He seemed a little more concerned than he should be for someone who’d ordered me to be imprisoned for nearly a week. “What’s your angle on this?” I asked.
He’d been in the middle of a deep pull of cider and choked on it. “What are you talking about? What angle?”
“What’s in all this for you? Why are you helping me after clearly showing me that you didn’t give amonkey’s buttabout my welfare?”
“That was before we knew what you were. We thought you were trying to fool us, or that you might’ve been a shapeshifter.”
I hadn’t thought about that. If I’d been a shapeshifter like the ones after my cousin, I might try to pretend to be a dragon or some other creature. “How do you know I’m not?”
“We researched you. You’re legitimate.”
“You could’ve asked Riley.”
Roan interjected himself. “That wasn’t an option. We tried. By the time we figured out you were related to her, she was down the rabbit hole, so to speak. I used human means to dig into your existence, and we were able to verify you were the human cousin to Riley Effler.”
“I don’t know where we go from here.”
“We go home. I’ve arranged for the weekend off, the Leyak is currently leaderless, as Riley killed theLeyak heir as well as captured their leader.[1]My responsibilities have lessened considerably. Next week I’ll have to deal with the wolves and a complaint from the witches, but for this weekend, I’m available.”
“Why are you helping me? Why the special interest? Couldn’t you dump me off at Riley’s place and wash your hands of me?” I didn’t understand why he was being so nice, like hewantedto spend the weekend with me.
“I’m sorry; I thought I’d been more obvious. I’m courting you,” he said bluntly.
My jaw dropped. “What?”
Roan laughed. “We want to date you. Bugger him, using the word court.”
I blinked a few times, trying to formulate a response. “We?”What theheck? Where did this come from?
“Yes. We,” Alexander said. “The Supay don’t have the market on polyamorous relationships.”
“I don’t understand what that means, but I’ve never even considered dating more than one guy at a time. Would it be some sort of crazy competition? The winner gets the dragon?”
“You misunderstand us,” Roan said. “We want to both date you. We lead hectic, busy lives, and that often takes us away from home, unable to sustain a committed, long term relationship. We mentioned our interest in you to each other last night before I went to your house.”
Alexander took over. “Once we both realized we were attracted to you, we decided to give this a try.”
“How do you even come to that conclusion? Who said, ‘Hey, let’s both date her instead of competing for her?’”
Roan pointed at Alexander. “He’s the one all about efficiency. It was his idea.”
Alexander shrugged. “I’d been thinking about a few families I know in similar relationships. They always seem so happy.” Henoddedhis head. “I know couples and families frequently seem happier than they actually are, but I figured it would be interesting to try.”
He made it sound like a science experiment. “You’re going to have to give me time to contemplate this one.” I’d never considered anything other than monogamy. And my world was turned upside down, yet they threw me for a loop with this revelation.
We finished our ciders and headed back to the castle. The mood was ruined. They seemed dejected, as if I’dalready denied their request. I hadn’t, but I also hadn’t jumped for joy at the idea of dating them. Maybe they were used to women lining up for them. I could understand why they would, the two men were gorgeous. No doubt they could be considered successful. All in all they were both quite a catch.
But would it be wise of me to enter a relationship when I was starting a new phase in my life?
We walked up to the castle, and I forgot our conversation in the thrill of moving toward a real castle—a real castle I was living in for the foreseeable future.
Roan brought me out of my reverie. “There’s one more thing I want to tell you, but it’s complicated, and I can’t think of a way to broach the topic without sounding like a totaljerk.”
Um, okay.“Go ahead. I’ll try to keep an open mind.”
“There is a buzz among the Unseen world about the Sárkány, the dragons. Many of the different factions are upset because only the Supay were given the opportunity to adopt orphaned Sárkány children. Similarly, many people, especially men, are… what’s the word…”
He looked at Alexander, who grimaced. “Determined?”
