Page 38 of Monster Married
We watched them go. When they were almost out of sight, I took a step closer to the circle. It had been carved into one giant stone piece, the hole in the center cut out, but the center stone fit so seamlessly that I almost wouldn’t have known it if its color hadn’t been darker than the rest. Whatever it took to get the magic going, the craftsmanship of this was impressive.
The cost of magic had to be something the city had been okay with from the outset. They’d planned for it like humans might plan for a parking lot or a garage. Back on Earth, I had been used to collect a cost in order to fuse the veils. I still wasn’t sure how I felt about that.
“Sadir…tell me; how you speak with Vergis, I’m not sure sometimes, if… Do you like him or dislike him?” Inkiri was looking at me, his gaze intense. “I can’t say for certain. It’s difficult for me to distinguish in English. There is less nuance.”
I snorted. “I’m not sure either.” I looked up at him, wondering whether I should tell him about Vergis’s crush. I had heard something about marriage being about trust and openness, and it was probably a good idea to test that theory out. “Can you keep something I tell you to yourself?”
Inkiri tilted his head. “Of course. But if you want to tell me about how Vergis might wish that I join him for some pleasure play, I know.”
“Oh. Okay. I didn’t know. That you knew that about him, I mean.”
Inkiri knelt next to me and brushed some ash off the perimeter of the circle with his finger.
“I guessed, more than anything. He was never as direct as another bagu might have been, but then we’ve known him for a long time now. Also, he did grow up on Earth more than Aër. I was the one to ask him to take us when I felt my mate call to you. He’s good at hiding his emotions, but he wasn’t that day.”
“Sorry. That must have been awkward.”
“That was the secret you wanted to share with me?”
I nodded. “But we had a chat last night?—”
“Last night?” Inkiri stood. I was flat against his chest within moments, his arms banded tightly across my back. “Last night when?”
“I just had to pee, and then I went out on the porch, and he was already there. We chatted.”
Inkiri sighed. “I should’ve woken at the noise you made. At every turn, it seems I fail you.”
“I was quiet, and you were tired from…you know. Taking a bath with me. Anyway, me and Vergis sort of made up? He’s still very murderous by default, but I’m relatively certain he won’t randomly stick me with his knife in the future.”
Inkiri ran his fingers through my hair. “And you? Anything you might want to stick anywhere? Or want him to stick anywhere?”
“Anything I want…?” Realization dawned, and I pinched Inkiri’s chest. It would’ve been more satisfying if he’d had nipples. “You’re jealous of Vergis?”
His arms tensed. “He called you princess. You let him.”
I groaned. “Well, that’s not a pet name, I can tell you that. But seriously, I think we had a heart-to-heart, he reminded me that he would murder me if I ever hurt you, and then we enjoyed manly silence together.”
Inkiri clicked. “He threatened you?”
Oh, the brain’s quality control system was taking time off again, and no one had told me. “He didn’t mean it like that.” Well, he had. “Can you not tell him I told you? I don’t want to embarrass him.” I looked up and practiced my eyelash batting. I really wished someone had told me that would be a useful survival skill; much more useful than setting up a tent or anything ridiculous like that. I’d have skipped all the AP math and worked on developing my facial expressions instead. “Please, Ink?”
Inkiri sighed. “Of course I won’t.” He blew out a breath. “Sadir, you didn’t answer. Do you want Vergis after all? I know it would be easy with you both having grown up on Earth, and of course he’s hangu and a mage?—”
I pinched him again. It didn’t do much. “Oh, stop! I don’t have a thing for him. He’s so not my type, and I’m pretty damn sure I’m not his. Not in a million years.”
He nodded. “Then it’s an Earth thing that you allow him to call you princess?”
I shrugged. I hadn’t allowed Vergis anything, but I wasn’t sure how to explain that. “Yeah. Old Earth custom.”
He smiled. “I see. I don’t?—”
Inkiri shoved me against the wall, hard. All the air was driven out of my lungs so I couldn’t scream. I was stunned, my eyes wide, and I saw the flash of a brown sleeve right where Inkiri’s head had been a second ago.
Inkiri was moving. I couldn’t make sense of the jumble of limbs at first. Everything was happening so fast, and there were sounds like someone punching the air out of bread dough. I had the silly, errant thought that it was a dance, but then one of the people who’d jumped Inkiri flashed a knife. This was no dance.
“Ink!”
He wasn’t looking. He couldn’t. He was moving.
