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They shook hands as business partners would, and the whole transaction made Sapphire sick to her stomach. Pearl nudged her backward more forcefully then so Klaus and Emerald could talk some more without her in between them.
“How was your trip to my island, Emerald?”
“Uneventful. Your missive was very precise, and your directions were very forthright. We didn’t get lost at all.”
“If I wanted you to get lost, you would.”
“I know that.”
“I don’t trust him,” Sapphire hissed under her breath, watching the exchange with rapt attention—or to be more precise, watching as Klaus weaved a spell over Emerald and made her agreeable and pleasant.
“None of us do, sis,” Pearl murmured. “The deal’s done. There’s nothing we can do.”
It’s not too late.
The words reverberated in Sapphire’s mind. Before Pearl could wrench her away further, she shook herself off the grasp and moved forward again until Klaus took notice and glanced at her. Something in her face must have alerted him as he became a mask once more, muscles shifting in a bracing. She bit back a smirk.Good.
“The pact includes you not harming Rosa’s clan, her allied clans, and my brother. It also includes the Suttons paying Rosa’s debt in the form of a bride and a witch ally.”
“Yes,” Emerald answered. “We already sealed that.”
“What are you getting at?” Klaus asked, getting straight to the point.
“I propose an addition to that deal.”
Emerald’s brows furrowed. “Saph—”
“What addition?” Klaus cut in.
Sapphire met his wary gaze. “You not harming the same set of people—including my sister—if things go south.”
The wariness shifted to suspicion. “And why would things go south?”
“You might change your mind. You might decide not to marry her. You might do something that would effectively end this engagement.”
A growl slid from his throat, prompting Moon to growl in return. Out of the corner of her eye, she glimpsed Maddox wrapping a hand around the young man’s elbow but didn’t take her attention away from the real threat, whose growl vibrated in the air around them.
“You can’t just make demands and expect me to go along with it,” Klaus bit out. “You are up against a dragon if you don’t fulfill your end of the bargain.
“Who said anything about breaking the deal?” she shot back. “And you are up against a household of powerful witches and their allies if you decide to go on offense.”
“You are up against death if you break this engagement. The magic calls that.”
“Youare up against death if you hurt any of us,” she returned. “That doesn’t mean you can’t decideon your ownto change your mind and break the engagement.”
Clarity glinted in his features as if he finally understood what she was getting at. If anything, the animosity in his stance doubled.
“So, what you’re saying is that I can change my mind about the engagement, but you can’t. Because you’re the one who owes me, and I call the shots.”
The twist in the words that made him look superior had her glaring. “In that area, sure. But don’t forget that in the end, it’s the magic that calls the shots.”
“Oh, I know that. And I won’t change my mind,” he said.
Something in his softened tone tapped her senses and screamed that this was a predator, luring its prey with vulnerability before it pounced. She steeled her spine and pushed one more time.
“Then surely you’re not afraid with one meager addition.”
And there it was: the fire blazing in cold eyes once more, a ferocious sight that made her want to see how far she could poke him. But that was asking for trouble, and despite Sapphire’s bout of recklessness, she wasn’t about to risk getting burned. She waited him out, waited for that fire to die down and the cool, calm collectiveness to return. It turned to ice at some point, his look enough to cut her, but Klaus banked that down too.
