To Kill A Kingdom | ACOTAR ✔️

Chapter 22 - "What can I say? I'm a secretive woman."

Evette was checking over her people and soldiers despite wanting to just stop and relax. She was mainly doing it to avoid Romulus - what happened between them was not something she was going to dwell on. She was ignoring it, actually. Evette was in the midst of helping the soldiers when she glimpsed Romulus - and then she frowned at what she saw.

There he was, also kissing some other Tattoon woman. It didn't bother her at all - though it did make her feel a little hurt. Perhaps he just kissed people in a form of celebration...she just thought that he had kissed her because he wanted to kiss her. Not to celebrate.

She turned and moved to carry on when she heard a very familiar voice call out to her from behind. "You're alive!" Lucien spoke, making her spin round and grin at the man. "That's good to know."

"Lucien!" Evette grinned, before she moved to join him, and she pulled the man into a hug, wincing as she did, forgetting the still untreated wound. "Gods...I feel like it's been a lifetime since we saw one another properly." She mused to herself that lately she had been seeing more of Eris than Lucien.

"I know. Why do you think I'm here? I wanted to check on you." He told her, and she began to direct them to her tent so they could sit and talk. "I can see you were in the thick of the fighting...you're filthy. I also heard from Feyre that you performed some pretty impressive power. I'm a little disappointed you couldn't have waited for me to arrive. I'm your best friend and I still haven't see the height of your power."

Evette shrugged lightly. "What can I say? I'm a secretive woman." She smiled at the man. "I'm glad you're okay though. That you're alive."

"I'm glad you're okay." He told her, facing her with his eyes wide, the metal one whining gently. "I heard you were kidnapped by Hybern. I also heard about your brother, and I am truly sorry. I know how close you are to your brothers."

Evette shrugged. "Retribution has been given. Julius spent time with Kaladin."

"Kaladin? What's so bad with him?"

"Imagine Azriel, and then imagine a totally pissed off Amarantha." Evette told him, and he nodded. "That's Kaladin. He's a shadowsinger as well...very skilled in it. Not that Azriel isn't." She added on quickly as they entered her tent.

They moved to sit down, and Evette winced sharply and lowered herself down carefully. Lucien looked to her curiously, and in worry. "I was stabbed in the stomach." She waved it off. "I'll call in a healer eventually. So, you have a Mate? Elain, right?"

"Yeah." Lucien smiled softly. "Things are going...well, they're going." He looked at her slyly. "I suppose you'll be seeking one of my brothers out now. I supposed all that joking about my brother hasn't turned out to be a great joke after all." Evette snorted at the memory of that conversation they had in the Spring Court all that time ago. "After all, I hear from Feyre that you and Eris are...well, she didn't really know." He gave her a look. "What exactly are you and Eris?"

"Friends." Evette replied.

"Friends?" Lucien repeated slowly. "I don't think my brother can manage being friends with a woman, let alone anyone. He's too much of a snake to have any friends." Evette disliked the way he spoke about Eris, it was clear he didn't know about what his brother had done for him. She disliked the way he seemed to hate his brother, Evette didn't think Eris deserved this hate.

But she wouldn't say anything - that was between them. Between brothers.

"Be nice." Evette said gently. "He's nice to me, so it's okay."

"Maybe that's because he wants something from you." Lucien said giving her a pointed look. Evette didn't believe him. She knew that were the opportunity to sleep with one another present itself, neither herself or Eris would particularly deny it and throw it away. But she didn't think that was why they talked and why they wrote to one another.