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“You didn’t think King Irvine truly gave Maeve lessons in diplomacy and decorum, did you? After all, the girl is a few apples short of a bushel.”
“Lessons?” Liam echoed. I wondered if he remembered the jealousy he’d always felt whenever I’d been pulled away and stuffed into the tower, the jibes I’d had to withstand, never able to tell Liam precisely what my uncle had made me do.
Something struck the side of my leg, but I was too far from my body.
“Help me push her back down onto the teeth,” Elaine commanded. “We need to see if she has anything useful left in her.”
Chapter Seventeen
Cormac POV
Cormac Illfinn had not been invited to the intimate dinner in the dead king’s suite, though he supposed it was for the best. After all, Elaine Cruinn had shown him her true self, if only for a moment, and Cormac had been wearing a mask ever since to contain the bone-deep terror that lingered.
He felt so utterly out of place in Cruinn. The only fae with a tail in the whole city.
Cormac lamented that even his desire to find Maeve and needle her was borne of some kind of loneliness. A primal instinct to find comradery against dark and frightening monsters.
He knew vaguely where the king’s suite was. He’d attempted to flirt the information out of one of the housekeepers but succeeded in frightening the young undine instead. Cormac headed off in the direction of the housekeeper’s trembling pointer finger, determined to catch Maeve after the meal.
He needed to explain before Lady Elaine broke the news of their betrothal.
Elaine had made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. A marriage that would end the war and help him save face amongst his creed after the shit-show at the coral fields.
He rubbed his hand down his face, tired of all the politics—of the masks and delicate manipulations.
His mother had taught him well, but Cormac had to admit that he had been more interested in learning how to wield a trident or properly pleasure a mermaid than politics.
He hadn’t been looking where he was going, lost in the hallways of Cruinn castle, as Cormac slammed head first into another fae as he rounded a corner.
Cormac growled, though he knew he was to blame, as he brushed his wrist against his bleeding lip. “Watch where you’re fecking going!” He barked before he relaxed his fists as he took in the three males before him.
Rainn Shallows, Tormalugh Shadowhock, and Shay Mac Eoin stared back at him with the same dazed and bleary expression. Their faces were blank, even as Rainn straightened from his collision with Cormac.
“Well?” Cormac demanded. “I know we’re not on the best terms after the coral field, but I don’t even warrant a greeting?”
The three males said nothing.
“Where’s Maeve?” Cormac craned his neck to look around the wall of males. “You aren’t still pretending she isn’t you’re Shíorghrá, are you?” Cormac narrowed his eyes as he studied Shay, and the mark on his chest peeked through his linen shirt. “I can’t even keep track of who she’s mated to anymore.” He muttered.
The males didn’t answer him.
With a flick of his red tail, Cormac swam closer, snapping his fingers in front of Rainn’s face. Rainn did not react; instead, he ducked around Cormac and continued down the corridor as if he didn’t recognize him.
“Where in the name of Belisama’s ballsack are you going?” Cormac snapped.
“The harem.” Shay Mac Eoin replied dreamily. “We were told to go to the harem...”
“Oh, for feck’s sake.” Cormac pinched the bridge of his nose. “You’ve been enchanted, haven’t you?” He eyed Rainn. “I’m surprised the Selkie was affected. You’re meant to be immune to most magics.”
Rainn, naturally, didn’t reply and continued his journey down the hall.
Cormac pinched the fabric at the nape of Rainn’s neck, and Rainn bared his teeth, snapping at the Mer-King.
“I can’t lie and say I haven’t always wanted to do this,” Cormac said gravely as he lifted his hand and slapped Rainn Shallows against the face so hard that the selkie slammed against the wall.
A moment passed, and the two other males didn’t notice that one of their posse had been waylaid.
Rainn shook his head, rubbing his cheek in confusion until his eyes met Cormac’s. Rainn reached for Cormac’s throat, but Cormac knocked his hands away and tilted his chin to the other.
