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Taelon, composing himself, forced a polite smile, if only he knew how much I hated those. “It is not appropriate for her to be with us at this time. She will meet us in Montréal.”
“What do you mean not appropriate?” I questioned.
“Druella,” Theseus said softly. “She is a Lesser blood.”
Taelon drank.
“So?” I pushed him. “She can’t sit with us, either, and she has to find her own way because she is a Lesser blood?”
“Exactly,” Taelon said with a dark, bitter laugh. “Sort of juvenile, isn’t it?”
“It is a law of your land, is it not?” Theseus asked him.
Taelon’s jaw tensed. “Is it any better in Ankeiros?”
“There are no laws forbidding the mating between Lesser and Noble bloods in Ankeiros,” Theseus replied.
“Ah, but there is no law here. It is the treatment and consideration of them that is the issue,” Taelon challenged back.
“Wait,” I snapped at them both again and pointed to Theseus. “I have only known you for about five minutes,” I pointed to Taelon; “and you for a half a second. The one person I do know is Mrs.—is Lucy. She’s my friend, and I don’t care about whatever laws you may or may not have; I want her here.”
But of course, the moment I said it, the pilot took the plane into the sky.
“It seems like it will have to be another trip. You can visit her at our home near the city. She’ll be there,” Taelon muttered, looking out at the sky as the snowy rain came down.
I could see the concern, guilt, and pain in his eyes as he glanced down at the window. It tugged at my own cold heart.
How did I fail to notice she wasn’t here? I was just talking about her.
Loyalty. Just this morning we were talking about it. And here I was drinking out of a crystal glass without her. Watching Taelon looking out for her as if he could see her through the wet clouds brought to mind all of those times I’d seen Lucy watching those romantic dramas.
“Who wants a complicated love story?” She had asked me that, but now I realized, she was saying, she had one, and I should be thankful I didn’t in her view. Here I was easily able to sit and talk to Theseus. Yet someone she’d known for years was forced to go without her because of some stupid rules and prejudices. Human history was full of those stupid rules and prejudices, and they often affected people that looked like me the most. I should have noticed.
Closing, I inhaled anger at myself. I should have said something earlier.
“May I offer any either you anything to eat?”
At his voice and question, my eyes snapped open, and I whipped my head to him. Taelon was nodding toward the stewardess to come forward again. I glanced down at my hand, and the glass I held was gone. I checked out the window, and we were still on the ground again.
“Druella? Are you all right?” Theseus questioned, noticing my panic and that I hadn’t answered Taelon’s question.
“Yes,” I said, slowly sinking back into the chair as the woman held out the cup of blood. “I mean, yes to the blood, but no, I’m not alright,”
I bent over the chair to look down at the cockpit. “Mr. Pilot, please don’t take off yet. We’re waiting for one more person.”
“We are?” Taelon question confused as the plane came to a stop on the runway for takeoff.
I nodded. “Lucy.”
“Druella,” Theseus began, but I shook my head.
“I asked if you would still mate me if I were a Lesser blood, and you said yes. Would you allow me to be treated like we’re treating Lucy?”
“As his mate, Druella, even if you were a Lesser blood, you would be a Thorbørn, and no one dare disrespect you,” Taelon said with deadly seriousness, and I wasn’t sure how I knew, but I could feel a bit of jealousy in his voice. “This is not the same.”
“I will say it again. Lucy is my friend,” I snapped at him, unsure why he was protesting and turned to Theseus. “Friend of the woman you want to mate. She took care of the woman you want to mate, helped me…and on occasion gave me a good discount. If you’re rude to her, you’re rude to me.”
He reminded me carefully. “This friend of yourself has been keeping secrets from you.”
