where the thorns grow

CHAPTER TWO,

CHAPTER TWO | WHERE THE THORNS GROW

  THERE WERE MANY things that Rhysa Jiang liked: her fan blades, rubies with silver on jewellery, her fellow Iron Wolves (most usually), Ryan's impeccable taste in food... but most definitely not welcome wagons, even if the person they were receiving seemed to be the pinnacle of human kind.

  Constanza Castrillo was polite. She smiled. She curtsied. She lowered her head shyly.

  She was, in Rhys' opinion, boring.

  But who was she to judge? This girl was Danna and Io's proteges, both very interesting people if she was to say so herself. Perhaps she had hidden depth. Or perhaps Danna and Io liked her because she balanced out their attitude problems.

  That might be it.

  But now she was just getting off track.

  Constanza had bushy brown hair, skin a medium shade of copper and bright eyes. She did not have the look of a jaded spy because she wasn't one. She still looked and felt like she was in the first brush of youth—which she was—but comparing her to, say, Io, who was around the same age, the two could not be any more different.

  The point was, Constanza looked and was a fish out of water in this crowd. And Rhys did not want to waste precious time she could be using to figure out something more important—like how she could avoid any social events when the Meliqueans come—showing her around the palace, when one or two people could very well do it themselves.

  Besides her, Dominic seemed to disagree. He combed back his ink black hair, shooting her a glance. "Wipe that constipated expression off your face."

  "Yours first. Oh wait, totally forgot, yours is permanent, Lang."

  "You break my heart, Jiang. Thought you loved my face." He was, well, practically her brother, but she'd also be one of the first people to admit that he was extraordinarily handsome. But he was already conceited enough without having to know that piece of knowledge, though she was pretty sure he was aware of it anyways.

  "Well," she replied tartly, "you're delusional. Not that that's new to either of us. I've known that since the moment I met you around six years ago. Only reason I tolerate you is because you somehow gain sense during missions."

  "Is that it? Or maybe you and I have the same jianshi?'

  She raised and wiggled one finger in the air. "Do not compare me to you. Just do not do that. We're on completely different levels."

  "Didn't stop Zhang daren from assigning us as partners."

  "It's for balance, Dom. Balancing the dumbest one with one of the more capable ones. Bang ni ti ti zhi shuang." Raising your competence. She was being petty. Her arguments made no sense. But it rarely did in their daily bickering matches.

  Ahead of them, Asteria turned, one brow arched. "You two done arguing?"

  Dominic chuckled and replied, "Never, my dear lady."

  Asteria eyed them both—Rhys' impatient stance and Dom's wandering eyes. She said, "You know, we have it handled here. If you want to, you can leave. The daren already left."

  Rhys glanced around. He had. She hadn't noticed. Clumsy of her, but she had been distracted. She quickly bopped a curtsy of gratefulness. "Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you, Asteria. You're a bloody saint. Tell the prince and princess that I've excused myself whenever they're in a slightly better mood."