Page 6 of Sky’s Edge

“And I requested this meeting three days ago, specifically after working hours so this very thing wouldn’t occur, and thus you couldn’t use that excuse. You have an assistant. She put it on your calendar. So you should have arranged your day so you could arrive at this meeting promptly,” Dad returned as I sat down in the chair next to Mom’s.

“Heya, honey,” Mom whispered.

I glanced at her. “Hey, Mom.”

Dad regained my attention when he kept lecturing me. “When you’re queen of an entire realm, you cannot ask important dignitaries to wait while you make certain your lip stain is just right.”

At these words, I heard Mom’s sharp intake of breath, and my back shot straight.

“And you didn’t curtsy to His Majesty when you entered this room,” Dad stated. “That’s an indefensible breach of protocol.”

“I’m in my childhood home,” I retorted.

“He’s king of a realm, Catla,” Dad clipped. “And don’t think with a lifetime of us putting up with your antics we don’t know you purposefully made all three of us wait twenty minutes for your arrival.”

“Well, first, I didn’t know Tanyn would be here,” I defended. “And second, you and Mom are at home. You work from this office frequently. You both have things you can do. It isn’t like⁠—”

“Your inattentiveness to anyone’s needs but your own has got to stop,” Dad ground out, unfairly might I add.

Sure, I was late.

But he knew why I was, because I didn’t want this meeting at all because the oh-so-not insignificant fact I did not want to give up everything I knew and loved and marry King Tanyn.

I just met him three weeks ago, for one.

Therefore, I didn’t know him much at all, for another.

What I did know, I wasn’t fond of, for yet another.

He was unbearably arrogant, for starters (a reminder: him kissing me then telling me to scrape off my…situationship, like he had every right to do so, after we’d just met).

Onward from that, it seemed Tanyn Firefierce had zero emotions, which did not enamor me to spending a lifetime with him, since, in my arsenal, I had too many.

And I’d repeat, I was seeing someone.

But mostly, I was a fully functioning adult female. I had a very good job I excelled at. I had good friends who I adored who returned that. I lived a life I enjoyed. That life was a full life. I knew my own mind.

And I could pick my own damned husband.

Regrettably, Dad wasn’t done.

“This realm does not revolve around you, Catla Truelock.”

“Mammon,” Mom murmured warningly.

“No, Freya,” Dad bit. “I’ve had this conversation with my daughter too many times. This is the last.”

He delivered that to Mom.

To me, he said, “Tanyn’s Public Relations Director has been holding for us to holo with her for the last ten minutes. She has things to do too. I don’t have to remind you, the recently deposed king of Sky’s Edge is facing a bevy of trials for calamitous international incidents along with murder. She does not have time to await your fancy. I also shouldn’t have to remind you that Tanyn certainly does not have time to waste. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it one last time, it’s insufferably rude, and it cannot, and I will have your promise right here, right now, it will not happen again.”

In return, I did not remind him I had no idea Tanyn was going to be there, and as such, further had no idea some PR Director was waiting to have a chat.

Instead, I sat completely still and stared at my father.

I sensed Tanyn shift uncomfortably and heard my mother’s soft, sweet, “Catty.”

But it took very long moments before Dad cottoned on to the situation.