Pride #2
To me, he said, “Tanyn’s Public Relations Director has been holding for us to holo with her for the last ten minutes.
She has things to do too. I don’t have to remind you, the recently deposed king of Sky’s Edge is facing a bevy of trials for calamitous international incidents along with murder.
She does not have time to await your fancy.
I also shouldn’t have to remind you that Tanyn certainly does not have time to waste.
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it one last time, it’s insufferably rude, and it cannot, and I will have your promise right here, right now, it will not happen again. ”
In return, I did not remind him I had no idea Tanyn was going to be there, and as such, further had no idea some PR Director was waiting to have a chat.
Instead, I sat completely still and stared at my father.
I sensed Tanyn shift uncomfortably and heard my mother’s soft, sweet, “Catty.”
But it took very long moments before Dad cottoned on to the situation.
He was a demon.
I was half demon, half human, but in things like this, the demon always won out.
And the “thing like this” was, you didn’t cross the pride of a demon.
I could, and had, taken my father’s dressing-downs for reasons, admittedly, I deserved (what could I say?
again, I was half demon, this always won out, so naughtiness, rebellion and willfulness was ingrained—Dad had even conceded he often got in trouble for these same things when he was younger).
And for others I would vociferously contend I did not.
However, these were always studiously private family affairs.
Speaking to me like this in front of Tanyn was unconscionable.
And I noticed, belatedly, Dad realized it.
“Catla,” he murmured.
“Carry on with it,” I said in a dead voice.
“Sweetheart, I—” Dad tried.
“Please, carry on with it,” I hissed.
“Perhaps I should—” Tanyn started.
My gaze shot to him. “No. Stay. Let’s get this done.”
There was a long, awkward silence after that, and this long, awkward silence had a lot to do with the fact, not only that you didn’t cross a demon’s pride, but also, demons had grave difficulty apologizing, like my father should be doing right now.
But he would not.
“You were keen to do this, Mammon,” Mom said in an irate tone (oh yeah, even human, she knew you didn’t mess with the pride of a demon, maybe even better than Dad and I did—also, she was a mom, and you didn’t mess with that either). “Do it,” she finished.
Dad took a breath in through his nose and stated, “Mira, Tanyn’s PR director, will explain the ins and outs of things before you two officially come out at Aleksei and Laura’s engagement party.
However, none of that can happen until you move beyond the compatibility trial.
This has been arranged for the weekend after next. ”
Even though this was going to require me changing plans, since it was right then Thursday, so I only had just over a week to prepare, I said nothing.
“Tanyn wants to host you on Sigil Isle. In the home where he grew up,” Mom said. “Won’t that be nice?”
I looked to her and replied without inflection, “Lovely.”
She pressed her lips together before she sent a cross look to Dad.
Tanyn finally spoke.
“Does this work with your schedule?”
I turned my expressionless face to his equally expressionless (but still handsome) one.
“Does it matter?” I asked.
“It does to me,” he answered.
I arched a brow. “Indeed?”
It was an excellent question.
As noted, he knew I was with Bash too, when he went into negotiations with my father…
No, when he approached my father to negotiate, then signed the betrothal agreement that would, if we got through the compatibility trial, tie me to him for the rest of my life.
(And just to say, it was the male who determined if the trial was a success or a failure, so I was screwed on that score too, unless I could convince him during that weekend I was not the queen for him, something I fully intended to do.)
Of course, there was no actual law that said I, who had not signed a betrothal agreement, had to adhere to said agreement.
At least there wasn’t a law in Night’s Fall, where I lived.
However, if I didn’t, I could kiss my mother and father goodbye indefinitely, even eternally.
Although Dad and I could cross horns, I loved him. I loved both of them. I did this with all my heart. I did not want to lose them, even if this whole business was crazy archaic.
Just the concept of being disowned by them terrified me.
Mom, as a human, could, and probably would, defy this demonic edict.
Dad never would.
Never.
If we made it through the trial and I didn’t marry Tanyn, I’d lose Dad forever, and I couldn’t even think about that without feeling sick to my stomach.
Tanyn conceded my point by inclining his annoyingly attractive head, a movement that was annoyingly attractive.
“Sweetheart,” Dad called me, all loving and kind now, of course.
I turned to him, and I knew my face was not loving or kind but carefully bland.
Dad sallied forth anyway.
“Tanyn wishes for you both to be coronated together,” he announced.
Bully for Tanyn.
