance with you, Lady Asterin. The mere endeavor is fraught with peril. Especially given our audience.”

I tilted my head to the side, and she tracked the motion over to Rigel, who was standing beside Beatrice. The two of them had raised their punch glasses to their lips to hide their conversation, but no doubt it revolved around Asterin and me and how soon they could shackle us together.

Asterin muttered a rather colorful curse and glowered in their direction, her silver eyes sparking with heat. Ah, so some hidden fire was buried deep inside the ice queen. What other secrets was she keeping? A surprising urge filled me to uncover them all, even if such an endeavor would only bring more trouble into my already troubled life.

As a Regal lord, and especially as an Arrow, I was good at sizing people up, at figuring out what they wanted, how far they would go to reach their objective, and how much misery they would cause me along the way. Most people fell into three categories: tentative allies, obvious enemies, or dangerous threats to eliminate immediately. So far, Asterin had avoided all my attempts to figure out which one she truly was, which further annoyed me.

I spun Asterin around and away, then drew her back toward me. The motion surprised her, and she stumbled forward. Her hands landed on my shoulders, her fingers digging into my back as she steadied herself.

“It’s a good thing you aren’t wearing mechanical claws like some of the Erzton Hammers are fond of donning in battle,” I drawled. “Or I would be sporting some very deep scratches.”

“If my nails were that sharp, I wouldn’t waste time scratching you,” Asterin cooed right back at me. “I’d go for a quick, decisive slice across your neck.”

“You would actually cut my throat and murder me on the dance floor?” I grinned. “How delightfully vicious. Although you’d get blood all over your lovely gown.”

She shrugged one shoulder. “A little blood would be worth putting an end to you and this sham of an engagement our families are trying to force us into.”

Perhaps I was going about this the wrong way. Perhaps Asterin and I could help each other—and then never have to see each other again.

“There is a way for you to be free of me, and for me to also get what I want.”

Asterin regarded me with a wary expression. “What are you proposing?”

Proposing? The mere mention of the word made me shudder with revulsion, but I kept my voice light and cheerful. “I will tell my grandmother that I will never marry you, no matter what she threatens.”

Her expression sharpened. “And in return?”

I gave her my most charming smile. “And in return, all you have to do is tell me where Vesper and Kyrion are.”

Her face remained calm, but her fingers dug into my back again. So she did know where they were. Excellent. Now all I had to do was pry the information out of her.

“Let me get this straight. You will fight any potential engagement or alliance with my family if I rat out Vesper and Kyrion?” She shook her head. “You really think I’ll give in to your petty blackmail? You really think I’ll betray my friends just to get what I want? You’re even more of a callous, clueless jackass than I thought.”

I shrugged off her insults. “It’s neither blackmail nor a betrayal. You wish to be free of me, and I want to complete my Arrow mission. It’s a win-win.”

Her mouth gaped, and she stared at me like I was some vile villain she had never encountered before. Then anger sparked in her gaze, making her eyes glint as brightly as the stars above. Disgust surged off her and punched into my chest like a red-hot hammer.

“You’re despicable!” she hissed.

“Despicable but effective.”

Asterin’s jaw snapped shut. She dug her fingers even deeper into my back, and for a moment, I thought she might shove me away, or slap me, or both. Then her fingers relaxed, and she tilted her head to the side, studying me as though she was trying to suss out my secrets the same way I was trying to uncover hers. “What are you going to do about Vesper and Kyrion?”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“You didn’t answer mine,” she retorted.

We glared at each other. All around us, the other Regals kept dancing. Asterin and I followed their movements, our steps and bodies stiff with anger.

After several seconds of mutual glowering silence, I huffed out a breath. “I will do exactly what I told you, Tivona, and Leandra. I will find Vesper and Kyrion and bring them back to Corios.”

“You know, after you let Kyrion wound you during the midnight ball so he and Vesper could escape from the throne room, I thought there might be a teeny-tiny sliver of decency buried deep, deep, deep down inside you.” Asterin shook her head again. “But there’s no hope for you, is there, Zane?”

“Decidedly not,” I chirped. “Especially since I have no idea what you’re talking about. Kyrion wounded me fair and square, and I plan to return the favor and gut him like a guppy the next time I see him.”

Asterin snorted, clearly not believing my lies. She was right. I had let Kyrion wound me that night to make his and Vesper’s escape easier, but I would never admit it to anyone, especially not her.

