Page 116 of This Shattered Star

“I’ve been tasked with finding both youandmiss Fennhaven, actually, and I haven’t had any luck in finding her either,” he blabbered on.

Kodhan’s irritation was a contagious thing that had a scowl forming across my lips. “I’m right here.”

He laughed quietly behind me.

I turned halfway to question him, but he was already there, pressing a kiss to both corners of my mouth.

It was almost enough to make me forget the man at the door. He’d grown silent.

“Oh,” he said finally. “Yes, well, this is your room, isn’t it?” The question barely made it past the door, almost like he was talking to himself instead of me. He cleared his throat before speaking again. “His Majesty has summoned you. I am to bring you both to him.”

Kodhan growled. “He can wait.”

“My orders are to bring the both of you to himat once,” the man pressed. “And I will not defy His Majesty’s orders.”He couldn’t be a guard, not with that attitude. And a guard would have likely already broken down the door. A high-ranking servant, then. No doubt one of Maverick’s.

“He’s not going to leave,” I huffed, readying to swing my legs over the side of the bed. But Kodhan caught my knees and swung them back towards him instead.

“I can make him.”

“Maverick will send someone else.”

Ire flashed across his face. He glanced at the door, and for a moment, I thought he would set it on fire. I almost wished he would, if only to deter the man and grant us more time. I hadn’t expected reality to crash down on us both so quickly.

But instead he leaned down to capture my lips with his once more in a kiss that left me gasping for air. He nipped at my bottom lip, then sucked,hard,bringing it into his mouth.

Only when it began to sting did he let go. And smiled at the swollen, tender skin.

“Alright, then. Let us go see the king.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

The aggravating, punctilious man very nearly sprinted down the halls in his haste to lead us to Maverick’s study. And he all but threw open the heavy double doors to reveal the man himself sitting at his desk, feet propped up on its surface.

“As requested, I have brought you Eloise Fennhaven and Kodhan Dreadmourne, Your Majesty,” he announced, bowing low.

Maverick didn’t do a single thing to acknowledge his presence. Rather, he pretended his servant didn’t exist at all. Red-faced, the servant sputtered a handful of barely coherent excuses before scurrying away.

“The new Starlight Champions. I thought it was time for a proper visit.” Maverick was dressed in his usual black, but today, burgundy lined the cuffs of his vest. His onyx eyes branded me with their intensity. They flickered instantly to my lips. He blinked once. Twice.

I reined in my retort. We were not alone.

And I would not risk my luck by running my mouth while Kodhan was here. My head wouldn’t roll. Kodhan’s, on the other hand, might.

But as I looked away from him, wanting to avoid his scrutiny, my attention snagged on something leaning against the wall by the exit. And stayed stuck there.

“Ah yes.That.”

The painting. The one I’d finished posing for earlier. I recognized it by the frame—the ornate gold curves decoratedwith delicate diamonds—just like the castle, and the way my right iris hadfinallybeen colored correctly. Except I wasn’t the only one in it anymore.

Kodhan whistled. “Exceptional quality, I must say.”

My eyes swiveled to him in shock. Then back to the painting again, unable to stray away from it for too long.

The artist had added Kodhan into the portrait.

The portrait that Maverick explicitly requested for himself.

Stars above.