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Sunny’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “What do you know?”
Guilt twisted my lips in a grimace. “I was sworn to secrecy.”
“Tell that flaming bastard to fuck off and give me the truth, Mare. I’ve known you longer.”
Dots snorted. “Because that determines everything?”
“In this situation, yes.”
I nodded. “Let me ask him.”
Reaching out to Ervo, I asked,“Can I tell Sunny what you told me about Teris?”
I felt Ervo considering it, and he agreed.“Most male fae know how he feels about the subject. The females might as well too.”
“Thank you. Sunny was going to be pissed if I didn’t tell her.”
Ervo’s chuckle in my mind made me fight a smile.
“Okay, so Ervo told me that Teris won’t settle for less than love. And that unless he knows that the woman he’s interested in is in love with him, he won’t consider them mates, and he won’t believe that they belong to each other.”
Sunny blinked. “So he thinks my feelings aren’t strong enough?”
I shrugged. “Maybe.”
“He thinks my feelings aren’t strong enough, so he rejects me. Likethatwould make me love him.” She laughed bitterly. “He can go to hell. Maybe while he’s burning there, he can ask Fovea to mate with him again.”
“Sunny,” Dots warned.
“Too salty, I know. But seriously, fuck that guy.” She stood up. “Girls, it’s time to plan another party.”
Dots and I exchanged slightly-worried looks.
“Don’t worry; this time, we’ll invite the fae chicks so they don’t bomb us with that damn poisonous fruit again.”
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea…” I warned.
“It’s agreatidea.” She flashed me a fanged-grin, and now that I knew about basilisk venom, that was slightly concerning.
But Sunny was hurting, as much as she tried to pretend that she wasn’t.
So, in the end, we helped her plan her damn party… the secret parts, we had to do through written notes, so the fae in the trees wouldn’t hear.
The party wasn’t goingto go down for a few more days, so that evening, Ervo whisked me back to our treehouse. The close one, not the far one.
We made love against the wall, and though I tried to be quiet, I failed.
I was pretty sure that was Ervo’s goal, though.
We snuggled up together on the floor and started talking about my family again. It was going to take me a lot longer to move on completely from everything I’d experienced, but he listened without complaint while I ranted, just holding me and stroking my back.
After a moment of silence, I admitted quietly, “Sometimes, I feel bad that my life wasn’t as horrible as the other girls’ who are here. I know most of them probably survived worse, and I wonder if I should’ve just figured out a way out of my life instead of making that wish. There are people who deserve to be here more than me—and who probably need it more than me.”
“Pain is not a competition, Mariah. We all suffer. We all struggle. We all ache. Your difficulties were neither worse nor better than anyone else’s; they justwere. And now, they’re done. And you’re mine.”
I tried to blink away the water pooling in my eyes. “Thank you.”
“You don’t need to thank me for being possessive,” he teased me softly. “I take great joy in it.”
