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Orazio and Elise turned to face Rune, who spoke the request, and Falk

Standing side by side, the brothers old hair, hazel eyes, and char smile Falk, on the other hand, had hair that was the dark shade of goldenrod--the darkest out of any of the true children of King Henrik and Queen Ingrid--and brown eyes that were the color of darkly stained wood Rune was more relaxed; his jaw line, lips, and posture were curved like a soft s froed

Orazio bowed "Of course Prince Rune, Prince Falk," he said, his voice cool

Elise blessed Orazio with one last portrait smile "If you will excuse me, Ambassador," she said before she slipped away, a foster brother on either side

Once they were far enough away, Elise let her shoulders droop "Thank you for the ti murder, Pearl," Falk said, as blunt as ever

"You force yourself to speak to Orazio too much He is as likeable as a skunk You do not have to act as his personal host," Rune said, ignoring Falk’s observation

"But I do," Elise sighed "Orazio cannot abide Steffen, so Steffen asked me to keep an eye on hi of Steffen, where is he?"

"S his head at the royal pair

Steffen and Gabrielle ood will--as they conversed with the Loire a at them one would never realized we barely avoided a war just a few days ago when the Loire ambassador revealed they obtained the contract Steffen las Assassin’s Guild"

"Sloppy work that was," Falk grunted

"It wasn’t as close as one would think I spoke to Mikk before the ball," Rune said "According to one of his sneaks, Prince Severin finally put his foot down and told Crown Prince Lucien he wouldn’t let him declare war on us Plus the contract was for an atteuild, and Steffen, was serious, Prince Severin would be dead"

"Thank heaven for large hed

"We could have survived," Falk said

"Yes, but ould have pulled in every favor and debt we’ve accumulated over the past decade," Elise said

"Either ar has been deflected With luck, our countries will remain allies, but for now it is better to focus on s," Rune said

"Such as?" Falk asked, one of his eyebrows slanted in disbelief

"The present, of course Elise, you look beautiful tonight," Rune said, taking Elise’s gloved hand and kissing her paloes without saying, but both of you look very dashing and handso with aled and looked in their direction