Without hesitation, I said, “We do.” I was going to kill twoquilawith one arrow: I would force Remo to sever our engagement, which in turn, would make the Cauldron lock him out of Neverra . . . for good. “Speak the words, Remo.”
“Words are unnecessary. I already agreed.”
He was right; I’d felt a little stitch form between our bodies when he’d said yes. Nothing uncomfortable. More like a strand that linked us, that I could pluck once the time was right. “I still want to hear you say them.”
His jaw worked. “You shouldn’t kick a man when he’s already down.”
I wanted to savor my little victory over his outsized ego, however petty that made me. “Speak. Them.” Perhaps he’d never kicked me when I was down, but he’d always stared and did nothing. Indifference was just as cruel.
If looks could kill, his would’ve turned me into flickering dust motes. “Ifuckingowe you, Trifecta. Are we done?”
“Yes.”
“Karsyn, home. Now. We’ll talk as soon as this dinner is over.”
The ten-year-old pursed his lips as though he’d bitten down on a tart gladeberry. Casting one last hateful look my way, he threaded himself between the stilts and soared upward, toward his home at the top of one of thecalimbors.
I sighed, sensing too much time had passed and my family would wonder where I’d gone. Operationcheck-if-prison-portal-existswould need to be postponed till the end of the meal. I composed a quick message to Josh to wait another Neverrian hour.
“Prinsisa?” Remo’s voice jolted my gaze away from the holographic texts. Why hadn’t he flitted back to the dining room yet?
I vanquished my conversation with Josh out of existence with the swipe of a finger. “What?”
He stared at the stubby shadow spilling from his tall body and darkening the ground between his shifting boots. “You need to change.” A blush mottled his jaw. “Your dress.” Keeping his gaze averted, he gestured briskly toward me. “Andyour hand.”
I glanced down and found that the stretchy purple bodice was torn and had retracted, displaying more of my breasts than the skimpy red bikini Giya had gifted me for my seventeenth birthday.
I raised my Infinity and swiped through my digital wardrobe until I found the outfit I’d been about to change into to ford through the field ofadamans—a black bodysuit made of flexible carbon scales that was impenetrable like armor but flexible like spandex. Neenee Lily had developed the fabric for Daneelies who desired clothing suited for their amphibian lifestyle. Nima and I had become the proud owners of the very first edition.
Once my body was cloaked in the compressive material, I exchanged my strappy sandals for knee-high boots, then searched through my closet for a pair of gloves but found I owned none. “You can stop blushing now, Remo.”
“I wasn’t blushing.”
I smiled, enjoying his discomfort immensely.
“You forgot the gloves.” His voice was a low growl.
“I don’t own any.”
Remo swiped through his Infinity furiously, then slashed through the beam emanating from the bangle. A pair of black leather gloves materialized on his hands. He plucked them off and tossed them at me.
“I won’t be returning your brother’s dust for a longlongtime. Perhaps forever. So people are bound to notice my new tattoo.”
He squeezed the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. “Just hide it tonight. Please?”
Something occurred to me then. “Wait. Did I confiscate hiswitaor yours?”
His gold eyes snapped open, and his hand slid off his face. “Mine? Why would you think it was mine?”
“Because you sent yours at me too.”
“To stop you from being skewered. Now put on the damn gloves.”
“I thought you were trying to help your brother.”
“Wouldn’t expect you to think anything but the worst of me.”
“Have you ever given me a reason to think otherwise?”