“You saw what Vesper and Kyrion did at Crownpoint,” she said, a thoughtful note creeping into her voice. “How much raw power they have. They practically ripped the throne room to pieces with their truebond. Do you really think you can capture them? A lone psion with questionable intelligence?”

I shrugged again. “As I said before, I’m very good at being an Arrow.”

“A cold-blooded killer,” she countered, her lips curling back into a sneer. “One of Callus Holloway’s pet assassins.”

“Most definitely a killer and absolutely an assassin. Just like Kyrion.”

Asterin sneered at me again. “You are nothing like Kyrion. He has one important thing you don’t. Honor.”

I scoffed. “Honor is severely overrated. All it does is let your enemies take advantage of you. Honor gets you killed, nothing more, nothing less.”

She grimaced, but for once, she didn’t disagree with me. Instead, her face darkened, and her shoulders drooped, as though someone’s honor had caused her a great deal of pain. Who had hurt her so badly?

An uncomfortable needle of sympathy pricked my heart, but I ignored the small, niggling sting. Sympathy was something else that would only get you taken advantage of and then promptly killed. Like my sympathy for Vesper and Kyrion, which was the source of many of my current problems—

Ding! My tablet chimed with another message from Holloway, but this time, I ignored the device.

I spun Asterin around and away, following the pattern of the dance, before drawing her back to me again. “But you’re right about one thing. I’m nothing like Kyrion.” I grinned. “For starters, I’m much more handsome and infinitely more charming.”

She snorted again. “Well, you’re certainly more arrogant.” She tilted her head to the side, her lips puckering in thought. “Are you really that shallow, Zane? Doesn’t it bother you at all? What Callus Holloway does to truebonded pairs? What if you were Kyrion? What would you do?”

Anything to protect my partner. The thought whispered through my mind, and the truth of it startled me. Once again, Asterin was right. Truebond or not, if I ever cared about someone as much as Kyrion did about Vesper, then I would do everything in my power to protect that person.

Another memory flickered through my mind. Kyrion staring at Vesper in the throne room, his gaze fierce and adoring and filled with the threat of extreme pain and brutal death for anyone stupid enough to try to separate him from her. But the most surprising thing was Vesper looking back at him the exact same way, as if she cared just as much about the former Arrow as he did about her . . .

“My mother and stepfather have a truebond,” Asterin said.

Her low, tight voice shattered the memory, and I blinked, coming back to the here and now. I already knew that from Beatrice’s research, as well as my own inquiries, but this was the first time Asterin had directly mentioned her family’s bond to me.

“Is that why you’re so concerned about Vesper and Kyrion? Because you’re worried that Holloway will someday try to siphon off your family’s power?”

“Yes,” she confessed. “And because Vesper and Kyrion are my friends, and I don’t want any harm to come to them.”

“Oh, yes. I read the reports about how Vesper and Kyrion helped you stop a Techwave attack at the Regenwald Resort you own on Tropics 33.” I clucked my tongue. “Foolish of them. If they hadn’t stopped to assist you, then the other Arrows and I might have never caught up with them. Vesper and Kyrion could have disappeared to some distant planet, never to be seen or heard from again, instead of now being the two most wanted and notorious fugitives in the Archipelago Galaxy.”

“Vesper and Kyrion saved hundreds, probably thousands, of lives by helping me defeat the Techwavers at the resort.” More anger and disgust filled Asterin’s face. “They did the right thing, something you would know absolutely nothing about.”

“Right is a relative concept that depends entirely on how much someone screws you over. Funny how doing the right thing so often involves getting exactly what you want, usually at the expense of someone else.”

Asterin rolled her eyes again, but after a few seconds, her disdain melted away, and a calculating expression filled her face. “What are you really going to do about Vesper?”

“I really think I’ve answered this question already.”

“Don’t play dumb with me. You know exactly what I mean, Zane. You have a . . . connection to Vesper.”

“Yes, I do, and yet no one seems to be able to actually say the bloody words to me,” I replied, a snarl creeping into my voice. “Especially not my grandmother and my father. They haven’t even admitted it to me yet.”

The confession slipped through my lips, and I ground my teeth to shut myself up. The last thing I needed to do was start spilling secrets, especially to someone as untrustworthy as Asterin.

