Page 92 of When Wishes Bleed

“How was your dinner?”

Tauren leveled me with a ponderous look. “Why do you ask?”

“Curiosity.”

“You know what they say about that.”

I tried to laugh, gripping the ropes of the swing tighter.

Tauren sighed. “Dinner was good. No poison, so that’s something,” he finally said, settling on a stone bench nearby. The garden’s narrow stone pathways were exposed now that its flora was dead. He stretched his legs out and leaned back on his palms.

“Good.”

“And your time with Brecan?” He watched me intently.

“My evening was good as well,” I said, re-using his bland description.

“Good,” he muttered.

A long moment of silence stretched between us.

“I hate it,” he finally said, tearing at his hair.

“Hate what?”

“Seeing you with him.”

I took a deep breath. “Well, I hate seeing you with Rose. And Leah. And Estelle. And Tessa.”

He looked up at me. “Thank you for helping my father. I didn’t get a chance to tell you earlier. He’s resting more soundly than he has in months.”

“I wish I could do more for him,” I admitted. I wished I could heal the King the way Fate allowed me to heal Belle today. But it was time for the King to pass, just as it was time for Tauren to take his place as the ruler of Nautilus.

Tauren leaned forward, placing his elbows on his knees and scrubbing his face with his hands. “This is so hard. He’s been sick for a while, but we didn’t realize it was this grave. For months, he brushed everything off as stomach upset or indigestion, and we let him,” he scoffed. “We didn’t ask questions. I never sent for a doctor until the day he collapsed.”

“You didn’t know,” I tried to comfort.

“He’s my father. I should’ve done something.”

“His illness was not your doing, and you can’t blame yourself for something completely out of your control.” No more than my mother or her actions were my fault. I hated that he blamed himself. He shouldered too much. Far too much.

“For the record,” he said, sitting up straighter, “I hate dining with Rose, or Leah, or Estelle, or Tessa.”

“Why do you say such things?”

He shrugged. “Like you, I’m just being honest. There’s only one woman I want to have dinner with every evening, lunch with every afternoon, and breakfast with each morning.”

“We’re impossible,” I breathed.

“I’m not so sure about that.”

“I thought you were still angry with me.” I watched him out of the corner of my eye.

He blew out a tense breath and looked to the heavens. “I wish you hadn’t worked the spell, but now that you have, I’ll just have to work doubly hard to protect you,” he vowed.

He is ridiculously stubborn. “You should worry about protecting yourself, not about me.”

“No, now that we’re bound, you’ll be my shield, but I will also be yours. We’ll keep each other safe – and alive.”

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