For so many reasons.I rub my eyes with the heels of my hands, then rest them on the arms of my chair. “I went to the ball and ran into Addison. I’d met her before?—”
His eyes narrow. “The puker?She’sthe puker?”
“Not that it matters.”
“But yes,” he replies, triumph lacing his voice for puzzling it together.
“At the ball she got into a bind. An ex-boyfriend of hers was a prick, so I stepped in.”
“And declared yourself engaged?” he roars.
“Yes.”
“And then the joining magic just sprang up out of nowhere?”
“Exactly.”
He slumps into his chair, shaking his head and looking two seconds away from choking the life out of me. “And you want me to believe that’s how it happened.”
“Thatishow it happened. Believe what you want.”
“I thought you would go as a joke. Make an intimidating entrance, dance with a few of the daughters.” His knee bounces in frustration. “I didn’t expect you to come out engaged.”
“We’re only pretending. She doesn’t want to get married any more than I do. This isn’t permanent.”
“Whatever this is, it isn’t good. It changes things,” Trawick tells me.
“It changes nothing,” I remind him fiercely. “Everything still goes as planned.”
He throws his arms out. “So your great plan is to, what? Have the charade of an engagement, let all the fae rejoice, and then break things off? How exactly do you think our people will respond to a broken joining? You’re going to crush them.” When I don’t answer, he adds, “Does she know how toenda joining?”
“No,” I tell him pointedly. “I haven’t tortured her with that knowledge.”
“This just gets worse and worse.” He rubs his hands down his face and drops them to his thighs “Do I need to remind you what such a bond signifies?”
Anger flashes in my eyes. “No, you don’t. I’m well aware what it means.”
“Does she, though?” When I don’t answer, he groans. “Let me get this straight—she doesn’t know how to end a joining, and she doesn’t even know what such a bond means to fae.”
“Right on both counts.”
“You’ve got to tell her.”
And have her hate me more than she already does? Addison onlytoleratesme now. All I want to do is crush my mouth against hers and run my hands through her hair. But every time she looks at me, her eyes scream that I’m her captor. Albeit a convenient one, but still I’m holding her here. I won’t risk having her hate me more by revealing the truth. Because that’s exactly what’ll happen. She’ll run, and I’ll be left even more scooped out than I was before meeting her.
“What are your intentions with the witch?”
Trawick’s question takes me off guard. I don’t suppose claiming her so that no other man can touch her is the right answer.
“The same as they were before.”
He shakes his head and stares out a window. “If that’s the truth, have you contacted the Witch and Wizard Council? We could never move before since you had no direct link to witchblood. But by being engaged to one, you have sway. They’ll have to listen to you now. They’ll have no choice.”
“No,” I’m embarrassed to say. “I haven’t contacted them.”
He scowls as if to repeat,Nothing good will come of this joining, and this is the beginning of it.“Then I’ll do it for you.”
My chest constricts, squeezing my heart so hard it feels like it’s going to be crushed. This is what I’ve wanted for years. I can’t let somefeelingsfor a woman I hardly know get in the way.
