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“Did he…give his blessing?”
Ha. Not even close, buddy. He said some terrifying stuff, actually, but I don’t want to tell Fabien that. I still break out in a cold sweat just thinking about it.
"Not that I remember. I’m sorry.”
Fabien sighs.
"I'm sorry, too. But we’ll make our way. I believe in us, more than I believe in him.”
The conversation gets me thinking, and suddenly I’m curious.
“What’d he tell you?”
“Oh, that I’d die horribly. He’s always making pronunciations like that. It’s not a big deal. Hopefully he didn’t say anything too scary to you.”
Actually, hedid.A lot of stuff about the fire catching me like I deserve. Real bad stuff, considering I took the place of a girl who looks just like me and who was burned nearly in half.
Probably before she died.
“Sometimes you’re two women,” he says, softly, as he tucks my hair behind my ear.
My heart skips a few beats, but I manage to laugh in a way that sounds nearly authentic, and not just like a sad goat getting slapped in the nutsack.
“Well, I’m just one of me. You get what you get.”
Fabien looks at me with longing. Not even the white heat of lust I've felt coming off his body since we met, but something deeper. A need to be touched, and held, by someone who isn't terrified of him.
But it vanishes quickly enough as the sounds of distant music grow louder.
"That's our cue."
Thank the gods. Or whoever.
We begin to walk, arm in arm. I feel lightheaded, so much so that Fabien needs to help support me. I want to say I'm sorry. I want to cry. I don't let myself do either.
I just hold it in and try to walk, but my legs turn to jelly.
I’m getting married.
Fabien doesn't show it on his face at all. His powerful tentacles encircle me and take the weight like it's nothing. He doesn't even look like he's holding me up.
The touch of his hands on my skin makes my blood boil with desire for him. Every time he's close to me, I feel it. The mountain god’s warning flashes through my mind again.
The fire will catch you.
The image of Mia Zedona, burned to death, flashes there, too. Distantly, I wonder if there's a connection. Something tying the real Mia to this? But she wouldn't have known about the marriage plans. For that matter, whowouldhave known? If someone killed Mia because they found out about the marriage arrangement, then they could know I'm an imposter.
Or they might not care and just burn me, too.
"What is it?" Fabien whispers.
He can always tell when I’m thinking about private things, the jerk. I wish he'd keep out of my head, even if he can only see daydreams. I clear my mind, and I have to hope he didn't see my morbid imaginings.
A wild, desperate part of me wants to tell him.
The same part of me that wants him. The part of me that knows he'd know what to do. Somehow Fabien would get me out of this mess and figure the whole thing out.
But he'd also kill me. I have no doubt about that. I've seen firsthand what happens to the people who cross him.
