“Or perhaps, Kostya’s your mate,” Aodhan chimes in. Unhelpfully.
I can’t help but grimace at the idea of ending up with a male who hates the very idea of marriage.
Aodhan’s smile flattens. “I know Ríhbiadhs consider Crows the superior species, but we’re not, and there’s no shame in being mated to a Faerie.”
At first, surprise flutters my lids. But then annoyance slits them. “I don’t fucking care what species of person I’m mated to, Aodhan. I’m just attempting to come to terms with why the Cauldron decided to bind me to someone who’d prefer to strip a rose of its thorns with his teeth than to marry.”
“That was oddly specific.” Aodhan’s features are no longer pleated in displeasure. “The thorn part. Have you ever caught someone doing that, Isla? Haveyouever done that?”
When Lachlano grins, I level him with a glare that I hope will raze his devastating longing to share the idiotic challengehesuggested when we were young, dumb, and bored.
“Can the two of you give Isla and me the room, please?” Konstantin asks. “I’d like to talk to her in private.”
“Do you want me to stay?” Lachlano asks in Serpent.
“He’s not going to eat her.” Aodhan joggles his head. “Or maybe?—”
“Finish that thought,” Konstantin hisses, “and you’ll end up spiked on an obsidian sword at the bottom of my ocean.Withmy sister. The dead one.”
Aodhan snorts as he pulls open the door and lets himself and Lachlano out.
“I steal it!” I gasp just as the door settles in its frame.
“You steal my mother’s ring? That’s your latest conclusion?”
I wrinkle my nose. Even if it is a sensational jewel, it’s not in my nature to steal. Not to mention, it would be incredibly weird to flaunt my theft by wearing it on my ring finger.
I drift over to the table and pull out the seat beside his. After I flop down, I jam all ten of my fingers into my hair, kneading my throbbing skull, wishing I’d never learned about the ring.
I lower my gaze to the quiet shot glass. If only a brawl could start at the tavern, so that we could focus on something else. “Have you ever considered selling it?”
“Do I look in need of coin?”
“No. But people don’t always sell things for profit. Sometimes they part with things to get rid of them.”
“It’s the last piece of my mother I own. I’d neverget rid of it.”
I run my lip between my teeth. “I assume you’d have preferred to hear the antimorphs lobbed off your head?”
“Than stripping a rose of its thorns with my teeth?”
I snort. “Than having a mate.” After some more lip torturing, I ask, “You really never considered giving the ring to your brother?”
The vein at the base of his throat quivers. “My brother doesn’t want the ring.”
I sit up straighter. “Aha! So youhaveconsidered giving it away! If I do turn out to be his mate, then perhaps he’ll change his mind and take it off your hands.”
Blood converges into Konstantin’s cheeks, dramatically defining the sharp bones.
“What’s with the rage-reddening? I’ve just found you a way out of an undesirable union.”
Konstantin’s lids twitch. “I’ve never been one to shirk my responsibilities.”
That tightens my lips. Not enough to keep my next words from sailing out, but enough to inflect them with all I’m feeling. “I understand that the ring news comes as quite the shock, butit would be nice if you could temper your revulsion, because a mating bond isn’t aresponsibility; it’s a fucking privilege.”
“If it’s such aprivilege, then why are you so desperate to cast me aside and marry one of my siblings?”
“Because I don’t want your kingdom!”
