Perhaps they did.
Maybe this was one big cult.
She lowered her voice. “Has he always been so?—”
“Dickish?”
The tiniest smile graced her face. “I was going to sayprovoking.”
“He knows exactly what to say to get under your skin.”
“Hmm. Galadaine wasn’t like that.”
He’s not Galadaine, Sean thought. Because if she expected David to be like his ancestor, then she’d expect that of Sean as well. He couldn’t have those beliefs piled atop his shoulders. It was too much. He’d crumble under the weight of expectation.
Her expression took on a troubled cast. “Let’s change the subject. I don’t want to talk about him.”
“Alright. Where are we going?” he asked because healsodidn’t want to talk about David.
David, for all intents and purposes, could go fuck himself.
“We need to talk,” she said.
Ominous.
Outside, the sun was high in the sky, puffy white clouds mingling with sparks of rainbows, but Sean’s gaze dipped instead to the curves swaying beneath Isobel’s jade dress. What waswrongwith him? Why couldn’t he shake this? It was like she’d flipped some switch in his head.
The libido switch.
He hated it.
He trailed her through the forest, far from anything and anyone. The only sounds came from the chittering birds, the wind rustling leaves.
And her footsteps. Slow and methodical.
Welcome to the show.
The history he’d learned replayed through his head, and with it, new memories filled in strange details he’d not thought possible. Cheerful recollections of Lhynion’s brother conflicted with Sean’s real-life knowledge of David Berkeley.
They were brothers. They just…had different ideas. And fell in love with the same woman.
What was he supposed to do with that? Their shared history didn’t change their turbulent past.
But other memories were creeping up as well. Memories of a girl who looked too much like Isobel. Meléan had been beautiful like her. Lovely, but flawed. Volatile. Spoiled.
“Say you love me more than him, my love.”
“Do not make me choose, for I fear you’ll not like my answer.”
After a time, Isobel turned to face him, expression tight. “There’s more you need to know.”
Sean leaned a shoulder against a tree beside him and held a hand out in invitation, though he wasn’t certain how much more he could take. She fingered the vial at her neck and slid it up and down the chain. It had changed from when he’d first studied the delicate charm. Now violet and scarlet swirled together inside.
At his interest, Isobel dropped the vial. “You’ve learned our history, so let’s talk about our future.”
He pointed at her jewelry. “Start with that. What’s the necklace?”
She hesitated, her chest swelling with a deep breath before she said, “It’s—your life.”
