“Why would you say that?”
“You do not wish to be my pet?” he asks, smirking like a cocky bastard.
“No.”
“But you have been with my brother Gabrio. I hear you moaned like a horny virgin. You married the other and allowed him to watch. You loved the eldest brother. Why not be my pet? Get the full family experience.”
I’m appalled. I’m disgusted. “You know what? Fuck you.” I get up and hop over Master.
“Where are you going?” Tiago growls.
“I’ll sleep with the women.”
I am almost to the ladies’ campfire when he grabs me from behind, lifting me in the air. “Where do you think you’re going?” Tiago grumbles.
“Away from you. And I’m getting really tired of you putting your hands on me.”
He smiles and sets me on my feet. “I was merely testing you, Lake. I wanted to be sure you weren’t one of those females.”
“Those?”
“The ones with a giant fetish.”
“Is that a thing?”
He nods. “Yes. It is a thing.”
“Well, I’m not into…that. I don’t even know how that is possible.”
“So you truly loved Bardolf.”
The women keep looking over at us, listening in.
Why is he bringing this up? “Yes. Okay? Are you happy?” I say loud enough for everyone to hear. “I loved him. I really did. But it was a long time ago and wasn’t meant to be.” I worked really hard to accept that, which wasn’t easy given he and I lived on the same property.
I walk back over to Tiago’s fire and sit in the dirt next to Master.
Tiago takes the other spot next to me, stretching out his long legs to the side, like he’s shielding us from whatever’s out there.
“What about Gabrio?” he finally asks after a long silence.
“I slept with him. It wasn’t horrible.” I don’t know what else to say. If I tell the truth, that it was weird and unremarkable, I don’t think Gabrio would appreciate it.
“And Alwar?”
“What about him?” I ask.
“You married him. You knew it was a vow that cannot be broken. Only death can free you.”
“I-I…I think…” I’m not sure, actually. He’s beautiful and intimidating. He’s loyal to his people. “He’s a good king.”
“And?”
“And what?” I toss a pebble into the fire and watch it spark.
“Will he make you happy?” Tiago asks.
“I didn’t realize happiness was on the table.”
“It is what he wants for you.”
Where the hell is this conversation going? “What’s your point?”
“He is my brother, over three hundred years old, and you are the only female he has ever obsessed over.”
“Me?”
“After your nineteenth birthday, he listened to Bardolf’s confession—of how close he came to breaking his vow to never touch a proxy, just for one night with you. Alwar had to see for himself what sort of female could entice our eldest brother to take such a foolish risk. He said he saw you in your grandmother’s kitchen. He has been watching you ever since.”
There’s a window there? The spying is mildly creepy but, also, sort of endearing. Throw confusing in there, too. “If he has feelings for me, then why offer me up in the Blood Battle?”
“You will have to ask him yourself, but I believe he thought you could win. Otherwise, he would not have taken the risk. Or gone insane with worry when the Blood King took you. He was out of his mind.”
I don’t know what to think. It’s not like Alwar and I have a future. He’s ten times my size. “I hardly know him.”
“Perhaps you should try. He is your husband, after all.”
“I know.”
“And then there is another small matter.”
I can’t handle any more matters—big or small. “What?”
“It is a favor I must ask of you when we reach the next kingdom.”
“What?”
“You must meet with their king and put the past to rest.”
“What king?” He can’t mean Benicio.
“Bardolf.”
My heart drops, and I turn my entire body to face him. “Sorry?”
The light of the dwindling fire flickers across his frowning face. “Never apologize. It is bad form.”
“I’m not apologizing. It’s an expression that means you need to repeat or explain what you just said. Explain!”
“Bardolf is now king of the No Ones.”
I’m mortified down to every cell in my body. “How? Why?”
“The No Ones came to claim him, and he decided to put up a challenge for their throne, to be a torturer instead of the tortured. He won.”
He can’t be serious. “Why did they even take him?” I ask.
“He crossed the bridge into your world, breaking a vow.”
That doesn’t make sense. “Bard lived in my world. When did he cross?”
“Alwar did not want to give you the stone that saved your family’s land. He feared it would lead to questions that would force Bardolf’s hand with you. We all know that Bardolf vowed to your grandmother, against Alwar’s wishes, to never disclose the truth of things. But that was Bardolf, always one foot in each world.”