CROSS SUIT (#2 COURT OF SUITS series)

♠ TEN ♠

A few sips of Lady Ossenna's infamous special sparkling tea—a hot beverage that actually sparkled, hence its name; a batch of flowers and flavorful spices with secret ingredients—and I relaxed. She'd insisted I imbibe in the mixture before returning to my chambers, and I obliged.

As we sat together in the meeting room, the walls no longer appeared as constricting, the suitors no longer so scary, and the tasks ahead not so overwhelming.

Yet my mind couldn't settle. My thoughts raced millions of miles a minute and my head hurt.

"You said Otho has been serving the kingdom for decades?" Aromas of lavender and vanilla melted on my tongue as I sipped my drink. "He looks so young."

"He does." Lady Ossenna gripped her own mug and sniffed at the steam, her lengthy, lilac coated lashes batting. "We all do. Mages don't age like humans. Depending on our powers, some of us can live for centuries."

I shuddered at the idea. Living for that long? It was wrong. It was like cheating death, and I hated cheaters. But such feats meant that as long as my advisors continued to defy odds, I'd be secure from those who sought to capture what was mine.

"So how long have mages been serving Acewood royals in Efura?"

Lady Ossenna sipped, her lips leaving an aubergine stain on the rim of her cup. "Since the beginning of time, my queen." She rolled her shoulders as she shifted in her seat to get comfortable. She, too, unwound when everyone else was gone, and more so without the authoritative Sir Sym to breathe down her neck.

"I'm realizing," I wiped a drop of tea as it slid down my chin, "that I know little about mage history. As a child and a teenager, I was wary of such tales, as you might remember. I preferred to focus on riding and geography."

"Nothing wrong with that." Lady Ossenna smiled and lowered her mug to the table. "Mages were born at the same time as Efura flourished with human life. They appeared as humans, so at first they were incognito. Then, on all edges of the world, mages discovered their abilities and understood they had to use them for good. A handful of them showed up in lesser-known parts not governed by Acewood, but all made their way to the kingdom, eventually."

"Not governed by Acewood. So, you refer to the other side?"

I'd heard bits and pieces of that portion of our world—which had no name—but no one spoke of it eagerly, least of all Father. He claimed those were wild territories of unruly people who refused monarchy. Individuals who slept in tents or caverns or underground burrows. Who fished from feeble embarkations and gathered around fires to tell stories of us, the ones they called others. I'd always been so curious, but no one had ever answered my questions.

"Yes, Majesty." Lady Ossenna reached for the sweets Tilda had nibbled on earlier. She took hold of a white-chocolate morsel and dove into it, releasing the smallest of moans of satisfaction as she chewed. "All mages, regardless of their origins, were drawn to Acewood. That was where their powers were to converge, to link as a protective barrier against outside threats."

"Outside threats?" Watching her eat the delicacy, eyes half-lidded in ecstasy, fingers coating with a mix of the thick ivory exterior and the crimson-colored filling, I was almost hungry myself.

"Yes." She extracted a kerchief from one of her pockets and dabbed at the corners of her mouth. "Like beings popping in from other dimensions, for example."

"Wait," I angled back in my seat, "you mean Teodric? He is a threat?"

I couldn't imagine the brown-haired prince with a confidence problem as a menace to our kingdom. He was polite, kept to himself, and loved Ysac—how could he be a danger to me?