She blinked in surprise. “They’re keeping Vesper a secret from you?”

I gave her a curt nod, not trusting myself to speak without revealing even more of my anger and disgust.

Her face softened the tiniest bit. “I know what it’s like to be kept in the dark about something so important,” she replied in a low voice. “When other people make decisions based on what they think is right or best or good for you, instead of letting you decide for yourself.”

We stared at each other, and something flared between us, some small sparks of understanding and commiseration that melted through the icy artifices we were showing to everyone else—and especially to each other.

“Oh, yes,” I agreed, even more anger creeping into my voice. “It is quite annoying to be kept in the dark, and it is getting on my last bloody nerve.”

Asterin’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Why? Are you worried Vesper will threaten your position? Usurp your role as the heir to House Zimmer? Take your title and riches away from you?”

Her snide assumptions about my supposed petty jealousy further fueled my anger. “No,” I snarled. “I’m not worried about Vesper taking anything away from me.”

“Then what are you so upset about?”

“Not what—who.”

“Okay, if it’s not Vesper, then who are you so upset with, Zane?”

“My grandmother,” I snarled again. “Because she already took something away—she took Vesper away from me.”

Once again, the confession slipped through my lips, even as the hard truth of my words slammed straight into my heart. I was angry at my grandmother—angrier than I had ever been at her before.

Beatrice had schemed and plotted and moved me around like a pawn my entire life, and I had let her because it was all part of the Regal game. My grandmother had always insisted her actions were for the greater good of our family, but keeping the secret of Vesper from my father and me hadn’t been for the greater good. Oh, Beatrice might claim it had been to protect House Zimmer, but really, all it had done was serve her own selfish need to squash the potential scandal and hang on to her exalted status among the Regals.

Asterin’s eyebrows shot up in surprise, as though I’d said something wholly unexpected. With anyone else, I could be Zane Zimmer, self-absorbed Regal lord and arrogant idiot Arrow. But not with her, not about this.

Asterin eyed me as though I was a rabid sand lion, and she wasn’t sure if I was going to rear up and bite her or not. She slowly leaned forward and lowered her voice. “Vesper is your sister, Zane. You decide how you feel about her, not your grandmother. Just like you decide what to do about her, not Callus Holloway.”

“Don’t you think I know that?” I snapped.

“Then start acting like it,” she snapped right back at me.

We stopped dancing, both of us glaring at each other.

Another couple jostled into Asterin from behind, propelling her forward into my arms. Her body bumped up against mine, her softer curves melting into my harder planes. The subtle scent of her soap flooded my nose, smelling tart and sweet, like summer blackberries. My anger vanished, and something hot, hungry, and wholly unexpected erupted in my chest, like a dragon breathing fire deep inside me.

Asterin froze, her gaze locking with mine. Her lips parted, and I suddenly wondered what they tasted like, what she tasted like—

The same clumsy couple jostled us again, this time knocking Asterin out of my arms. She stumbled, and I gripped her elbow until she steadied herself. We faced each other again. All around us, the other couples slowed their dance steps as the music wound down.

“My offer still stands,” I said. “Tell me where Vesper and Kyrion are, and I’ll put an end to our families’ scheming. You have my word.”

“Your word is as empty as all your other pretty promises.” She jerked her elbow out of my light grip. “I don’t care what our families are plotting. You’re arrogant and infuriating and swagger around like an overconfident peacock. I will never get engaged to you, just like I will never tell you anything about Vesper and Kyrion.”

“And you’re cold and remote and distant as a Frozon moon,” I growled right back at her. “Someone is going to find Vesper and Kyrion sooner or later. So do us both a favor and tell me where they are.”

Her eyes narrowed, and she tilted her head to the side again, as though she was seeing much more than I wanted her to, much more than I ever wanted anyone to see. “Our mutual disdain aside, you should figure out what you want to do, Zane, instead of doing what everyone else expects and demands of you. Maybe you’ll have better blasted luck with it than I have.”

A grim, lopsided smile split her lips, but the expression quickly iced over into another cold glower.

“Either way, Vesper is a good person, and she deserves far better than the likes of you.”

Asterin gave me a stiff, shallow curtsy, the bare minimum that protocol dictated and not an inch lower. Then she whirled around and vanished into the crowd, leaving me standing alone on the dance floor.