I shrugged, then toyed with a discarded necklace draped across the table beside me. “I’ve been busy.”
“It’s almost as if you don’t want this, Vaeron,” she hissed, frowning and crossing her arms. “What’s more distasteful, Dasha or your duty?”
I smothered the urge to tell her that I never had a fucking choice in the first place. She never asked me if I wanted to bind myself to Dasha. Stadiel simply told me it was going to happen while she smiled on.
When I didn’t reply, she issued another order. “You’re going to visit her chambers tonight.”
The thought of doing so made my skin crawl.
“That would be imprudent,” I stated, somehow able to keep my tone measured.
She cocked her head to the side, looking like a crazed bird. “And, pray tell, why is that?”
“We both know she’s no virgin.” It made me sick to throw that information on the table like a weapon. But no one ever gave a fuck about what I wanted; no one asked for my consent.
Iaoth opened her mouth to admonish me, but I cut her off. “And I need to ensure that my line continues. Not through another male’s bastard. Once we’re sharing a bed, I can easily tell if she’s hiding something. There’s always fire beneath the smoke of a political marriage.”
Iaoth crossed her slender arms and huffed.
I lifted my scarred brow, waiting for her to challenge my logic.
“You don’t have to fuck her,” she finally grumbled, like the idea that I wouldn’t was somehow insulting to her.
I dropped the priceless gems, the ping of stone against wood echoing while I gathered my next words. “Why elsewould she want me there?” I questioned, steel edging into my tone.
Iaoth threw her hands in the air. “I don’t know, Vaeron. Maybe she wants to figure out if you’re completely incompetent before your vows so she knows what she’s getting into?”
A muscle feathered in my jaw as I held my tongue. The temptation to scream at her, to reveal my bond, was too great. I could picture the shocked expression that would slap across her face. The way her jaw would slacken. The red that would tinge her cheeks.
The temptation was almost too sweet to let the moment slip through my fingers. Instead, I leashed control and shoved to my feet, giving her my back as I stalked into her sitting room.
“Vaeron!” she screeched after me. But I ignored her and kept walking.
Her hand clamped around my arm, giving me a tug. I shrugged her off and whirled on her, towering over her in the span of a second.
She took a healthy step back, nearly folding in half over a settee. “I need one more thing,” she gasped out as I pinned her.
“What?” I bit out, my patience a mere gossamer. “What more could you possibly want from me? I already have a list that’ll take me days, and you want it all completed by lunch.”
Iaoth’s expression twisted like I’d insulted her by not wanting to roll over every single time she requested something of me. “Stadiel requires your presence at the council meeting this evening. Decisions must be made on provisions for our holy warriors fighting on the front. I need you to sway houses Thesariin and Liraeviel to whatever the Koron wants them to do.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “And where should I meet you to have their memories altered?” Because I could Commandtheir vote, but they would remember exactly who made them do it. And possibly tell others.
This was why Iaoth and I had always been somewhat of a package deal. Our magics complemented each other in that way, and Stadiel wielded us like twin blades for his ambitions. And my sister, in turn, used me.
What a blessed cycle the Goddess had placed me in.
“The garden where I greeted you at high noon,” she said, offering me a disarming smile. It had no effect on me—not anymore.
“Fine,” I gritted out.
Then, I spun on my heel and stomped out the door, calling on Ilae to help me hunt the two heads of houses.
After almost an hourof scouring the palace, Ilae pressed an image of the two males on the third floor of the inner circle, standing beside the balustrade overlooking one of the many gardens.
I sent a pulse of thanks and conveyed he should remain to keep watch in case they moved. Thankfully, I only needed to backtrack a short distance from my location in the advisory feather.
Both faced outward, peering toward the gate like they were expecting an imminent arrival. I slowed my pace and lightened my steps, not wanting them to hear my approach.
