My hand was still hovering near Cinder when Mama spoke. “Don’t touch her yet, Tulya.”
“What is going on?” I brought my fingers to the lapels of my robe, pulling it tighter, the hot and cold warring within me.
“Esmeralda, tell her,” Ceci said softly.
“We have been wondering for some time if you can transfer these types of feelings, Tulya?” Mama raised an eyebrow, waiting for me to understand and likely already knowing the answer.
Feeling Donovan behind me, his energy cooling rather than heating my back as a chill ran through me—although not the pleasing kind like earlier—I worried about my future. This was a giant ask, one my mother had never made of me, and I wasn’t sure if I’d ever seen it coming. For a quick second I was just a girl and Donovan was only a guy, and I wished my body was normal and felt heat when someone stoked my personal fire rather than ice, ignoring the situation around me.
I forced myself back into the moment. “You mean, take the heartache out of someone and give it to another person? But why would I make someone else suffer?”
I heard Donovan clear his throat as Mama opened her mouth. “Because they deserve it,” he answered for her.
I knew Mama had zero softness or empathy, but I couldn’t believe this was really Donovan. Turning around, I met his face, and it was lit with anger.
“My brother has made a fool of us.” He spoke quietly but forcefully. “He went to Miami to do some business by the beach, and he caught feelings for a regular human.”
I held back my surprise. It was bound to happen.
“Now he’s babbling on about bringing her back here and marrying her. Procreating with a nobody—it’s unheard of. A human, no less.”
“Absolutely, I won’t allow it. I chose Cinder for him, and I’ve chosen for you,” Ceci said, sliding her gaze to Donovan.
I hadn’t realized she’d matched Magnum and Cinder, nor that she had handpicked someone for Donovan. That was on me, trying to keep out of anything directly to do with my mother and her hen crew.
“This isn’t about me,” Donovan said, his voice ripe with anger.
“It surely is, my dear son. If your brother shames us, it will affect my plans for you.”
“Not. Now. Mother. After. Christmas.” He punctuated each word, leaving no room for discussion but large windows wide open for me to wonder.
“The Minister would never allow the marriage, let alone a baby,” Mama interrupted, consoling her friend.
In Rubia, there was no such thing as separation of church and state, let alone repentance. All actions were deemed allowable or not by the Minister, and forgiveness was rarely offered for transgressions.
Donovan ran a hand through his dark brown hair and the sensual kind of goose bumps started to pinprick at my skin like earlier in the evening. I tried to stave off the shiver but I couldn’t, despite learning about his own mother finding him a partner.
He noticed. “You’re cold,” he had the mind to whisper, before gathering me in his arms without asking.
I didn’t argue. It wasn’t a touch fueled by need, rather giving, a side of Donovan I’d never seen. “What do you want me to do?” I whispered, looking at Don’s chest, wondering what it felt like under the Armani dress shirt. It was a little-known fact that Donovan visited New York often. To shop and, I assumed, do other sordid things.
“Well, can you? Can you take the suffering Cinder is feeling and give it to this human?” he rumbled against me, deep and baritone. Coldness ran all the way to my toes, and he grasped me closer.
“What?” I found the strength to step back and felt my mouth fall open. And I imagined how I appeared, standing there in a robe, hair likely a mess, my face resembling a clown’s. “Why? How? No, I’ve never done that before. Cinder, you can’t possibly want this?” I turned to face my contemporary in the room.
She lifted her head, her black waves falling over her eyes, then nodded. “We have to try to keep her away.”
“Ceci could go and create a weather pattern she won’t survive,” I said, not believing the cruelty coming out of my mouth. “Or why not send Donovan to do the dirty work? He can inflict some pain that will send this woman hurtling away.” Swinging in his direction, I murmured under my breath, “Didn’t you make fun of me for following my mother’s orders?”
He narrowed his eyes and mouthed,Touché.
Cinder said, “No.” She kept shaking her head. “It won’t work. Your mother said—”
I heard Mama’s boots clop close to me. It was clear these three women had quickly huddled before coming to me.
Mama began to speak, her voice reeking of finality. “You will do this, Tulya. I will put in a good word with the Minister while you are in Miami, with Donovan as your chaperone, of course. He will recognize you when you return. Cinder will join you after you locate and corral the ghastly human who did this, and you will do what we ask. Period. Understood?” Her eyes darkening to the shade of coal, she narrowed her gaze on me. “I said, are we understood?” she repeated. “Your father is aware of my asking and is in full support,” she added as if that made a difference or I had a choice.
I nodded, afraid to speak. I knew that when it came to the Minister, Mama never backed down from a plan. She had her reasons and didn’t care that I had my own worries.
