Page 10 (1/2)

Sadi pulled out a chair and sat down across from him Within moments Beale poured a cup of coffee for the Prince and, without asking, fixed a plate of food for the man

"It will be ready in a few , Sadi reached for the cup of black coffee

Undercurrents Any nize theue ca--in Beale’s voice The same concern Theran had heard in older er ames And there was a ht the butler would actually lay a cons and knehat they h--or foolish enough--to twist up a Black-Jeweled Warlord Prince?

Sadi’s wife

That first exchange he’d witnessed between Lady Angelline and Sadi had left no doubt that Daemon’s attention became focused exclusively on her whenever she entered a rooured it was because they were still in their first year of hts didn’t stray too far froelline? He’d heard of Sadi--who hadn’t heard stories about the Sadist?--but the Prince’s wife, the adopted daughter of the former Warlord Prince of Dhemlan, was a Queen who didn’t have a court and didn’t rule anywhere that he could tell, not even the little village just down the road from the Hall She wore a Jewel so peculiar he’d never seen its like before And everything about her outside of her life here at SaDiablo Hall was off-limits in terms of questions or conversation Sadi had made that very clear when the three of theht

The other thing that was beco clear was that no uests, no matter how Sadi was presented as the doht, she had a Warlord Prince by the balls and wasn’t afraid to squeeze

Which brought hi to have to negotiate with Lady Angelline instead of Prince Sadi

Then he looked up and realized those sleepy gold eyes were focused on hihts had wandered--and he had the terrifying feeling that Sadi was analyzing hiht down to the last drop of blood and the s over the table, along with an unspoken warning: Keep your hands, and your thoughts, away froht as Dae in the doorway

Beale nodded once

Daemon pushed his chair back, hesitated a moment, then called in a sheet of paper and dropped it on the table

"Those are the tero to Dena Nehele," Daeive me your decision later"

Theran waited until Daeh of relief

Maybe if he told the butler he was going to take a walk around the estate, he could catch the Winds and reach the Keep before anyone realized he was gone Maybe he could persuade that Hayllian librarian to help hiet back to Terreille

Maybe you can throay the one chance you’ll have of finding soht be able to help your people If you run away now, you run away from everyone Jared and Blaed wouldn’t have run They would have been scared--Hell’s fire, they weren’t stupid--but they wouldn’t have run

And neither would he

Resigned to that much,Theran picked up the sheet of paper to look at the ter the loaded breakfast tray, Daemon paused outside the bedroom door

Control it, damn you Lock it away Keep it leashed

He was Daeelline This , that was all he was All he would allow himself to be

Choked by that leash of self-control, he passed through the bedroo the room When he’d crept out of the rooed the locks and shields to Red, which would have kept Jazen out but allowed Jaenelle to leave He hadn’t So she was still in his bed, tucked under the covers, just as he’d left her

Not quite, he realized as he rounded the bed and saw her She’d gotten up long enough to pull the shift on--and, most likely, to realize that he’d locked her in the Consort’s suite

Her eyes opened He wasn’t sure who stared at hi if I should be very pleased with you or very pissed off at you," she said

Cautiously hopeful, because he hadn’t thought there would be any chance of her being pleased, he raised the tray to catch her attention "I brought you so coffee?"

"Yes" Of course he’d brought coffee He wouldn’t have dared come back into the roo up and comfortably settled before he placed the tray across her lap

A pointed look froe of the bed He didn’t speak while she inspected the contents of the tray

"Vegetable omelet and"--her eyebrows rose as she cut into the other one--"seafood o to convince Mrs Beale to give up so for the midday meal," he said