Full of Briars Read Online Free Page A

thing everyone is leaving out here, which is that we love him,” said May. We all turned to look at her. She looked back, unrepentant. “He’s our Quentin. We don’t care that he’s a prince. He’s just the kid who hogs the TV on Saturday mornings, and argues with Toby about who ate the last of the Pop-Tarts. He’s your son, and please believe me when I say we would never belittle that connection, but we love him, too. We care about him, too. We only want what’s best for him, and right now, what’s best for him is staying exactly where he is.”
    â€œIt’s rare for a prince to be among those who love him for who he is, and not for who he may one day become,” said Tybalt, and there was an old sorrow in his words, almost buried in the haughty tone he always assumed among strangers. “Please believe me when I say that your son is blessed beyond words to be who he is, where he is, surrounded by people who met his revelation with shrugs and an absolute lack of concern.”
    I snorted. Toby’s response to finding out I was the Crown Prince had been anything
but
unconcerned. But that wasn’t the point now, was it?
    â€œI’ll probably get him shot again before his training’s over,” said Toby. “That’s sort of what I
do
. I’m a knight errant. It’s not even that I’m a magnet for trouble; it’s that when there’s trouble, it’s my job to go and hit it until it goes away, and right now, it’s Quentin’s job to follow me and see how not to die. If you want to know that he’ll be absolutely safe and protected and never get bruised or scarred, I’m not your girl. But I think . . . I think you knew that when you trusted him to me in the first place. And at this point, there’s no one in the world who’ll fight harder to keep him safe, except for maybe the two of you.”
    â€œMaybe?” said Mom, raising her eyebrows.
    Toby shrugged. She seemed to have gotten over her fear of insulting my parents and moved into her usual “treason is just another word for Tuesday” mode of interacting with the nobility. That was a relief, even though it meant her greatest fear had already come to pass. They were talking about taking me away from her. After that, very little held any terror in her eyes.
    â€œI don’t quite get pureblood childrearing techniques, Your Highness,” said Toby. “I think this is one of those cultural differences you can’t talk your way around. If Quentin were my son, I would never have been able to bring myself to send him away, not even for his own protection. It would have killed me.”
    â€œIt nearly did,” said Mom softly. She glanced at me, and her eyes were bright. Her cosmetic spells meant I couldn’t see if she was crying. She always said that was good. Gave her an edge when she was facing lesser nobles who didn’t want to do as they were told. “Sending my children away was harder than I ever thought it would be, but it was something I knew I was risking when I married the man who would be king. I love my boy, Sir Daye. You and I are alike in that. We both want what’s best for him.”
    â€œWhat’s best for me is right here,” I said. “This is where my friends are. Raj, he’s a Prince of Cats, but he’s really cool. We have movie nights. And there’s Chelsea, we just found her, she was a changeling and now she’s not—”
    â€œWhat?” Mom whipped around to stare at me. Dad did the same, but more sedately, like he was afraid of making a sudden motion and attracting her attention. “What did you just say?”
    â€œUm. Chelsea? She’s a friend of mine?” I glanced helplessly at Toby, who shook her head, looking as lost as I felt. It occurred to me that maybe Mom wasn’t as blasé about changelings turning into purebloods as the rest of us. She didn’t