Crown of a Prince (Finn Shelby)

115

Ailbhe found herself torn between keeping an eye on Arthur and sizing up Duke. Arthur was high as a kite. Ailbhe knew from the bounce in his step and the mad look in his eyes. He had been clean for four days.

In a few hours, she knew he would start to feel the withdrawals as his supply ran out. And by dusk, he would be prowling Small Heath for more. By dawn, he would be passed out in a pool of his own making in Ailbhe's foyer or Ada's porch. It was becoming somewhat of a cycle.

Small Heath was out of the question. Everyone from Haymills down to Greet knew that the Shelby Kennedy word was law. And the long arm of the law didn't extend half as far as the threat of the Shelby Kennedy brothers and the sisters who were supposedly half witch.

Duke walked a few steps behind Arthur, with Ailbhe a few steps behind him. He was in sensory overload, taking it all in. He watched people with an air of nervousness, constantly flinching away from people's bodies who might bump into him. He noticed how the path cleared ahead of them, parting like the red sea for Ailbhe and Arthur. People nodded in their direction, tipping their caps and children ran alongside them hoping for coins. They were like royalty.

Duke's rough voice broke Ailbhe's concentration as she tried to deduce where Arthur was getting the drugs from now.

"My father was the Duke of Saxon Shore and my mother was a Romany Queen"

He clearly didn't agree with Esme Shelby's deduction regarding his patronage.

"And my father was King of the Upper Nile!"

Ailbhe remarked sarcastically, getting a smirk from Arthur as she tried not to let Duke see her eye roll.

"Your father was no King"

Duke was sharp but he would have to be much sharper to hurt Ailbhe's feelings.

She didn't discuss her father. His memory was not up for discussion, especially among the smoke and shit of Small Heath.

Despite everything she had already been through that morning, Ailbhe could play along with the best of them. If Duke thought she was an ice cold witch who had half of Small Heath on strings, who could flirt with a puff of wind, she would play right into it.

She had seen how he watched her in the Garrison. Predictable and lazy, like most men. He thought she didn't see him craning his neck, dropping his eyes. She had put an extra flutter in her lashes and an extra arch in her back for his benefit. Let him think about bedding her, let him think about her naked and he would forget to protect himself every time.

Knowing he was watching, goading her about her father and hoping for a reaction she alid past him, making sure she brushed against him and when she was a few steps ahead of him, she looked at him over her shoulder with a small smile.

"Doesn't mean I'm not a princess!"

She swore she saw him almost stumble and she had to face forward again so he didn't see her smirk.

"Who told you that your father was a Duke?"

Arthur's bark snapped Duke's attention away from her.

"My mother - but I don't allow people to discuss her"

Arthur cast a look sideways at his sister. She just shrugged. It was fair enough. Ailbhe didn't generally allow people to discuss her parents either.

"So let's get this right then - you can't read, you can't write - there's nothing wrong with that!"

Ailbhe was in complete agreement. When she first met Arthur she had only a few words in English and look at them now.

Arthur spun around to face him, followed by Ailbhe who folded her arms and looked up at them.