“Indeed.” He gave her a wry grin. “I’ve helped with this sort of thing before, and...well, that didn’t work out as planned, but that has more to do with the fact that they wound up wanting to be together after all.”
“I’m very confused,” Brea said.
“Aren’t we all?” Thom replied. “Here’s the deal: You want to get Auden off your back, and I can help with that. You see, I’ve lost my flirting friend.”
She quirked one of her dark brows upward. “Your flirting friend?”
Thom pointed to Ilain.
Brea, Vayden, and Isla turned to follow the direction he indicated. When they turned back, Vayden was frowning. “You were flirting with Ilain?” he asked, a hint of agitation in his tone.
“Purely platonic, I promise,” Thom assured him. “But then I was sort of a shit, and even if our plan hadn’t backfired, Ethenn got jealous enough to beat the fear of Allore into me.”
Their faces scrunched in confusion simultaneously.
“Ethenn beat you up?” Brea asked.
Thom nodded. “Nearly killed me. Hewouldhave if Deckard and Hewitt hadn’t stopped him.”
Now, they fully gaped at him.
Thom cleared his throat, ready to move on. “Point is,” he turned to Brea, “so long as you’re sure you don’t want to be with Auden—no matter what—I can flirt with you and get him off your back.”
“You’re offering to flirt with me?” Brea asked.
Thom nodded. “Yeah.”
“And that helps how?” Isla asked.
“It won’t,” Vayden said. “Auden isn’t interested in Brea for himself. He wants to marry and Bond with her so that—as the most powerful Day Mage alive with the Day Relic for support—he can find a way to heal his lost love.”
Thom raised his chin in understanding. “Maura,” he said.
Vayden frowned. “He told you?”
“Ilain did.”
“Hm.”
Thom furrowed his brow. “But if he marries someone else...”
“Auden loves Maura more than he loves the chance to be with her,” Vayden said. “He’s willing to sacrifice a future with her in order to save her life.”
“And as selfish as it may be,” Brea said, “I’m not willing to be the price of someone’s sacrifice.”
Thom could understand that. As virtuous as Auden’s efforts might be, it seemed a terrible thing to ask of someone else. “But,” he remembered, “Ilain said that Bonded couples are destined to fall in love with one another. Wouldn’t that sort of...make up for it? After all, Bonding is the pinnacle for Warriors and Mages, right?”
Brea’s stare was cold. “Ilain can’t see past her own nose.”
Glancing at Vayden, Thom expected him to defend his sister. Instead, he sat patiently as his wife spoke. “Bonding is not everything,” Isla explained. “It is good, it is beneficial, but it is not the only way to have a valuable life as a Mage or Warrior. Take it from me.” With her final words, she set her hand on Vayden’s arm.
“Do you—” Thom paused, then decided to risk crossing a boundary. “Do you mind telling me how that works? Being twenty years older than your husband and knowing that he’ll die before you?”
“I don’t know that to be an inevitable future,” Isla said. “I am half Schonese. That means I will never be as powerful as a purely Allundan Mage. That directly translates to my lifespan as well. I may live to be nearly two centuries, or I may only live shortly past my first.”
Thom turned to Vayden. “And having a wife who will look to be in her twenties in perpetuity doesn’t bother you?”
Vayden chuckled, lifting his wine in a mock toast. “There are manifold benefits and minimal drawbacks.”
