Bile rose in my throat at the words. Who the fuck was Finn, and did he know he would have to die? Goddess, where did thatcome from? So she had a male back home, so what? She was about to marry the prince, so nothing I felt or thought mattered anyway, except that the prince needed to fucking die, too.
What the?—?
Fuck. No.
I was leaving as soon as she was delivered to her new life, so she could do whatever she wanted. Right?
I needed another drink. I reached for the bottle and poured another, then noticed Kol’s smirk. I scowled his way and threw it back, immediately pouring another. Caly's glass appeared beside mine with a little nudge. Clearly, she wanted another. I filled it. Who was I to stop her doing what she wanted? No one.
I was no one to her.
“Tell us about Finn,” Kol urged her, and my leg began to bounce.
“He’s so handsome,” Caly swooned. Swooned? What was actually happening? “He has these huge dark eyes, and he’s so smart. He’s just the best, you know? I spent every minute with him I could. I’m going to miss him so much.”
Oh, fucking spare me.
“And he just loves to be ridden hard.”
It was my turn to shoot absinthe out of my nose. Shit, Kol was right—it fucking burned. “Excuse me?”
“My horse,” Caly, said, looking me up and down while watching me struggle with the liquid fire in my airways for a moment.
“Y—your horse?” I stammered.
Kol masked his laughter by taking another drink while the prince wasn’t even trying to hide his. I shot daggers at him from my eyes. The arse.
“Yes, Finn, my horse that I had to leave behind,” she stated clearly as if I were hard of hearing.
“I see,” I wheezed.
She frowned at me, and I was feeling too drunk to care. Goddess, had those last couple crept up on me. “What did you think I meant?”
I broke eye contact, not at all wanting to explain to her what I’d been thinking, nor the death I planned for ‘Finn.’ “Nothing, just took me a minute to catch up that’s all.”
“Thats because you’re drink—dr—drunk.” She nodded, satisfied she hit the right word finally.
“I think you’re a bit drink, too.” I smirked. Wait, was I flirting? Nope. I stood quickly. “I’m going to the bathing chamber.”
I wove my way through the tavern and relieved myself, then took a moment to collect my thoughts before I went back out there. As a dragon, the effects of spirits, even the absinthe, burned off in no time, so you had to pretty much keep drinking to remain drunk for any length of time. Usually, that was a benefit, but now that she was here, I was in that precarious place between being too drunk to act rationally and starting to sober up enough to know what a terrible idea being near her was.
I needed to call it a night now before I lost all control. I stepped out of the chamber designated for males and bumped right into her.
Whether she had used the female chamber or come looking for me, I couldn’t tell, but here she was, in this small hallway, blocking my exit, and I felt like a startled animal. My fight or flight instinct kicked in. “Are you following me?”
“No.” She put her hands on her hips, causing pert breasts to push out at me. I was just drunk enough to look at them for a moment, then I returned to my senses.
“Liar.” Okay, fight it was.
“What possible reason would I have to follow you?” she threw back like a challenge.
“I don’t know, but you seem intent on cornering me. You followed me to this tavern and now this.” Or maybe I wanted her to follow me? There was a war in my head, and I didn’t know which way was up anymore.
“You do have quite a high opinion of yourself, don’t you?” she accused. “What makes you so special?”
I laughed. I knew that even without developing the bond between us, she could feel that, to each other at least, we were in fact very special. I may not want it, but I wasn’t going to stand for her denying it either. “Is that how you really feel?”
“Don’t turn this around. Answer the question.” Despite her being half my size, she was fierce. Not backing down at all. If I ever did settle down, it would be with a female like her.
