“Shouldn’t yourfiancéebe with you tonight?” Daelan hinted suggestively, nudging Galen’s shoulder.
On instinct, my gaze found Clarissa. She was sitting at a nearby fire with a man who looked familiar, but I couldn’t place why I knew him. Clarissa, however, seemed to bewellacquainted with him.
Something hot and acidic boiled in my chest. It didn’t matter how casual or friendly it was—every time the man’s hand grazed hers, every time I heard her laugh fill the air, my fingers squeezed tighter around the edge of the log beneath me. The thought of others being able to touch her the way I did…
She may be engaged to my best friend, but Fates, she felt likemine.
And I couldn’t stand the sight of her with someone else.
A piece of the log splintered under my grip, breaking my glare. I looked down to see blood welling on the pad of my thumb and hastily pressed it to my lips to stem the flow, careful not to wake sleeping Marigold. She and Mia had both passed out sitting between my legs. Her head rested against the inside of my knee, while the little pup was curled in a ball in her lap. Mia had only been with us for a week, but she’d already grown enough for her paws to hang over the edge of Marigold’s legs.
Galen sighed dramatically, drawing my attention back to him and the brothers. “Don’t save us a private suite just yet, if you know what I mean. Especially after today.”
“What happened today?” Hector asked.
Shrugging, Galen leaned back on the log, precariously close to tipping right off. “She wasn’t exactlyreceptiveto my advances.”
My stomach sank to my feet, that same searing heat snaking its way across my chest as Daelan chuckled and said, “Well, Fates, if theKinghad no luck, nobody will.”
“What did you do?” I asked Galen, my voice shaking with an attempt to rein in my rage.
“Kissed her.”
“Youwhat?” I growled. “And she—she didn’t—” I glanced over at her again, needing proof that she wasn’t a rotted corpse. That his curse trulydidn’taffect her. I’d wondered last night when Rose touched his skin. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that he’d wasted no timetestingthat theory on his future wife.
“She’s fine, Thorne. Obviously.” For a split second, the alcohol-induced haze disappeared from his eyes, and his brow furrowed ashe looked at me. Something like suspicion shone from the hazel depths. It was gone just as swiftly, his eyelids drooping and a grin slipping easily onto his lips. “I s’pose we have different ideas of what this marriage will look like. It’s a shame. Would love to see what I’m working with.”
Anger tore through me as Daelan and Hector both smirked. Was this what I used to sound like? What I used tobelike? Viewing women as nothing more than objects at my disposal, expecting them to cater to my every whim?
“You’re disgusting,” I muttered, shoving my long hair out of my face. “She’s doing this to save you, you know. Show her some respect.”
Daelan and Hector exchanged confused glances, and Galen narrowed his eyes. I was dangerously close to the subject of the curse, something nobody outside of those closest to him knew of, but I didn’t care.
The image of him running his fingers along her skin the way I had slammed into me. Of him pushing her against a wall, sliding his lips over hers as she tried to get away.
My jaw was clenched so tightly, I thought my teeth would crack. “I need to get Marigold to bed,” I spat out, avoiding their eyes as I scooped my daughter in my arms before they could respond. The movement made Mia jump off and shake her body. Her leash dragged on the ground when she followed me, running in wide circles around my legs.
“I’m sorry, Thorne,” a breathless voice said from the side. “I didn’t mean to leave her with you for so long.”
Clarissa drew nearer and knelt at my feet to grab the pup, then paused to look up at me. Her cheeks were pink from sitting near the fire, and her windswept blonde hair pillowed on the shoulders of her black cloak.
My heart stuttered.
Myblack cloak. The one I’d given her on the way back from the Aurelia Cliffs.
“Are you heading to the huts?” she asked as she stood.
I merely nodded, not trusting my own tongue. Burning rage and jealousy paired with the sight of her on her knees with my cloak wrapped around her neck ignited some territorial instinct that I needed to get rid of.
“I’ll walk with you,” she offered. “I’m getting tired, anyway.”
“Was the company not riveting enough?” I blurted, jerking my chin toward the man she’d been with all evening. He was watching us and had the nerve towinkat me when my stare met his.
She glanced back at him and rolled her eyes. “That’s just Nox. He’s a friend from home. My ambassador for Mysthelm, actually, although he didn’t get the chance to do much before he was called back to his province.”
Nox.Nox Duma. The Shifter. It all came back to me—he’d been sent to establish communication with Galen’s council after their former emperor died eight and a half months ago. We’d met with him a couple of times, but in the wake of King Orion’s death and Galen’s new curse, I barely remembered him.
“What’s he doing here?” I asked, the iciness melting from my voice as we walked. Marigold settled against my chest, puffing warm breaths of air in her sleep.
