Comms #3
Bash had had a box of stuff I’d left at his place delivered, with everything in it broken, shredded or otherwise destroyed.
And Laura and Aleksei were back from their sojourn to Anubis.
But I couldn’t bother her, the only being who had a sense of what I was facing (not the arranged marriage part, the imminently-being-a-royal part) because her new film had started shooting (she was a costume designer and intended to keep doing that, even though I doubted with all the other stuff she had to do she’d pull that off).
So she was on set, at the same time planning her engagement party, already planning her wedding, along with an additional charity ball.
Not to mention, the many appearances she had to do as the True Bride.
The good in all of that?
Bash pulling his crap meant I’d narrowly avoided getting mixed up with a super-huge dickhead.
But that was it.
“It was a week,” I replied.
“You were contacted about your needs and preferences, yes?” he asked.
Oh yeah.
And that happened too.
Some female named Jorda contacted me, asking what I might need at the citadel. Food. Drink. Supplements. Mane-mate. Cosme-mask.
“Yes,” I answered.
“Good.”
Right.
Maybe I was going about this wrong.
Maybe I should talk to him, being to being. He wasn’t unaware of how I felt about this, but maybe I had to share in a more personal, earnest way about how I felt about all of this.
“Listen, Tanyn—”
“And she uses my name,” he muttered.
“Don’t make me regret it,” I snapped.
Did his lips twitch?
“What were you going to say?” he asked.
“I…” I shook my head. “I don’t even know where to begin.”
“Start anywhere.”
“I don’t want to marry you,” I blurted.
“This isn’t news, Catla.”
“Okay, honestly, I don’t mean offense by saying that. Really. Truly. I just…well, don’t want to marry you.”
“Again, this isn’t news.”
“I love living in Nocturn.”
“Have you been to Abyssinia?”
“Yes. It’s cold.”
“It is that. It also has better shopping than Nocturn.”
“That’s debatable,” I replied.
That said, I couldn’t debate it because it was half a dozen of one, six of the other. Both were mega when it came to that.
“Great museums,” he continued. “There are four large ones dedicated solely to art.”
In Nocturn, there were only three.
And art was my thing. My gig. My passion. My raison d’etre.
I wasn’t a producer of it.
I was a consumer. A curator. A connoisseur. A devotee of it.
Every time I went to Abyssinia, one of the first things I did was go to one of their art museums. It was like a pilgrimage.
I kept at him.
“My family is here. My friends are here.”
“And not only you, but one of your friends has access to soni-routes. You can go to Nocturn for lunch, if you wish, and she can come here.”
He was driving me crazy, having an answer for everything.
“Okay then,”—I sat on the tufted bench that was in my closet—“why would you want to marry a female who doesn’t want to marry you?”
“I believe I explained why.”
“Um…no, you did not,” I refuted.
“I did, but I’ll reiterate. Outside of the political reasons, which are important, you’re beautiful.
Stylish. Smart. You excel in your field.
And I have enough people kissing my ass.
That happened even before I became king.
You don’t do that. It’s refreshing. I need a partner who will call me on my shit.
I need a partner who won’t be afraid of telling me I’m heading in the wrong direction. I need a partner who’s an equal.”
“I’m not your equal. You’re royal.”
“And you will be crowned queen, sitting at my side, when I’m crowned king.
I’m already king, that part is ceremonial.
That said, there will be no mistaking, when it happens, then throughout history, that we reign side by side.
And you will be at my side for the rest of my life, Catla.
You will not be removed. You will not be replaced.
This is not a knee-jerk response to the troll attack.
I considered this from the moment I met you and you didn’t pant all over me and act like a sycophant.
But everything I’ve learned since then, and every interaction I’ve had with you, solidifies my understanding I made an excellent choice. ”
“It’s infuriating that you have an answer for everything,” I snapped.
“I do because there are answers. We suit.”
“You can’t know that.”
“Oh, but I do.”
“You don’t even know me!” My voice was rising.
And his voice was vibrating when he stated, “I grew up with a queen. Do you not think I know a female who will be a good one when I meet her?”
Since we were back to his mother, I decided not to respond.
“You were born to rule, Catla,” he said, and now his tone brooked no argument. “You don’t know it yet, but you will. If you open up an infinitesimal part of your mind to the possibility of us, it’ll come crashing in. I promise you.”
“What isn’t in question is whether you believe this should happen or not,” I retorted. “What’s in question is how this is coming about. I mean, have you ever heard of asking a female out to dinner?”
“This is where being who I am comes in handy,” he fired back.
“Because, yes, I want to have dinner with you. I want to share many meals with you. I want to get to know you. But above all, since the minute I saw you, I’ve wanted very badly to fuck you.
And fortunately for me, this means I can cut through that bullshit and get right to the good stuff. ”
And there it was again.
He was (maybe) getting to me.
Then he was a jerk.
“You are not to be believed,” I bit.
“I’ve been told that. Usually after giving a female an orgasm.”
Such a jerk!
“I think I’m done talking now,” I announced.
“Right. See you tomorrow then.”
Kill me!
“Farewell, Your Majesty.”
“Until tomorrow, Catla.”
I disengaged.
Then I threw my Palm at the wall.
It bounced off and fell to the floor.
I closed my eyes tight and listed forward, coming to rest head in hands.
I wanted to latch on to the idea I was repairing relations between realms, but I didn’t buy it.
I wanted to believe like Tanyn, who seemed so sure that I was the queen Sky’s Edge needed in these troubling times.
I didn’t buy that either.
What I was, was convenient.
There was a need, and I fit the criteria.
That was it.
I was sure more than a few marriages were based on that over the millennia, especially royal ones.
I just didn’t want any part in it.
Though, in less than twenty-four hours, I’d be on a soni-jet, heading north to my last chance to extricate myself from this nightmare.
I sat up and gathered myself.
Because I had no choice.
In less than twenty-four hours, I was going to have to give it all I had.
And hope like all the hells I could end this before it began.