Page 10 of This Shattered Star

Outrage sparked in my chest. I opened my mouth to voice it, but Maverick spoke first.

“Easy,” he said, lifting his free hand in mock-surrender. “I’ve almost made my point. If you still want to hit me after, go ahead.” I considered it. HeknewI considered it, but merely shook his head with that same smile. “These people are going into the Starlight Trails thinking they’ve mastered what it takes. None of them are truly worried. But that puts them in a dangerous position. Do you know why?”

I simmered quietly, waiting for his explanation. But instead, he shifted to face me fully, and lifted an expectant brow.

My next exhale was more of a sigh. “I don’t know, Mav—Your Highness.” Familiarity was for behind closed doors only. Now wasn’t the time to slip, even if anger sat heavily on my tongue, ready to be unleashed. “I think most people here wouldn’t know danger if it looked them right in the face.”

My mouth tightened into a thin line as his little puzzle snapped into place.

Maverick beamed at me now, his perfectly straight teeth on full display. “Allow me to repeat myself. I know you, Eloise. You are different. But being different does not equate to being weak. I’d say it makes you stronger than everyone else.”

He reached to take my hand in his, unfurling my fingers one by one. I could only watch, stunned, as he massaged the pad of his thumb along my skin until color returned. Once he wassatisfied, he lifted our joined hands to press a soft kiss to my knuckles.

He angled his head closer to mine and spoke low enough for only the two of us to hear. “If I am to look forward to crowning someone this year, it will be you. No one else.”

Bowing deeply, he departed from my side, taking with him the scent of cloves, peppered with hints of tobacco and winter’s first snow. Unmistakablyhim.

Heat flared along my cheeks as I studied my right hand, knuckles still tingling from where his lips had made contact.

I didn’t need to look up to know that more than a handful of women glared my way with equal parts hatred and jealousy. Their spiteful whispers made their contempt quite clear.

Maverick was respected. Powerful. Feared. Chosen by the gods. People bowed down to him, not the other way around. What he’d just done was unheard of.

Rubbing the top of my right hand with my left, I turned to the mountains of food laid out across the behemoth of a table instead. Surely, if weapons were allowed in this room, at least three daggers would’ve already found themselves embedded within my spine.

Maverick could say whatever he wanted. Could claim hebelievedin me, believed I could beat the odds stacked against me. But, in truth, his words didn’t mean a damned thing.

The orchestra picked up its pace, matching the growing energy of the crowd.

My jaw worked, painfully grinding my molars against each other as I picked up a pastry and began tearing it apart. I couldn’t palm the reassuring hilts of my knives, nor could I run my fingers along the cool metal of a sword. I had to dosomethingto distract myself from the glares still fixed at my back. Otherwise, my empty hands might as well wind up squeezing the life out of—

“The poor thing is innocent.”

A smooth, manicured hand reached around me to pick up another pastry from the same plate, then gestured with it to my now ruined one.

“I’d take advantage if I were you. The stars only know what we’ll be allowed to eat for the next few days.” The stunning woman, appearing no older than myself, groaned with annoyance.

She was one of the two competitors Kodhan had been whispering with as Maverick gave his speech. Her copper hair was pinned up nicely, allowing only a few loose waves frame her portrait-worthy face. Although I loved my own dress, I couldn’t help but envy the way hers hugged her figure like she’d been born to wear it. That shade of emerald didn’t need gemstones.Shedidn’t need gemstones. She shone all on her own.

“It’s not like we’ll be starved.” I averted her curious gaze. More scrutiny was far from what I needed.

She hummed, contemplating. “You think?”

Neither of us spoke as she finished eating. I wasn’t allowed to leave until Diana did, and I didn’t feel like venturing the room, either. I certainly wouldn’t give up the seemingly safest spot just because another competitor was hungry.

I tossed my destroyed pastry back onto the plate and folded my arms over my chest.

Diana remained in the same corner with other court members, sharing falsified smiles and what I assumed was an empty, vapid conversation. Maverick was with them. He was partially listening to what they were saying while his eyes roamed elsewhere. He’d already found another drink.

“Allies. It could be fun—two heads are better than one, after all,” the woman next to me mused, and reached for a second pastry.

“If you’re so fond of the idea of allies, why don’t you go find one?”

She halted mid-reach. From the corner of my eye, I saw her fingers flex mid-air before finally settling on a berry muffin.

She would drive a blade through my chest at the first presented opportunity, I reminded myself.

“Kodhan sent you over here, didn’t he?” I asked.