7 #2
“No others or consorts, but no falling in love like you said. Just a partnership and… Fuck buddies? Is that the right term? Just sex, but we’re partners in crime?” She snorted and yanked the bottle away. “I don’t ever want to be in love like her.”
“Who?”
She ignored my question. “Would you?” She nodded when I didn’t answer. “Yeah, I didn’t think so, and the answer could never be that simple for me.” She took a drink and then stood, handing it back over. “You can finish it.”
I ignored the bottle and grabbed her arm. “Seriously, what’s going on?” The colors around her were distracting and all over the place like I’d never seen before—never seen from her.
She stared down at my hand, but not in a bad way, more like she was surprised I cared enough to stop her.
Then she slowly met my gaze. “You know that competition we were having that neither of us really wanted to win? I won. I so fucking won and I’ve never been so disappointed to be an overachiever before. ”
“I have no idea what that means,” I admitted.
She shoved the bottle in my hand and yanked her arm away. “I really wish you had fucking won. I wanted to come in second for once.” She snorted. “I always come in first and that’s not—I wasn’t supposed to be first this time anyways.”
She wouldn’t answer me what she meant and shoved me away when I tried to follow after her. Seriously, something happened, and evidently it was so bad that I felt like I was watching her shatter in real time.
It just didn’t make sense though. I mean, I felt like I was looking at a puzzle I was missing a piece for, so I called Uncle.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, sounding half distracted.
I simply sighed which was a mistake. He started chuffing and that made my dragon pissed. “Never mind. This—never mind. Have a nice night.”
A miracle happened and he calmed down. “What happened, Ayao?” It was the worry in his voice that made me pause.
“That’s actually what I wanted to ask you,” I muttered, scrubbing my hand over my hair. “What happened in that meeting before we got in there?” I sighed again when he didn’t say anything. “Not specifics. I know you can’t tell us, but like…”
“I honestly don’t know how to answer that because I don’t know what you’re looking for,” he answered, sounding confused.
“She’s different,” I finally blurted before we danced around each other all night. “Something clearly happened and… She’s different.”
“What do you mean different?”
I sighed and kept scrubbing my hair and then over my head. “I don’t know, Dray.” I sighed again when he growled. “No, come on, enough. She doesn’t call her uncles or aunt—I’m calling you man to man and—can you just—”
“Okay, seriously, what happened?” he whispered.
“You don’t get all flustered like this.” It was his turn to sigh when I snorted.
“You blew a gasket at assholes. Yeah, we all do that, Ayao. They’re going so far over the line with her and—I feel like Thovudin has lost its fucking mind and then I feel like I have for having missed how sexist and crazy they’ve all been. ”
“Yeah, it’s… It’s like people just feel like they can say the things they shouldn’t out loud now. I can’t like get my footing.” I felt better when he snorted. “Did you see what she said to the media today?”
“No, I was in meetings—things have been piling up here doing so much there.”
More like while he was overreaching for power. “Look real quick and tell me—just look.”
He did, and I felt better when he choked on air at some point. “Is this true?”
“She’s not stupid enough to lie, but Joris confirmed he’s known for a while about the comedian. He wanted to go after that Kyle fucker, but she told him not to because she wanted his sins to compile.”
“She really is much smarter than anyone gives her credit for—I gave her credit for,” he muttered.
“He’s done now. There’s no saving his career after she waited—fuck, don’t ever piss her off.
She’s so much better than Rhys. I’m sorry he died, but—she’s going to be a fantastic queen when she matures into the role and is actually supported.
“I honestly want to be excited how this could change Thovudin for the better, but—fucking Rhys handicapped her! He stacked the deck against her by sending her off the way he did. I get it now and how it’s worked out that she’s so amazing and the connections she made are priceless.
“But he should have outlined the plan and like—he set her up to fail. If she was anyone else she would have already failed.” He grumbled a bit.
“Fucking failure of a father. We had our differences, but—she deserves better than what she got from them. It’s honestly like he didn’t want her to be queen the way he’s stacked the deck against her. ”
“What?” I whispered, my dragon stirring and making me see the colors I’d seen around her on the veranda.
“It’s like he didn’t want her to be queen!
” he exploded. “He did so much to undermine her and set all of this in motion. I get he was playing a longer game now, but shit happens—shit did happen, and look how she suffers now because of his bullshit. He used his daughter to make a point we’ve secluded ourselves too much, I get that, but he used her. ”
He went on and on, but I kept circling back to the point he started at and realized I was sitting down without meaning to.
“You there?” he finally asked.
“Yeah, I just… The pieces don’t make sense,” I mumbled, knowing there was no way I could tell him where my head was. “And the meeting or…” No, it was something after, but I decided to switch lanes to throw him off because what I realized he could actually use against her.
And I didn’t trust him not to.
“Did you see the other clip? About the embargo?” I checked.
“Why is she so focused on Khirriln?” he muttered, and I heard the clicking of him typing.
“Oh, you’ll see,” I chuckled darkly. I smirked when he swore up a storm. “Yeah, and you know she’s not just going to say that.”