“Can I hug you, Isles?” She starts moving toward us, fanning her emotion-filled face.
Konstantin steps back. As Izolda throws her arms around my neck, I gape at her brother, silently beseeching him to dosomething.
“When did it happen?” Izolda’s voice is muffled against my hair, but not muffled enough for me to pretend like I didn’t hear her. “Was it at the Lodge?”
“No,” I say, because Konstantin is fully committed to his role as a decorative statue.
“At the carnival?” she asks. “That’s why he disappeared. Because he couldn’t stand that you went to dinner with Lev, but he was too proud to keep you from it!”
“No.” Her crestfallen expression has me scrambling to find a denial that won’t further depress her, but instead, I find myself blurting out, “It happened just after.”
Konstantin blinks, while I sink into a bubbling cauldron of mortification and regret.
What the bloody underworld, Isla?
18
ISLA
Forget poisoning Shoshair and strutting into Konstantin’s private steam bath practically naked, this takes the cake, the icing, the cherry on top, and the serving stand.
Think before you speak, Isla. Think. Think. Think.
By the time Izolda releases me to embrace her brother, he has fully composed himself, while I remain chagrined goo inside my metaphorical cauldron. I’d been reluctant to tell Izolda the real reason her brother and I were studying Konstantina’s engagement ring, since it came with a generous serving of messed-up prophecy. But surely, I could’ve come up with something better than:It happened just after?
“Well, go on. Let’s see if the ring fits,” she chirps. “It probably will, since you’re mates.”
Her logic leaves much to be desired, since the Cauldron can’t exactly resize rings from afar, but I don’t debate her point. I’m still beating myself up over the fact that I caved and admitted to a nonexistent mating bond.
I contemplate stripping her mind of the memory, but the last and only time I performed that spell, Elio not only forgot about the trial kiss we shared (we were twelve and wanted toaccrue experience for our first real kiss) but also his name. It took Taytah’s blood, dripped into a thimble of Cauldron water, to restore his memory.
“Actually, I intended to present it to Isla at tonight’s gathering. If that’s all right with you, Iz?”
“Oh my Gods, of course! It’ll make the gala extra fantastic.”
Her grin becomes so incandescent that I have to look away. And not because it hurts my eyes but because it hurts my heart. I don’t like lying to my friends, which is what I consider the king’s sister.
She presses her palms together in prayer. “Can I tell Aodhan? Pretty please?”
“Wait until Isla has spoken to her parents, all right?”
Her hands drop. “You haven’t told your parents yet, Isles?”
I swallow—a heavy, sinking gulp—as I picture Dádhi’s reaction. And Jaytair’s. Skies, they were going to ship me back to Luce and put me under round-the-clock supervision. Which could work in my favor, since I really shouldn’t be left to my own devices.
“You’re the first to know, sister,” Konstantin announces with a great deal of effusion, since I’ve yet to muster any. “Don’t mind my mate. She’s still in shock.” He peers down at me. “She cannot believe her luck.”
“Ah, yes,” I mutter. “So lucky.”
“Hey, Iz, can you give us a few minutes?” he asks.
She laughs. “Take as many minutes as you need.” As she backs up toward the door, she waggles her eyebrows.
The instant the door shuts, Konstantin snaps the lock in place with a click of his fingers.
“Why couldn’t you have done that earlier?” I gripe, sagging against his desk, while driving the heels of my palms into my eyes.
“Foolish me.Why didn’t I think of locking you in this room with me? What an oversight.” The sarcasm that rolls off his tongue has me sighing.
