Reign Shadowfell's Arc

Chapter 19 of 29

Before the carriage door opened, Lux held up a small hand and made everyone wait. "Demon court is not like your halls," he said. "You do not bow to Thanos. You kneel on the left knee, right hand flat over the heart. You do not speak his name unless he gives it to you. You do not show teeth when you smile. Teeth mean challenge." He looked at Reign. "And you do not touch the throne. Not the arm. Not the step. Not the rail. A hand on the throne is a claim. A claim means blood." Reign nodded once. Vixen repeated the knee and the hand back to him. Lyla mouthed the words. Lux checked each of them and then, satisfied, opened the door. The inn was warm and low-ceilinged. Reign chose a table near the hearth. The fire threw orange over the boards. A barmaid came with a cloth over her shoulder and waited. "Four dinners," Reign said. "And an ale for me." Vixen ordered red wine for herself and Lyla. Lux tapped the table. "Demon hooch," he said. "The sweet kind." The barmaid wrote nothing down and left. Reign felt the room change before he heard it. Talk at the other tables thinned. A man by the window set his cup down and did not pick it up again. Two workers at the bar turned on their stools. An old woman by the door stared without pretending not to. Reign kept his hands flat on the wood. The amulet lay warm under his shirt. He did not touch it. Lux leaned close. His voice was almost nothing. "Your eyes," he said. "Purple eyes belong only to the king's blood. His children. His grandchildren. No one else in this city wears that color. They are counting the ones they knew of. You are not one of them." Vixen's hand moved to her belt under the table. Lyla went still. Reign looked once around the room, slow, meeting each pair of eyes and letting them see him look. He kept his mouth closed over his teeth. One by one the regulars turned back to their cups. The old woman at the door stood, pulled her shawl tight, and went out into the street. The barmaid came back with the drinks and set them down without meeting Reign's eye. Reign lifted his ale. "She's gone to tell someone," Vixen said quietly. Lux nodded. "The court will know a purple-eyed stranger sits at this inn before we finish our meal. We will not need to walk to the gate tomorrow. They will come here tonight." Reign drank. The audience he had traveled three days to request had just been granted, on terms he had not chosen. He set the cup down and began to eat.