“What is?” Darius asked quietly, sounding destroyed.
She shrugged. “How you pulled me from the life of being alone that would have eventually killed me because I didn’t know the truth, and you pushed me into a life that you’ve made me feel lonely in and will probably end up killing my soul, like all the other princesses. That you liked that I was curious and wanted to try new things, and that was what you ended up hating about me and the reason you abandoned me.”
“No, I still love that part of you too, Inez,” he choked out. “Do you really not want me to fight for you?”
“Don’t, she’s drunk,” Jaxon muttered. “She’s in pain, valid, but in pain and not seeing clearly.”
Inez moved off of me and sighed, reaching for her moonshine. “So strippers don’t live up to the hype either. I wanted fun. After what we voted on tonight I just wanted some fun.”
I swallowed loudly as I reached for her. “What did you vote on?”
“Which one of the two would leave me like one of the last two did,” she answered easily before taking another deep swig.
“What was the vote?” Kristof asked, his tone dark like he knew the answer but didn’t want it.
“Mostly you,” she answered. “You’ll come back to your senses and realize I’m a brat you only wanted because Aether pushed you, and you’ll resent me forever that I trapped you and fuck other women again because you can’t have me as you wanted. Though there were several votes for Cerdic as he seems like a guy who’s drawn to a project, and I’m a huge mess, but if he ever fixes me, he won’t want me anymore.”
“What the fuck goes on at a bachelorette party?” someone whispered.
Yeah, I had the same reaction and deep worry that she would never open back up her heart after Darius broke it so badly. That sucked for the rest of us who wanted her too.
10
“Fuck it, cancel it and send everyone home,” Kristof growled as I took another swig of peach moonshine.
“Why?” I asked him, looking over my shoulder and blinking when I saw two of him.
“Because you don’t want to do it,” he snapped, sighing when I flinched. “We get it, you changed your mind, but you should have told us this.”
“Changed my mind on what?” I frowned and pushed to my feet. I picked up a towel and tried to wrap it around me while holding the jar, which didn’t work. Petre got up and helped me, and I thanked him before looking back on Kristof. “What do you mean? I didn’t change my mind.”
“You just said you didn’t want to do this.”
I nodded as I sat back down facing him this time. “Right, but that wasn’t changing my mind.”
“What do you mean, love?” Cerdic asked, waving Kristof off. “You wanted to do this.”
“No, I didn’t,” I argued, glancing between them, wondering how much they’d had to drink too. “Did you ever ask if I wanted to do this? No, you asked if I would. Yes, I’ll do it. No one asked me if I wanted to. Well, Hope, but that was it. Everyone asked if I would, or if I was okay with it, if I agreed to do it. Yes, yes, and yes, but that’s not wanting to.”
“Holy shit,” someone whispered as if they were just realizing there was a difference.
I shrugged. “It’s what I need to do, right? You guys have both said that. Repeatedly. It’s good for the coven. It’s another layer of protection. You both want it and I love you. I don’t want to change any of what we have. I think it’s stupid to do it so fast, and I don’t want to lose what I feel for you or realize you didn’t feel as much for me as I thought.”
“Inez, that’s not…” Cerdic trailed off, swallowing loudly. “Darius messed up but…” He glanced at Darius, and I did as well, before looking back to Cerdic.
“Don’t worry, he won’t stay. He doesn’t love me like that. He got me. That was all that mattered. Just look at Jaxon.”
“What did I do?” Jaxon demanded. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Wrong? No, you’ve kept your oath and you love me, but I don’t want to lose what I have with Cerdic and Kristof like I did you.”
“You didn’t lose anything,” he argued. “Nothing changed after we married.”
“Huh,” I grunted before taking another drink. “Okay.” I shrugged, annoyed my fun was ruined and a bit hurt he could say that. “So we’ve had more hunting and jerky dates? Or we’ve done those massages? No, right, you got me. No more courting after I accept your oath. No more raiding dates. No more picnics. No more asking for the milk when you got the cow.”
“That’s not how—”
“So you taught me to fish like you promised?” I gestured to the other nobles. “They bring me stuff all the time and do anything they can to make me smile, like you used to. I mean I have a line of men waiting, so I guess that’s the answer when you’ve won the prize of the princess and don’t want to worry about courting fun anymore.”
“Inez, you’ve not been open to all of that,” Jaxon defended quietly.
“Oh, okay, so that picnic I brought to the room trying to do just that and you ignored wanting shower sex? I didn’t leave the bins of reward lingerie out so you tripped over them. I didn’t ask you to play Scrabble?” I chuckled darkly when he didn’t answer. “Oh, wait, I did all of that.” I looked at Kristof and Cerdic. “So no, I don’t want to lose that, but I will. I’ll ask
