Chapter Forty-Three
Willow
Iwalked inside looking for my younger sister, hoping she could shed some light on her brother’s recent disturbing claims.
A mate. How did he ever reach that conclusion? I was free as a bird, hoping for endless adventures, not a fate consisting of a single dick for the rest of time.
The entire idea was a foreign concept; I never bothered to familiarise myself with it. Anytime I did consider a family unit far in the future, it consisted of multiple men following my lead, not just one. And definitely not as annoying as my shadow-stalker.
The way he listed all the things he did for me… I never asked anything of him. Not once. If he expected gratitude, he could go fuck himself.
And then he just disappears like a child, not allowing me to explain that he must be mistaken. Why did I even feel the need to explain myself to him?
All this queen nonsense was messing with my head. Gratitude, ethics, and politics—the concepts I never had to consider had now become ingrained in my daily life. Did I even want to live like this? Did I have a choice?
My life was supposed to be carefree; the crown complicated everything, yet as much as I wanted to leave it behind, I couldn’t. It was my kingdom, and even if some of our people wanted it passed to somebody else, I saw the potential and all the good things that could come out of my rule.
Though, realistically, I could mess it up just as easily. Power was a slippery slope.
I pounded my fist on Ava’s door and waited. One second, two… Nobody answered, so I knocked more. She probably didn’t like me banging on her door.
I took a deep breath to calm myself down and knocked gentler. ‘Hey, Ava… I just want to talk. Are you there?’
Just as I was about to knock for the fourth time, the red-eyed sister walked by.
Miriam looked up from her phone and sighed. ‘She’s meeting her mate.’
‘What are you talking about?’ I demanded, convinced that she overheard my conversation with her brother and chose to poke fun.
But she only shrugged. ‘I don’t know; he wanted to talk to her so she went to see him.’
Something inside my stomach dipped. I didn’t know she found her mate. Was she a mated woman now? ‘Who?’
The grey-head looked unimpressed, regarding me with more hostility than ever before. ‘You didn’t even know she had a mate... Why am I not surprised?’
I ignored the dig. ‘Who is it?’
‘The Fogoyan King,’ she said as though it were obvious, making no effort to hide how repulsive she found me.
The girl seriously needed to mind her own business. Who was she to judge me? She knew nothing about our relations; the mere fact that we started to talk without jumping at each other’s throats was a success. ‘Do you know when she’ll be back?’
‘You think I keep her schedule?’ she shot back before disappearing.
What was with the snarkiness around this place lately? Miserable sons of bitches.
I made my way back to my bedroom and collapsed on the bed, hoping she would be back soon so I could properly rage about the piece of shit her brother was.
The brainless frog jumped on my chest, staring at my face. I tapped its head, and it melted into my touch. Its mouth curved, and it looked like it was smiling.
As the hours dragged on, I listened for doors closing, hoping to catch my younger sister. Eventually, I closed my eyes and decided to approach her tomorrow.
The sun shining through the curtains woke me as the clock signalled eight a.m. I didn’t even know the sun ever showed in this strange place. I ditched the clothes I was wearing since yesterday, catching the remnants of the ethics professor’s cologne that must have rubbed on me.
It wasn’t a bad smell, deep, woody and intense.
The hot water soaked my sore hips, reminding me exactly why they hurt, as I wondered what that weird scratching fetish even was.
I’d come across plenty of kinks in my lifetime, but this one was just so messy.
The scabs that started to form looked disgusting and would chafe for days to come.
Wrapped in nothing but a robe, I headed down the corridor again and knocked firmly on Ava’s door.
Was she aware of her brother’s twisted intentions to mate me up?
And why wasn’t I aware of her matehood? She had some serious explaining to do.
And the Fire King, out of all people? He looked like a great one-night stand, but he was known for his impulsiveness and proclivity for violence.
I hoped she had enough grey matter not to mate him before testing the waters…
I pressed my ear on the door to listen for any sounds that could indicate she was simply ignoring me.
Complete silence.
It seemed the little meeting with her man had been interesting enough for her to spend the night at his place.
Gods, Avari, did you bond with the Fogoyan King?
Our little Miss Prude was evidently growing up. Time had been moving far too quickly lately. I almost smiled to myself, reminiscing about the annoying kid she used to be, when the shadow daddy sprinted the length of the corridor and barged into her bedroom with a shove.
I watched in silence as he paced the room. Ava had mentioned he could sense his children. Could he feel his youngest getting it on? That would put any man on edge.
‘Where is she?’ he asked, looking behind me.
I opened my mouth at the same time as Alec said from afar, his voice low and tense, ‘Not in Fogoya.’
I turned to face him. ‘Didn’t she go to see the king?’
He ignored me entirely, walking up to his father. ‘He never wanted to meet yesterday. Doesn’t know why she thought that.’
‘Is he looking for her?’ he asked, sitting on the edge of her bed.
Alec kneeled before him. ‘It doesn’t have to mean anything. She could have done a spell or something and that’s why you can’t locate her.’
‘Is he looking for her as well?’ he repeated.
‘Yes, everyone he trusts. Who do we want on this?’ Alec asked, and I felt the need to jump in.
‘She never mentioned a spell disturbing your sensing thing.' I raised my voice, and their heads snapped to me. ‘When she mentioned it, she didn’t seem to mind it either. I doubt she would do anything to—’
Alec scowled. ‘Ava and you aren’t exactly close, though, are you? Why would she tell you of all people about her plans?’
‘Why would you assume that she was planning anything? When I spoke to her two days ago, she said this place is her home and that she appreciates her… new family. She wasn’t planning to leave, if that’s what you’re thinking.’
‘We had a fight last night,’ Avari’s father said, rubbing his face tiredly.
Posture rigid, Alec stood and turned to me. There was something missing from his eyes. ‘Why are you here?’
What? ‘You brought me here.’
‘Ava’s bedroom. Why are you here?’ His enraged voice raised hairs on my arm. ‘Did you do something?’
They were all worried about Avari. And we all needed to know her whereabouts. ‘Calm down. I’m here because I wanted to talk to her.’
Just as he prepared to fire back, his father stepped in. ‘We have more important things to do than accuse one another. She might have gone back to Ortensia; I will have a team sent there to check the castle. Did she mention wanting to go?’
‘No, I’m not sure if she would ever want to go back there,’ I said, thinking back to all the times she tried to leave and couldn’t.
They discussed something in hushed voices and disappeared in a cloud of black smoke, leaving me alone on the threshold of the empty room that somehow still thrummed with a steady flow of energy I couldn’t pinpoint.
She must have grown stronger, leaving her residual magic all over the place.
If she left, I just hoped she knew what she was doing because as much as I hated to admit it, she was right.
It was dangerous out there.