Crow stood awkwardly in the doorway as his younger siblings gawked at him. It was obvious that Naida had gone ahead and invited him without letting Braden and Willow know first. He wondered who would be the first to break the tense silence that had fallen over his sister’s bedchamber. Would Willow be made uncomfortable and leave? Perhaps Braden would demand that the former peasant shouldn’t be allowed to share the same air as the rest of them? The viceroy certainly had no intention of opening his mouth before they did. He would stare them down until someone’s heart stopped before he would ever ask permission to sit with them.

In the end, it was Naida who shattered the quiet.

“I asked Collin to hide out with us before the party,” she belatedly explained to the two dumbstruck individuals sprawled on her bed.

“And here I thought we were going to have a good time,” Braden grumbled bitterly.

“We [i]are[/i],” Naida shot him a cold look. She grasped Crow by the arm and gave him a tug into the room. “He’s our brother, Brae. Now, move over. You’re taking up half the bed.” Without waiting for a reply, she flopped down next to the crown prince, narrowly missing his shoulder as he rolled out of the way. Patting the spot beside her, she casted her half-brother a friendly smile, “Come over here, Collin. I’ll fill you a glass.”

Crow hesitated, put off by the hostility radiating from his other siblings, before he reluctantly complied. He stayed closer to the edge of the large mattress though, instinctively giving himself the option to get up quickly in case Braden decided to get even more confrontational than he already was. He hoped his father’s second-born wasn’t violent, but he didn’t know him well enough to make any assumptions yet.

“There,” Naida chirped happily. “See? We can all get along.”

“You’re going to have to have your sheets washed.”

“[i]Braden[/i],” the princess hit her older brother in the back of the head. “Don’t be so rude. There’s nothing wrong with Collin. Right, Willow?” She turned to the youngest Mannering with expectant eyes.

Willow bit her lip as her pale green eyes darted from Naida to Crow. “W-Well… He was a criminal. People don’t change overnight...” The layers of distrust were clear in her meek voice.

“Not you too,” Naida groaned.

Crow looked between his half-sisters and took an idle sip from the drink the older one had poured for him. Braden’s hatred came from a place of entitlement and prejudice against commoners, but it sounded like Willow was just afraid of his criminal past. That was fixable. “That’s true,” he nodded sagely. “I’m not so different than I was a month ago.” As he spoke, he subtly reached into his pocket to slip a gold coin from the half-empty purse he kept on his person. Palming it in his hand, he casted the young girl a smile, “But I promise I wasn’t all bad. Here, I’ll show you.”

Holding up his empty hand, he gently reached toward his little sister’s face. She cringed at the motion, and he paused briefly to show her he didn’t mean any harm before he reached behind her ear. “Go on, check it,” he teased when he leaned away again. “There’s a coin.”

“That’s stupid,” Braden scoffed, lying flat on his back with his gaze fixed on the ceiling. “She’s not a little kid.”

“There’s nothing there,” Willow frowned, gingerly fingering the dark hair behind her ear.

At that, the prince barked a laugh. “He couldn’t even do the trick right.”

“I never said the coin was behind your ear,” Crow corrected with a sly smirk. “If you’d let me finish, I was [i]going[/i] to tell you to check your pocket.”

Willow’s eyes widened, and her hand flew to the slit in her dress. “It’s there,” she confirmed, fishing out the gold piece and gaping at it as she tried to figure out how he’d fooled her. Even Braden’s smug look had fallen off his face.

Crow just shrugged, pleased that the simple slight of hand had left his siblings mystified. It had been easy to drop the coin into the girl’s pocket with two fingers while she had been distracted by the bigger gesture. Braden just hadn’t been watching closely enough to catch the switch. “I’m not always a thief,” he downed another swig of wine. “You can keep it.”

Naida grinned at him, “You’d better teach me how to do that trick sometime.”

“Only if you refill my glass.”

Crow’s amateur magic trick seemed to lift most of the tension in the room. Only Braden continued to act coldly toward him while the four siblings drank and talked amongst themselves, wasting the hours by sharing stories and laughing as they placed wagers on the noblemen and women whom they expected to make fools of themselves at the party that night.