Insult #3
Camaryn and Barret confirmed they were hard at work on their report and would have it to me first thing the next morning. So I could have time to read it before we met, we set that meeting in the afternoon.
That done—and the shroud of the Queen of Sky’s Edge closing even tighter around me (and I still didn’t relish it, but I also was no longer fighting it)—I text commed Gayle to ask if now was a good time to chat, and she said yes.
So I headed to a parlor on the first floor that had a writing desk, where she’d set up her remote office.
The door was open, but I knocked on the frame and saw her head come up from a lapcomp.
“Hey,” she greeted.
“Hey,” I replied, walking in and closing the door behind me.
She watched me close it, looked back to me and said, “Should I be worried about this convo?”
Sadly, she should.
“Maybe?” I asked rather than being straight, because at the very least, this was going to be weird for her, and she was my gal. I didn’t want to make her feel weird.
She got up and went to a couch that sat in front of a fireplace.
“Let’s just get it over with,” she said as she sat.
I sat with her and asked, “Do you know much Land’s End history?”
“Mom was big on me understanding my heritage, so she asked me to minor in it in college, I did, so I do. Why?”
Her mom, Elayne, gave Gayle her fae half.
“Do you know who Selediel is?”
She appeared confused. “No. Who’s that?”
I ran down the story and watched in real time what was likely my exact response to it when Tanyn related it to me.
When I finished, she said, “That’s incredibly sad.”
“It is,” I agreed.
“It’s sad, but I’m not sure why you shared it with me.”
“I told you Tanyn is renovating the citadel on Sigil, yes?”
She nodded.
“And you know Zyra and I are working together on furnishings and décor.”
“Yes, Cat. You told me all about this. Why are you being weird?”
“Bear with me, Gayle,” I urged.
She drew in a deep breath and rolled her hand for me to go on.
“So, there once was a time when all the unused rooms were used. The paintings and furniture are still in them. I thought I might use some of it, if it was still sound.”
“Okay.”
“And since Zyra lives there, I asked her to send me pics of it.”
“Right.”
“And you know how I am about art.”
“I do. But just to say, I’m not being bitchy, I’ve just got work to do. There are two campaigns heating up, and I always need to be on my game, but with my drama leaking into work, I need to be on it more than usual. So let’s get down to what this is all about.”
Gayle was in marketing, so I knew when she had campaigns heating up, things got stressful.
Thus, I hurried on.
“Okay. Zyra sent pics. Because of the state of the portraits and paintings, I asked her to quit sending them, because it was too upsetting. Thus, she had a pic she didn’t send, but it became unsettling when she met you.”
Now she seemed shocked. “Me? Why?”
“Because it’s a portrait of Selediel and…” I pulled out my Palm and I had the pic ready, so once I activated the display, I turned it to her. “This is her.”
Gayle glanced at the Palm, then she focused on it, and like Tanyn and me, it took her long moments before I saw the color run from her face.
“What in the hells?” she whispered.
I turned my Palm away and replied, “I know. I mean about your response. I don’t know what in the hells. I think, I’m so sorry, Gayle, but I think you need to talk to Cormac about this.”
Her attention was still on my Palm, even if it wasn’t facing her anymore, but it came to my face when I said that.
“Why?”
“Because he might have seen a portrait of Selediel. He might have some understanding of what this means.” I settled my ass more firmly in the couch and stated, “Breaking this down, we haven’t had a True Heir, and therefore, not a True Bride, for decades.
Now, we have them. Two royals of two different realms are fated mates.
Destiny, or something, is guiding me to Tanyn, again, linking realms. And then there’s you and Cormac and this ghost from the past who was hounded out of Land’s End.
Not to mention, Laura told you that you have direct ancestry to one of the most celebrated heroes in Endian history. This all means something.”
“What it means is this all seems to be gearing us up to unite the realms to face a common foe. Doesn’t it?” she asked quietly, and there was unease threading her words.
“It does,” I agreed.
“It can’t just be Tatra,” she went on.
“I worry it isn’t, though it seems apparent she’s a part of it.”
“Ugh.” She slouched back into the arm of the couch. “Okay, I’ll talk to Cormac about her.”
“Good. Now, are you all right with this new…whatever it is?” I shook my Palm to share what I was referring to.
“I have a feeling we’re all going to have to learn to be ‘all right’ with a lot of stuff.”
I had a feeling she was correct.
We shared a moment of frustrated camaraderie before I said, “You need to get to work. And Tanyn’s worried about your response to this, so I need to go tell him you’re good.”
“He’s worried about me?”
“Yes.”
She eyed me. “He’s a good male, Cat.”
I smiled at her. “I know he is, Gayle.”
“He’s it for you, isn’t he?” she whispered, and some of her melancholy about what I was building with Tanyn, what Aleksei and Laura had, all of it she did not have, beat the spell, because I could see it buried deep in her gaze.
I scooched closer to her, took her hands, and shared, “I’m guessing this won’t surprise you, even though hearing it may upset you, but I’ve already laid the groundwork to move up here.
Because, yes, he’s it for me. I think…I think…
” I swallowed and let it all hang out. “I think I knew it when Avie the lynx took him down to the snow when we were on Sigil. He’s been open and honest with me since the very beginning.
We fight. We make up. He’s not a dick. He’s not a pushover.
And he makes no bones about the fact he’s in love with me. ”
The melancholy left her gaze, it softened, and she squeezed my hands. “I love that for you.”
“Thanks,” I said gently. “I love it too. It’s a great deal of change for me, and I can’t say I’m there yet.” Understatement! “But I’m coming to terms with it.”
“Isn’t this freaky?” she asked, giving me another squeeze before letting me go. “You and Laura and Aleece are all going to be queens.”
And you are too, I thought, but didn’t say because, call me rosy-eyed due to the fact I was falling in love, I had hope for her and Cormac.
“Who would have thought all those times we were on the prowl, we’d end up like this?”
She laughed. “Only you were ever on the prowl, Cat. Laura, Mon and I were just your wingbeings.”
“Please,” I scoffed. “You could prowl.”
“You were the expert.”
I couldn’t deny that.
“You good?” I asked.
“I’m good. Go to your male.”
I didn’t go direct to Tanyn.
I moved in to give her a hug.
After we shared we’d see each other for pre-dinner drinks, I went to Tanyn.
He was relieved Gayle took the news well and was going to talk to Cormac about it.
He was also distracted because, he said, some irate CEOs were demanding an audience to share their displeasure with this tax situation.
So I left him to it.
When I got back to my study (yes, I was finally there in my head, that study was mine), and hit my lapcomp, I didn’t return to work, like I should.
I did a deep dive into fae history and lore.
Of course, I couldn’t sift through thousands of years of history and lore in an afternoon.
But I gave it my best shot.
What I learned was, the story of Selediel was pretty damned buried.
Suspiciously so.
As such, I hoped Cormac knew something.
Because, like Tanyn said, the more we knew about whatever was happening, the better.