“That’s exactly what you’re doing.”
He shrugged lightly. “Technically, you are my wife.”
She made a strangled noise. “Do not say that out loud!”
“Why?”
“Because my brother is inside!”
Maldenis glanced toward the building. “Ah.”
“Yes,ah,” she snapped.
He looked back at her, still far too calm for her liking. “My mother will keep asking questions,” he said.
“That sounds exhausting for you.”
“And eventually,” he continued, ignoring her, “she will come here instead.”
She froze. “You wouldn’t.”
Maldenis lifted a shoulder. “I might.”
Her eyes narrowed dangerously. “You are the worst.”
“And yet,” he said with that infuriating grin returning, “you married me.”
“I did not marry you,” she hissed.
“According to an elder and an extremely sacred spring?—”
She pointed down the street. “Leave.”
Maldenis didn’t move. Instead, he leaned a little closer, his gaze dropping and lingering for a beat on her lips before lifting back to her eyes.
“You owe me.”
Her eyes flashed. “I owe you?”
“You shoved me away the moment the elder showed up.”
“Yes, because apparently I accidentally married you!”
“And yet,” he said thoughtfully, “you didn’t seem too upset about coming minutes before that.”
Her face went pink. “That is irrelevant.”
“Is it?”
She crossed her arms. “Go back to Solkaris, Maldenis.”
“And tell my mother what?”
“That basically, your accidental human wife wants nothing to do with basilisk politics.”
He considered that, then shook his head. “She will not accept that.”
“Well, she’s going to have to.”
