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“Come now, darling, denying it will only hurt little Pumpkin’s feelings,” Remy teases, following her as she moves to extricate the newest addition of our family from his current shiny obsession.
When Einar emerges from the bedroom, freshly washed, his hair still dripping with water, he shoots me a look that conveysI told you so.I respond with a nod and sit next to him on the sofa, waiting for the newlyweds to join us.
Finally, whenPumpkinis successfully deterred from my husband’s crown, Aika turns her attention to me.
“I went back to Moth—Madame’s last night,” she says, stumbling over the correction.
I try not to react to her news, or her correction. It isn’t like I didn’t know she would return, and she doesn’t seem to be harmed this time. Though I can’t help but wonder if she’s refraining from calling her Mother for my sake or her own.
“And?” I ask.
The corner of her mouth tilts up, though her onyx eyes remain haunted. “And she’s not so thrilled with Damian right now. He broke last night, finally told her what he tried to do to you in the cave.”
Einar lets out a low growl, and I place a reassuring hand on his thigh.
“He broke under one night of torture?” I ask, raising a skeptical eyebrow.
She lets out a soft snort.
“Even I’m not that good. He broke under the threat of losing her dubious affections.” Something in the way she says it feels…reflective, almost. “Which is a ridiculous reason to do something, when you think about it.”
My heart stutters in my chest. She can’t be saying what I think she is.
Her lips twist wryly, though, and she lets out a sigh that’s part relief, part apprehension. “I hope you have a damned good plan, Zai.”
As badly as I’ve been wanting her to make this decision, I can’t deny the part of me that is terrified by the implications. There will be no keeping her safe now.
Then again, she hasn’t been safe in a long time. None of us have.
“I do,” I tell her, my mouth curving into a dark smile. “And it just so happens that it involves you.”
“What if I hadn’t come around?” she demands.
“I knew you would.” I shrug with all the nonchalance I don’t feel.
I know how hard this is for my sister, and also how little she would appreciate me acknowledging that. But I need her to know that I wasn’t ready to do this without her.
“Of course,” she says, like that knowledge doesn’t affect her at all. “All hail Zaina’s infinite brilliance and foresight.”
“You forgot beauty,” I add.
She rolls her eyes, turning to uncork the bottle of whiskey on the beverage cart.
“Shall I assume this plan of yours will take half the night to convey?” she asks over her shoulder.
I glare at her, and she must feel it, because she lets out a chuckle, reaching for the box of playing cards.
“Then we may as well entertain ourselves along the way.”
CHAPTERTHIRTY-SEVEN
EINAR
Aika lays the jeweled box of cards in the middle of the table, plops down into her chair, and turns her attention to me.
“I’m sorry,” she says with false sincerity. “I don’t play cribbage, or whatever game the elderly are into these days, but I’m assuming you know how to play Kings and Queens?”
I shake my head at her jibing. My own siblings died when I was only ten, but they had certainly enjoyed teasing me while they were alive. I imagine that our relationship might have been similar to this someday.
