“You’re right, Meela,” Raef says. “So is Daegan. But what do we do, have you leave notes out of nowhere? Seems suspicious.”
“It is suspicious,” I chime in finally. “Especially after…”
My gaze flicks to Daegan. Everyone knows what I’m referring to, which saves me from having to repeat it.
Daegan is not trusted around the castle as it is.
“Then you have a few days to sell it,” Rhydra says, like it’s already decided.
“I’m sorry?” Meela questions.
I know exactly what she’s getting at. She expects us to—
“Start flirting. Start being seen together. Both of you. Raef and Elysande, Meela and Daegan? I don’t care.”
Daegan clears his throat suddenly. “I’ve already been seen in Elysande’s room by a not so pleased suitor of hers,” he says, sounding slightly agitated. “You’re right, we need to sell it. But she’s with me.”
I stare at him for a moment. No one else speaks. “Do I get a say in this?”
“No,” Daegan and Meela say in unison. He crosses his arms.
“No offense,” Meela announces, looking around.
He shrugs, completely unaffected.
“The only problem is elves don’t mix with others outside of their kind…” Meela says, like it’s a problem she’s working through out loud.
“Again. You simply couldn’t resist our good looks,” Raef adds with a grin. “It makes the secret runaway that much more necessary. Because it’sforbidden. Hot.”
Suddenly, I become lost in my thoughts, and I take several large gulps of ale without realizing what I’m really doing. This is going to be three days of pure torture for me, being in his presence, pretending to flirt… I don’t even know what that’s going to look like for him. For me. I’m not sure that I can even bring myself to do it at this point. If I do, I might accidentally trick myself into thinking it’s real, and I’m going to be in too deep.
Suddenly, my breathing hastens, and I’m about to excuse myself from the table when Meela’s voice breaks through my haze. “I’m sorry, you guys. But I don’t think I can do it.”
I snap my head up.
Oh.
Here I am worried about having to flirt with Daegan when Meela has literally lost the love of her life because her father didn’t agree to their matching. Because he wasn’t an elf, and from a lesser species, in his eyes. And a rebel.
All things that Raef is.
“It’s the only way we can get out of there for a few days without raising suspicions about what we’re really doing. Better to take the wrath for a forbidden romance than for them to question what we’re really up to,” Raef insists.
Meela shuts down. I see it in the way she folds in on herself, the way her eyes glaze over. “No.”
I stand up and go to her, grabbing her arm gently. “Excuse us for a minute,” I say to the table, my eyes pleading for understanding as she stands with me.
I lead her to a dark, quiet corner of the tavern.
“Is this about…”
She nods, cutting me off. “I can’t do that to him. I can’t risk it. As much as Raef drives me insane…”
I give her a look of understanding. I won’t push her to do it.
“We’ll just have to think of another way. We can just disappear and say nothing and hope for the best.”
“And how did that work out last time when you were gone for only a day?”
