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“You wanted this marriage.”
“I wanted it when it wasn’t complicated,” was Emerald’s no-nonsense response. “Now it is and I don’t want to get involved in this tangle.”
“We can untangle this. This is nothing.”
“That’s…”
“Klaus.” At Sapphire’s pleading gaze, Klaus stopped speaking. She took Emerald’s hands, needing to know something. “Em, why did you want it before? Why did you enter this deal?”
“To protect Silver.”
“Em—”
“And I was a scorned lover.”
It felt like one bomb dropped after another.
“What?”
“Secret engagement,” Emerald explained. “I was dumped when our family got persecuted. He moved on and I didn’t. No one was the wiser. It was petty revenge for me, though I realize now it was me just wanting to get away from Broom’s Isle and my pride wanting to be victorious. A dragon trumps a warlock no matter how you look at it.”
“Who?”
“I won’t tell you that. But I can assure you that I will be fine without a dragon because the guy doesn’t matter to me anymore and I’m better off doing other things.”
“Good for you,” Klaus murmured. The two shared a look and Emerald offered him a smile. Then she turned serious.
“Anyway, to get back to the point, this is the perfect solution.”
Sapphire made a sound, then turned to Klaus.
“We can’t marry and mate.”
“Why not?” he returned promptly, ready for her protest. Calm now, as if all the fight had left him. “You owe me. And she’s right. There’s chemistry and it’s not appropriate for me to marry her after the scandal we caused. We might as well go for it and hit all the marks.”
The marks, meaning a surefire pregnancy and her being his witch ally—a bad idea as far as she was concerned, risking the discovery of her weakness even more. But the next option was to fling another sister in his grasp, and she didn’t think Pearl could handle it. She could, even if it meant putting herself in the hands of someone who clouded her mind too much and sent her emotions in a whirlwind.
For Silver. For Em, too, so she could get out and be free.
There was no other choice.
She held out her hand. Klaus took it before she could second-guess herself, clasping it in a firm shake that sent an electric charge down her spine. It also sent unease.
“Fine. You win.”
But deep inside, Sapphire suspected neither of them had won at all.
Chapter 6
Restless didn’t even begin to cover what he was feeling, especially when things weren’t going the way Klaus had planned. In the week when his bride switched from the agreeable Emerald to her stubborn sister, he had redone it from the beginning: given his new bride gifts, dined with her twice a day, and went for garden walks with Emerald in tow. But the distance was palpable. Sapphire’s deliberate silence and avoidance drove him insane even when he didn’t know what to say to her. What was there to say?
I’m sorry, but it must be done. I’m sorry, but I can’t give up a bride even if it means trapping you here.
Nothing felt right to say. Her resigned acceptance of his gifts didn’t feel right, either, when he expected her to return everything, and the hollowness in his chest increased as the days went by. Then it was the day of reckoning and he found himself standing before a mirror and critically eyeing his suit. When someone knocked on the door, his heart leaped.
“Come in.”
Emerald peering in was a major disappointment, but his expression didn’t show it as he gestured at her to come in. She glided toward him, her light green dress emphasizing her graze and beauty. Any man would be mad for losing her, but the lack of pull in his belly told him he wasn’t among those men.
