Chapter 37
O f course, I didn’t get my wish since Princess Pain-in-the-arse followed me out of the damned tent.
“You have got to be kidding me,” she said in a tone she probably thought was quiet. “I told you last night, you do not get to treat me like your puppet and you sure as stars don’t get to tell me who I can marry.”
Ah. So she remained utterly ignorant of what a blood debt entailed, despite the seven to ten times it had been explained to her.
“Actually, Lemmikki, I do,” I said without turning to face her, lest I strangle her here in this very camp where I had made a vow of peace. “And rest assured that when my clan’s safety hangs in the balance, I will.”
Of course, she still followed, shuffling behind me on rapid footsteps with her much shorter stride.
“You know that my family will come for me. Why trade the threat of war for the guarantee of one? We could have worked out a treaty.” She sounded more desperate than I had heard her, more sincere than her usual flippancy allowed.
Korhonan hadn’t had that effect on her, so it had to be her cousin. With a sigh, I thought of Taras at the mercy of our enemies, and it made me pause long enough to break things down for her.
“There was no time, and once again, you fail to see the bigger picture.” I still didn’t turn to face her, but she was closer now, the sound of her footsteps only a single pace behind mine. “There would have been war either way. Just the idea that Lochlann is allied with Elk would have been enough for most of the other clans to cave, then the upstanding Iiro would be sitting on the Obsidian Throne. And my father would never let that stand.”
“Your father or you?” she pressed. “Is this all about power?”
I took another breath, this time in an effort to calm myself.
Was she serious right now? Iiro took her to a Summit and Theodore all but tricked her into marrying him, and I was the one who cared about power? Even after I brought her here, risking my father doing storms-knew-what in my absence, in an effort to give her back?
Finally, I spun to face her. “Is that what you believe?”
She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth, uncertainty warring on her delicate features. Well, I sure as hell wasn’t going to waste my time trying to explain something to her that she would neither understand nor believe.
I shook my head, feeling more tired than I had a moment ago. “Think what you will, Lemmikki, but I don’t trust Iiro farther than you could throw him, and I won’t risk my clan on his dubious word.”
“What about my word?” she countered.
I raised my eyebrows, wondering what she would offer.
“What if I agreed to wait to marry Theo until we could speak to my father? No one wants another war, least of all, Lochlann.” She chewed on her lip again, drawing my attention to the bottom curve that was so similar to the cousin she still hadn’t owned up to.
“You talk about trust, Lemmikki, but I’m not the one who has been lying.”
She clamped her teeth down harder, like she was physically restraining herself from talking.
“Davin is a eunuch guard, is he?” I asked.
She averted her gaze, staring firmly at the ground before looking me in the eyes, obviously preparing to hedge, if not outright lie.
“All right.” She cleared her throat, spreading her hands in a gesture of innocence that didn’t reach her features. “You got me. Davin is…intact, as far as I know.”
Well there went my patience for this conversation.
“Lemmikki,” I growled.
“He’s my cousin,” she blurted out, albeit in a voice little more than a whisper.
Here was hoping she never had to hold up under torture.
“Hmm?” I pretended not to hear her.
“He’s my cousin!” She yelled it this time.
“You don’t say,” I deadpanned.
“How did you know?”
The real question was how she could have possibly hoped that I wouldn’t figure it out.
“Other than the fact that he speaks like a noble and shares a name with your uncle’s only son?”
“Davin is a very common name?—”
I wasn’t sure why she was bothering to argue now, but neither did I feel like entertaining it.
“Indeed. And are there many Davins who you travel alone with? Who you openly embrace in front of your betrothed?”
She started to respond, likely to rebut each of those things, when I gave her the most obvious tell.
“And who happen to have lips shaped exactly like yours?”
Rowan snapped her mouth shut, her cheeks coloring.
“You know,” I offered. “I’m less offended than I am impressed. I didn’t know you had that kind of conniving in you, though I did wonder what compelled someone as contrary as you are to bother to stand in front of the Summit and even keep your mouth shut for as long as you did. If they were holding your cousin over your head, however...”
It was a guess, but her pursed lips confirmed it. And she thought I was the problem.
“Iiro is even better than I gave him credit for. And these are the people you want to go back to? Are you certain? The same ones who wanted you to be, what was it Iiro said, amicable and accommodating ?”
Her eyes flashed with anger, and she tilted her chin to stare up at me in a challenge.
“As opposed to the one who took away my future, my only family here, my fiancé, and claimed me as his pet? Yes, I’m quite certain.”
Was she? There was a waver to her tone, an uneasiness behind her gaze. But it wasn’t my job to force her to be honest with herself.
I forced a shrug, ready to be done with this conversation. “If you say so, Lemmikki.”
This time when I walked away, she didn’t bother to follow me.
“I take it things went well,” Taras said drily while I took a long dreg from my flask.
“Elk had her cousin, all this time,” I told him once I swallowed.
Kirill was waiting for Rowan, keeping watch over his favorite charge while I took a much needed break from her presence, and Korhonan’s.
“The guard?” my cousin clarified.
“Better known as Prince Oliver’s son, Davin.”
Taras let out a sigh before snatching my flask and taking a drink.
“I would ask if they were using him to coerce her, but her letters to Korhonan were quite…descriptive.”
I made a face, swallowing back a bit of bile.
“Of course they were,” I said. “And to answer your question, I do think she was originally coerced into her incredibly loose definition of decorum, but latched onto Korhonan in the meantime. But honestly, I could care less about her maidenly feelings for the aalio . The real question is how this changes these talks.”
Taras shrugged. “You have more to bargain with now.”
I took back my flask, running my thumb over the engraving of the bear silhouette.
“She wants me to agree to send her away on her word that she won’t marry into Elk until we can all enter negotiations with her father,” I sighed. “So, I could offer to trade for her cousin so we maintain some leverage. He’s not only important to her, but to Lochlann, obviously.”
“But you don’t want to?” he accurately gauged my hesitation.
I considered that, wondering what was staying my hand. Davin was calculating in a way that Rowan wasn’t, observant when I had too many secrets.
“I suspect in his way, he would be an even more difficult captive than she has proven to be. Not to mention, the point was to direct Lochlann’s wrath elsewhere. It’s not out of the question, though.”
I took another sip of my vodka, wondering how many more surprises were lurking around the corner, just waiting to further upend my life.