Bolting upright, she shoved the blankets from her legs and scrambled out of bed.
Mother’s tits, I slept through the whole damn day. Why didn’t anyone come for me?
She rubbed her eyes and shuffled around her room, pulling on whichever clothes she stumbled upon first. She paused in front of her mirror only long enough to ensure that she looked mostly presentable and to run her fingers through her wild curls. At least I don’t have to waste time worrying about what to do with my hair.
Biting her lip, she scanned her room trying to remember where she’d tossed her boots the day before. Generally, Effie made a point to put everything back in its place, but she’d been more exhausted than even she’d realized and didn’t have the energy to manage more than haphazardly flinging her clothes about the room.
Spotting one curling lace peeking out from under her bed, Effie sighed and dropped to her hands and knees, crawling beneath it to retrieve them.
The first boot was easy enough to find, requiring her to only slap it out from below the bed, but the second proved more difficult. She must have used a bit more force when she kicked it off. Effie was having trouble making out much of anything in the dark shadows, and so she had to rely on touch to try and locate her boot’s twin. She batted her arm around, fingertips straining as she searched.
No luck.
Cursing, Effie scooched a bit further under the bed, her head and most of her torso fully cloaked in the dim light.
“Ah-ha! Found you, you little—”
“My, what a delectable sight,” a muffled voice drawled from somewhere behind her.
Effie let out a garbled scream, her head bashing into the wooden bed frame as she jumped. “Elder’s gnarled knob!”
There was a snort and then a wheezing laugh.
She pushed herself back and stood, the lost boot dangling from her fingers forgotten as she rubbed the back of her head and glared at Kieran. He was red-faced with laughter, tears of mirth streaming from his eyes.
“Wh-what did you just say?” he choked out.
“What are you doing in my room?” she demanded.
Wiping away a few tears, Kieran shook his head. “Not so fast. First, tell me how you came about such a colorful phrase.”
Crossing her arms, Effie debated about whether she could get away with kicking him in the shin. “It’s not like I had much time to think about it. It just slipped out.”
“Indeed,” Kieran murmured, shoulders still shaking with the last of his laughter.
“You can leave now,” she said, looking pointedly at him and then the door.
After a final snicker, Kieran said, “I did knock, you just didn’t hear me. Now I know why,” he added with a lascivious waggle of his eyebrows.
“How did you take my lack of answer as an invitation to come in? Doesn’t that defeat the purpose of knocking in the first place?”
“I was checking to make sure you were still alive. You’ve been asleep for almost a full day.”
“After the way you treated me yesterday, I have trouble believing you’re concerned about my well-being.”
“After the way I treated you?” he sputtered.
Anger was swiftly replacing embarrassment as Effie recalled the horrible things he’d said to her in front of Lucian and Kael. “You practically labeled me a whore in front of the Guardians, Kieran. How would you classify that treatment?”
There wasn’t a trace of laughter left on Kieran’s face. “Perhaps it was not my finest moment, but I was upset. Can you blame me? I’d just learned I was Lucian’s sloppy seconds.”
Sharp ringing filled her ears, and Effie’s jaw dropped. “He told you?”
Kieran’s brows lowered over glittering green eyes. “He didn’t have to. It was all over your face when you looked at him. I inferred it easily enough, and you just confirmed it.”
“It’s none of your business what I choose to do or with whom.”
“It is when I am the runner-up. Effie, you know how I feel about you. How could you do that to me?”
Effie tried to rein back her emotion, recognizing that there was the smallest vein of truth to his words. She hadn’t treated him fairly, but it did not give him the right to bully her because of it.
“Kieran, I wasn’t in my right mind. I’m sorry if I hurt you—”
“Because that makes it better.” Kieran snorted. “To think I was here to tell you I forgive you—”
“Forgive me?” she sputtered.
“You led me on.”
“Everyone has the right to change their mind,” she spat out, any hint of understanding vanishing.
“So you’ll spread your legs for the Guardian, but not me?”
Crack.
Effie’s palm stung with the force of the slap.
Kieran’s hand lifted to his cheek and then his lip. He glanced down at the blood staining his fingers and then back up at Effie. He took a step forward, but she stood her ground, tilting her chin up.
There was a blur of movement and Kieran flew away from her, his body crashing into the bookcase on the other side of her room.
“You’d dare raise your hand against a woman?” Lucian growled, already across the room leaning over him.
“I wasn’t going to hit her,” Kieran groaned, pushing himself up.
Lucian fisted his hand in Kieran’s tunic, pulling him to his feet. “That’s not what it looked like.”
Kieran twisted his head and spat out a mouthful of blood. “You always make a habit of spying on your charge when she’s in her room?”
Effie was shocked he had the balls to goad him. Lucian was fury incarnate, his lips peeled back over his teeth in a deadly snarl and his eyes on fire with savage promise. He pulled the fabric of Kieran’s tunic taut and lifted him higher until the tips of his boots scraped over her floor.
“You listen, and you listen well, princeling. You so much as look at her wrong and I will rip your spine out through your mouth.” Twisting, he shoved Kieran toward the door. “Get out.”
Kieran paused only long enough to shoot Effie a dark look. “This isn’t over.”
Raising a brow, Effie glanced between Kieran and her Guardian. “Seems over to me.”
Jaw clenched, Kieran made for the door. Lucian tracked each step like a predator preparing for the hunt.
Seeking to distract him, Effie stepped into his line of vision. “I had the situation under control.”
He looked at her with wild eyes, his nostrils flaring. “He was going to hurt you.”
Effie tilted her head, finally realizing just how little control Lucian had over himself. “If I recall correctly, I’m the one that landed the first and only blow.”
Lucian’s lips curled in a cruel smile. “Good.”
Something dark and bloodthirsty deep within her appreciated the violence that was still rolling off him in waves. Violence that, while not directed at her, had built because of a perceived threat to her. It made her feel protected in a way that wasn’t familiar.
Not ready to look at the new feelings too closely, Effie decided to try to diffuse his remaining anger.
“He didn’t touch me,” she added softly.
A shudder racked Lucian’s body as he processed her words, and his gaze dropped as he took a deep breath. “It’s the only reason he’s still alive.”