though.”
For once, Raile didn’t sound as if he were mocking me.
“Would you two stop flirting?” Duncan asked, his voice aggravated.
Tiron ambled over toward Raile’s mirror and cabinet in the corner of the room, next to his dark wooden wardrobe. I had a feeling Tiron’s lazy, relaxed movements were a lie.
“If you give me some time with a mirror,” Tiron said, “I’ll contact my court.”
Duncan scoffed. “If you think we’re going to leave you alone for a moment, traitor, you’ve got another thing coming.”
Tiron crossed his arms. “You call me a traitor as if you didn’t betray Alisa yourself, for the chance to win back a kingdom.”
Raile whistled. “I think he has you there, Duncan.”
“I thought she betrayed me years before.” Duncan said stubbornly.
The unfairness of how he’d seen me was infuriating. But as soon as my lips parted, those icy fingers dug into my brain, and the world began to swim. I couldn’t answer him. I couldn’t set the record straight—not yet—that I’d been trying to save his life when I rejected him. I was willing to bet I’d still been trying to save them both even as my father’s guards raided their castle and ravaged their court, even if the details were murky.
“It would be nice if you ever had a little faith in me, Duncan,” I managed. The words sounded far away, and then Herrick’s control finally eased, and sound went back to normal.
“I’m the bad guy now,” Duncan sounded exasperated. “Tiron just tried to marry you against your will—”
“And we’ll talk about that,” I interrupted. “We need to make sure Azrael’s safe. I’ll stay with Tiron; the two of you, shoo.”
“Are you shooing me out of my own quarters, wife?” Raile asked.
“You’re on my last nerve,” I warned him.
“Call me husband and I’ll go.” Raile certainly seemed to be in the best mood of any of us.
Duncan and Tiron might be glowering at each other and I might be rethinking all the life decisions I could remember and some that I couldn’t, but apparently our wedding had left Raile cheerful as Mary Poppins.
I shooed him away. “Go, or I’ll disembowel you.”
“That would make for a very sad wedding night,” Raile said casually. “After all, we have to consummate the marriage.”
I froze. “What now?”
“The marriage,” he said slowly, as if that was the part I feared I’d misheard. “We’re married now, dear heart. Husband and wife. Bound in matrimony, in this world and the next—”
“What exactly do you mean by consummate?”
“Sex, of course,” Raile said, with a wicked grin. “It doesn’t have to be tonight. You might be tired from lugging that ridiculous dress around. And I don’t want us to have a first meeting that’s anything less than spectacular.”
Of course Raile would notice that I’d struggled in this stupid gown; my father had probably chosen something intentionally that was beautiful and glittering and would slow me down. Herrick always wanted me to be nothing but lovely and fragile.
I stared into his maddening blue eyes. “I’m not having sex with you, Raile. Not tonight or any night.”
“Then why did you marry me?” He frowned, although it was an actor’s frown; it wasn’t the thoughtful dimple between his eyes that appeared when he was actually deep in thought. But his voice was serious when he reminded me, “You named me, Alisa. You didn’t have to.”
“Temporary insanity,” I answered.
I didn’t even understand it myself. There had been so much pressure in that moment, and I’d looked at Raile, with those words still on his lips—gifts of magic for my queen—and I couldn’t imagine life without him. And I’d felt the same about Tiron, and Azrael, and Duncan.
In those few seconds, I’d been sure about the four of them.
But that had been one crystal moment that had shattered the next second. Now I didn’t even understand what I had done. I couldn’t put those pieces back together in a way that made sense.
“Maybe the enchantment made her do it,” Tiron suggested. “Faer was trying to force her to marry you. Maybe she had no choice.”
“Maybe,” Raile admitted, and disappointment flashed across his face before it was gone. “There’s only one way we can find out, I suppose.”
He turned to Duncan. “Let’s leave your shady squire to find our coordinates. It’s embarrassing to be the king of the sea, yet have your ship wandering aimlessly across the waves without a destination.”
“I’m not taking my eyes off the bastard,” Duncan told Raile.
“Ah, when you’ve loved so hard, love’s end is even more bitter,”