“As such, and with Aleksei and Laura’s engagement party coming closer, we really don’t have time to delay,” he went on.
I said nothing.
“Sweetheart,” Dad whispered, the word this time dripping with remorse.
Farg his remorse.
Sure, he was a male. He didn’t have to put up with this nonsense. In real terms, he could not get how this felt.
But he was living with me and Mom and the rest of the world in these modern times. He had to know how much he was asking of me, how totally antiquated this expectation was of female demons being married so damned young. He had to have some understanding of what this was going to cost me.
And he’d had a hand in making me. He knew me. He knew how I’d react to him doing something like this.
Even so, he laid me out right in front of Tanyn like I was not behaving like a female who’d had her options and free will torn from her, but instead, like I was a disobedient child.
So…oh yeah.
Farg his remorse.
“Will your beings arrange transport, or shall I?” I asked Tanyn.
“I’d prefer you have a detail,” Tanyn replied.
“I know. They escorted me here,” I reminded him, leaving off and everywhere else for the last week. “Unnecessarily, since no one knows anything about us.”
“And it was thought no one knew Laura was Aleksei’s mate, and she was attacked months before she even met him, because she was Aleksei’s mate,” Tanyn rejoined.
He had me there.
“We’re not mates,” I rejoined.
“Yes, we are,” he returned. “Or we will be, shortly, when I put a ring on your finger and a crown on your head.”
Bah!
“Right,” I conceded. “Will your beings tell my beings when I need to be ready? I can assure you,”—my eyes slid to my father before they went back to the king—“I won’t be late.”
Did Tanyn’s mouth tighten ever so slightly because Dad botched this? Or was I seeing things?
“My beings will be in touch with your beings,” Tanyn agreed.
“Excellent. Shall we cease wasting Mira’s time now?” I suggested.
Dad sighed.
Mom made a displeased pip.
“Of course,” Tanyn said.
“Engage holo with Mira Loreling,” Dad ordered his desk comm.
There were some beeps indicating this Mira female was being hailed before the demon herself, sitting behind a desk, blinked into the room.
She stood and curtsied to Tanyn.
I fought rolling my eyes.
“Your Majesty,” she greeted.
“Mira. Allow me to introduce my fiancée, Catla Truelock,” Tanyn said.
Now did I detect a minor sneer on her lips?
“Miss Truelock, a pleasure,” she said to me, sounding like she meant it, while totally not meaning it.
“And Mammon and Freya Truelock, my future in-laws,” Tanyn continued.
“Sir. Madam,” Mira addressed them.
“The compatibility trial is set,” Tanyn told her. “So please go over your preliminary plan.”
“Of course, sire,” she replied.
Sire?
Yuck.
“Naturally, it all depends on the results of the compatibility trial,” she was sure to add (oh yeah, evidence was suggesting with this one interaction, the demons of Sky’s Edge were not going to open their arms to their future queen being of a First Family of demons to bend a knee to the shifter monarch of Night’s Fall a handful of centuries ago).
“But obviously, momentous news like this, especially considering all Sky’s Edge endured under the reign of Arnaud, the terrifying way that ended, and the resulting but sudden shift in leadership, this needs to be handled with care.
In other words, we can’t spring it on the citizens of Sky’s Edge. ”
I just loved sitting around listening to someone pointing out the obvious.
With a glance at Tanyn, I noted he felt the same way.
Mira was noting Tanyn’s response, I could tell, because she hurried on.
“Therefore, we’ll arrange a few pics to be leaked.
Secreting out of a restaurant, obviously unsuccessfully.
Being together in a craft. Things like that.
These will be arranged with photographers and media outlets I trust. Of course, in turn, this will shift focus to Miss Truelock, the detail she’s been provided will be noted, tongues will wag, and the stage will be set for you, Your Majesty, to escort Miss Truelock to Prince Aleksei and Mistress Laura’s engagement party, which will officially declare your courtship. ”
I hated this idea because Laura was one of my best friends. Everyone already knew she was engaged to Aleksei, that had been spectacularly communicated through several dramatic events.
That said, she’d never been a fan of attention being on her, so if I asked, she’d probably be all for Tanyn and me doing our thing at that party.
But still.
It was her night.
However, if things went according to my plans, none of this would happen anyway, so I wasn’t going to waste energy discussing it.
Surprisingly, Mom spoke up.
“And how is my daughter meant to be seen with the king? She has a life and an occupation here in Nocturn, and even on a priority route, it’s a four-hour craft ride to Abyssinia.”