Gryffin’s eyes blaze when he shakes his head. “Tell me you did not accept Leah’s proposal.”
Maddox’s hands flex at his sides. “What the fuck, Ever? You cannot have a mate at home and court another across the canyon.”
I donothave a mate. “I never accepted Leah’s proposal. I swear it.” The chieftain said she showed everyonemyskillet, but all my cookware is locked in my barrel-top. Unless she broke in there is no way?—
Wait.There is one skillet that was not in my house. “Gryffin? What did you do with the skillet I gave you?”
His faces twists into a grimace. “Shit.”
“Did you give it to Leah?”
A nod. “She asked if she could use it while I was gone. We were not going to be here, so I thought nothing of it.”
I drag my hands through my hair. We were supposed to be friends. How could she do this to me? “I must set the record straight.”
Gryffin scrubs a hand down his face, his scowl deeper than I have ever seen before. “If you break it off, her father will lose his mind. He is not known for his forgiveness. You are liable to end up exiled.”
“Maybe it is for the best,” Maddox chimes in. “It is not as if it would have worked out with the Seelie anyway. What were you going to do? Move to Rosehill and start farming goats?”
I do not know how or even if Kerris and I would have made a relationship work, but at least it would have been our decision to end things instead of having someone else force our hands.
There is only one way to make this right.
Bones crunch beneath my boots as I stalk toward Nyx.
“Where are you going?” Maddox calls.
I am going to make this right.
I am going to clear things up once and for all.
“I am going to speak to Leah.”
* * *
My fist threatens to break through Leah’s unpainted door. I do not care who hears the deafening rattle. This is a conversation that cannot wait until morning.
She answers with a coy smile that sets my teeth on edge. Does she not realize what her lies have done?
“Hello, Ever.”
“You will call me Everett Gathin.” Only my closest friends call me Ever, and she has proven that she is no longer among them. I duck beneath the doorframe into her barrel-top. Her home is as stark as my feelings this night, without adornment or personalization. Unlike some females, Leah Locke has never been one to fuss over decorations. To my knowledge, she has never fussed over anything.
She closes the door behind me and leans a slender hip against the lone chair next to her table. “You have heard the happy news, then.”
More like tragic news. “Your father came to the outpost to congratulate me. What were you thinking?”
Her chin lifts with defiance. “I was thinking the male I chose has strung me along for long enough. Everyone in the camp was laughing at me.”
“They were not.”
“How would you know? You are barely here. Only to sleep and then leave again on your hunts and to guard the bridge. You do not have to face their scorn.”
She is hurting, and I should feel more sympathetic. Maybe I would if she had not put me into such a hopeless position. “I am sorry for making you wait so long. I can see now that my hesitance to give you an answer put you in a terrible position. In truth, I did not know my own mind, but now I do.”
My mother’s words ring true in my ears as clearly as the day she spoke them to me.
I will not settle for anything less than love.
