My blood chilled and I froze as I felt the slimy trail of a tentacle on my arm.
“The fuck are you doing here?”I bit, pulling back to see Norman fucking Chee in my presence.
“What do you mean, what am I doing here?Violet invited me here for the summer.”
Say what now?
“I think I would know if Violet invited anyone to the castle,” I said, probably a little too judgmentally, but I didn’t care.The last person I wanted to see on the castle grounds was a slippery Kraken who’d tried to feed off myanam carawith his?—
“Where is your siren?”I gritted through my teeth as Norman’s tentacles slithered back into his space.The wet sound made my skin crawl.The touchy suckers didn’t help his case, either.I’d felt them a time or two, unwillingly.
Like me, Norman fed on lust, and what was more lust-filled than an Incubus?
I’d told him on numerous occasions, to keep his damn tentacles to himself.I wouldn’t touch him with a ten-foot pole, and it wasn’t just because I didn’t desire men.If we had been friends, maybe I could have helped him out.Feeding on lust didn’t have to involve sex.I very easily could have let him latch a sucker onto me and take the energy he needed.Like donating blood or plasma.
But I didn’t feel any sort of want to help Norman.Not when he was constantly circling me and Wanda like a damn vulture half the time, trailing after her like some lovesick puppy.
No, I wouldn’t feed Norman Chee a drop of my lust because he was an annoying, slippery little idiot who always got on my last fucking nerve.
I didn’t trust the guy.
And then I remembered where there was Norman, there was...
“Where’s your little fishy girlfriend?”
Something passed behind his eyes, but before I was able to get a handle on it, he stiffened.
“She’s...not my girlfriend,” he said, avoiding my gaze.“Not anymore.”
I raised an eyebrow.“Really now?Usually you two are hentai’s worst nightmare.What gives?”
“Yeah, well, you know how Wanda operates.She likes to swim freely.”
His words weren’t offensive, but I felt a twinge of anger, a sort of affront by the way he said them.Almost as if he was seeking sympathy or something equally as perplexing.
I did know Wanda’s tendency to flit from person to person, but in truth, Norman had been her partner in crime for...
Shit, had it been two years already?
I bristled at his words, steeling my resolve as he slid his hands in his jeans.His tentacles curled and swayed absentmindedly as he looked out the window in the grand hall just as some guards marched down the hall.
“Well, I wish I could stay and chat, but...”I crossed my arms.“Duty calls,” I said.It was true.Ididneed to get to my stupid fucking etiquette class or whatever dastardly dumb shit the queen and her court of fae deemed Imustdo in order to be a proper consort for thefuture Queen of Lir.
My blood ran cold.Sometimes when I’d stop to think about it—the reality thatmyViolet, the sweet, sexy and warm little flower that was myanam cara—the inevitable, it felt almost unsettling.
One day Violet would take her mother’s place and become Queen.And if the council and her mother found me to beviable, then I would be a Queen’s Consort.
I would reign by her side, bound to her for all eternity.
Of course, that’s what I wanted, but the finality could be like a blast of cold water to anyone’s system.
Marriage was one thing, but I knew the real reason I was being put through the proverbial ringer.
The kingdom needed to ensure that the consort of the future queen was capable of knocking her up.
The thought made my entire body itch.I’d never really thought about marriage or kids, after all I was only twenty-two, and until I met Violet, I didn’t even think there was a mate out there for me.
I’d been poked and prodded since the day I arrived, put on the blandest diet, and suddenly, my days were filled with exercise and royal coursework that would make even a Magic History class look enticing.
