A Beast's Tale

Chapter 38

 "Clavis," I said, maintaining eye contact with Gilbert as I spoke my brother's name. It was an order, not a greeting, and I knew all present recognized it as such. But although I saw movement from Clavis out of the corner of my eye, he did not stand and come toward me.

"Sorry, Chev. I'm guessing you're here because you think I need help, which I don't. I'm just waiting out the storm and chatting with our friendly worldwide disaster."

The hint of strain in his cheerful voice told me otherwise.

"I am curious why you came in this weather, Chevalier," Gilbert said. "I planned for this eventuality, of course, but something must have transpired to spur you into action." He tilted his head to the side, the corners of his smile curling up a little more as he studied me. "Is the king's regent a little too eager for Clavis' head, perhaps? Or... are you running from something?"

Clavis' laughter echoed around us. "Chev? Run from anything?"

"Strange things have been happening in Rhodolite lately, haven't they?"

Cyran shifted in his seat next to Clavis. The redheaded soldier had nothing to do with Gilbert's insinuations, of course, but he was uncomfortable with the situation.

"I'm not interested in small talk," I told Gilbert. "You disposed of your worthless pawn and tied up your loose ends, and you made your plans with my fool brother. Staying any longer would be a waste of my time and his."

This time, it was Gilbert who laughed. "You never change. Don't you even want to know what we were talking about? I thought your little dove's wellbeing interested you more than that."

He wanted a reaction from me. I gave him one: a smirk and a flippant reply. "I see the foolishness surrounding her has spread even this far."

"'Foolishness'? Ha ha, I suppose so. But any woman who can capture the Brutal Beast's attention is a woman worth watching, and to trigger a feeding frenzy among the noble beasts, too? Other predators are bound to catch the scent and join the hunt. I'll be very interested to meet her at the upcoming goodwill gala—if she's still alive by then, he he."

I didn't recall him laughing this much before, but he seemed to take as much amusement in everything as Clavis did. More. And his mirth was genuine, although Clavis' was often a mask, as it was right now. I knew Clavis had spent their entire conversation trying to downplay Ivetta's importance to me and my brothers and to steer Gilbert to other topics, to no avail.

"I hope your reasons for attending run deeper than a desire to meet a maid."

He shrugged off my mockery. "A painting can convey only so much about a person, no matter how realistic."

My blood ran cold, but I allowed nothing to show in my expression or body language. I'd hidden the second painting of her in my room where she couldn't find it, but the first I'd handed to the librarian with instructions to take it to the vault. If Gilbert had seen it, then either someone had stolen it from the vault, or it had never made it that far.

The librarian was a spy.

And Gilbert wanted me to know that. He was showing me a glimpse of his hand.

Clavis leapt to his feet. "Maybe it is time to go, after all. We should—"

"Confident, aren't we?" I interrupted him, allowing the left corner of my lips to turn up in a smirk. "And I suppose that pawn is well beyond my reach by now."

Gilbert chuckled and tapped his cane on the floor. A signal. "Well beyond all reach. Some artwork is best for private viewing only."

Interesting. "I hope you chose a suitable location for it."