I remained gaping in shock. Yeah, when was he going to tell me? And why would he ask for my hand?
Just then the dining room doors opened by the staff to reveal Sebastian. My gaping expression turned to him. He eyed my face, confusion flashing across his features before returning back to his perpetual blankness.
“Sebastian, I suppose you are here to end the engagement. Please, spare us the long speech. We can’t take another one.” Mother mightas well have dramatically placed the back of her hand atop her forehead and fainted from exhaustion.
“Why would I do that?”
“Well, becau—I ...” she stuttered, which was quite a sight to see.
“I’ve come to retrieve Charlotte for our trip.” He paused a moment. “If you’re well enough to go?” He cocked his head slightly.
“Of course. I wouldn’t miss it.”
I rose from my seat and surveyed the table as I said goodbye. To my father’s face of pride, my sister’s barely restrained giddiness, and then my mother. I had never seen her speechless. I had never seen her mouth hang open. I had never seen her proven wrong. And I couldn't stop the wicked delight that spread through me at the sight.
* * *
As soon as we were in the carriage on our way to the portal, or more so on our way to the edge of the Lost Woods where we would be dropped off at a beautiful inn as our cover for sneaking into the woods later, I expected Sebastian to say something. Anything. I knew last night was hectic, maybe he didn’t catch that my father mentioned our betrothal, but my mother had outright said it just moments ago. And we certainly never talked about this. I didn’t even have a ring on my finger.
I continued to stare at him as he looked out the window, clearly not the least bit pleased by anything he saw by the look of his bored expression.
“How long do you plan on staring at me?” His eyes remained fixed out the window.
“Really?”
At my tone he finally met my icy stare. He frowned for a second and cocked his head to the side. Good grief he was actually clueless.
“What is it?” he asked, genuinely wondering.
“Betrothed? Our engagement? When were you going to tell me, at our wedding?”
“You’re unhappy.”
I stared at him for a moment, trying to grapple with how on earth he didn’t understand me. “Why did you ask my father for my hand? We aren’t actually courting, and you just took it a step further, a step that I cannot retreat from by the way.”
He nodded once and glanced around the carriage as he collected his words. “At the rate things were going, we would have never made it to the portal. And in your world, the man seems to have quite a bit of authority over the woman within a betrothal and a marriage.” He frowned, not liking the taste of those words. “I figured at this point I needed to take advantage of your ... customs.”
“So, you thought if we were engaged, then you’d have more sway over my father and me?”
“Yes.”
Well, he was not wrong. I supposed this would make things easier down the road. And it had worked. We were now finally free to make it to the portal. But I’d be left with the aftermath, a mess I was afraid I’d never be able to clean up. I gazed out the window at the ancient oaks sitting on the hilltops.
“When you go back home after closing the portal, I won’t just have another failed courtship but a broken engagement. I will never recover from that.”
He was silent for a moment. “At that point, everyone will know who I really am. They will see that we worked together to save their ungrateful lives.”
I shot him an expression that was less than convinced. “Sebastian, to have worked with the enemy only makes my predicament even worse.”
A devilish smirk curled his lips. “I like when you say my name.”
“Now you’ll never hear your name come from my mouth again.”
“We’ll see about that.” An ominous tone crept into his words. His gaze was so penetrating I had to look back out the window.
“I’m serious. You vampires have effectively ruined my life,” I muttered.
I gasped as he was suddenly at my side. I leaned away as he leaned in, my head hitting the soft, cushioned walls of the carriage. He draped one of his arms over the bench behind my back, and the other pressed into the carriage wall beside my face. He caged me in and looked down to me with an aliveness I had never seen in his eyes. A ferocity.
