Kinnek shrugged. “We might as well, because who knows when he’ll need the knowledge.” He sighed. “That aside, I’m sure you can agree, Inkiri, that it will be best to put some distance between your mate and possible human pursuers.”
Inkiri nodded. “Of course.”
“Does that mean we can finally go back to Aër? With Lissir and Nokim and Fellisse?” I was suddenly hopeful. I really liked Aër. No purple monsters there.
Kinnek shook his head. “Not quite what I had in mind. I was going to suggest staying at our place. That would put you closer to the land, Rory, and Vergis and I will be able to train you without risking you overexerting yourself again. Did Vergis ever tell you that good conduits are trained, just like good mages? With you, that’s even more important, since you’re a dispenser.”
I frowned. “I really don’t like that word.”
Vergis rounded the corner of the farmhouse, a broom and bucket in his hands. He looked like the old janitor at my school had whenever we’d done anything extravagant, like using confetti, glitter, or paint that needed to be cleaned after the show.
Kinnek shrugged. “We’ll call you Loathly Lady, then. It doesn’t matter. What matters is, if you find yourself in a fight again, you and the protectors with you need to know what to do about it, and right at this moment, you do not. None of you. That makes any situation thrice as dangerous as it should be.”
Inkiri growled. “Kinnek, my mate is soft and has never before trained for fighting. I gave him my word that I would protect him. I don’t want him to fight alongside me.”
My heart swooped. That right there was why I loved my bagu. Inkiri just got me. Or had my back.
Kinnek held his ground though. “Not relevant when you’re attacked. The way he finds himself connected to you and your sentenmen will always make him use his magic, regardless of what you and your warrior pride dictate, and that is a reality. You can ignore it at the risk of what you hold most dear, or you can plan for it.” Then Kinnek looked down at me. “Although, really, it’s your choice, Rory, not your mate’s.”
Vergis snorted as he slapped the wet mop down on the circle. “Time to not be a princess for once in your life, Princess.”
There was something in Vergis’s voice that made me stop and think before I spoke. A flicker of that knowledge burned in my mind. Vergis was scared that I’d eventually get Inkiri and the others killed if I didn’t know what I was doing. He was certain that the humans weren’t done with their attempts to get to me, nor the Koa Esher. He knew he was only one person—badass, but no match for an attack like the one that had happened at the Stone.
That made me reconsider. Vergis being scared of something truly unsettled me.
Maybe there was some trick so I’d be able to know when someone was going to get hurt, and if I could just learn that and not much else, then I could make it so no one would end up bleeding or dead again. Maybe, just maybe, it would be enough to keep everyone safe, and then we could all head back to Aër. I’d be able to spend the rest of my days on my back in my blue prince’s bed, and there would be ravishing from sunrise to sunset.
I looked at Inkiri’s chest, at his muscular shoulders, all the way up to those horns and his loving eyes. Yeah, I could imagine the ravishing.
“Dude, you look like you’re about to drool.” Vergis swiped at the chalk, which seemed to want to stick.
Kinnek leaned forward to get a better look at my face. “Yes, you really do. Not unheard of when one is freshly mated.”
All of that triggered my millet bean complexion. “Oh, can we—fine. Fine. I’ll learn spells or whatever. I’m good at learning lines, not that I ever got cast in a lead role. Anyway, it’s fine. When do we need to leave?”
Kinnek looked at his son. “Butterscotch, don’t hurry. I believe our Loathly Lady wants his mate’s barb before we leave.”
“What?! I didn’t?—”
“Sadir.” Inkiri’s voice was dark and husky and so seductively British. “Is that true?”
Well, marriage was all about not lying to your husband, wasn’t it?
“Let’s talk about it inside.” I took Inkiri by the wrist rather than the hand. From the low clicking, he liked that. A lot. He followed like an eager bunny might the lure of a juicy carrot.
Chapter 7
As soon as we stepped into the conservatory, I got anxious. What was I doing? It wasn’t the time to get naked with my boyfr—husband, was it? Had I really just let Vergis talk me into learning magic and becoming a mage? Or at least a magical magic dispenser?
I looked around at an army of Japanese peace lilies and two lemon trees in pots, and wondered whether I could change the subject to one of those. I had nothing to say about peace lilies though.
“Sadir?” Inkiri let his warm hand slide to the small of my back.
I’d stopped in front of the glass door that led from the conservatory to the den with the bookcase and the couch the two of us had fallen asleep on. Where I’d had that dream about the girl, the green-eyed witch who had called fog from the Stone. I couldn’t think about that, couldn’t even begin to figure out what it meant or if it had been real.
I wanted to think about Inkiri. He wasn’t random, the presence had said. Inkiri’s and my connection wasn’t random.
I spun and looked up at him. “Do you think… I mean…say you’d come to Earth, but just to see the place. Not for a mate call. Imagine you’d run into me, and still no mate call, just…me. Do you think you would’ve liked me?”
