Page 101 of The Dark, Dead, Deep

“I resent that.” Rainn widened his eyes. “I’m not friends with this big lug. I stick around for the food and the wine.”

“And the females?” I added dryly.

Rainn wiggled his brows, and my stomach twisted and warmed. My core throbbed, and I did my best to school my features.

“What females?” Shay snickered. “King Illfin wouldn’t know what to do with a pu—”

Cormac glared at him. “Mind your tongue, fiend.”

Shay gave him a look that spoke volumes. “I simply mention your inexperience as a known fact in Tarsainn. That Cormac Illfin for all of his skills with a trident is not known for the same with his sword.”

“Just because I don’t have a harem doesn’t mean that I have never known a female’s body,” Cormac said through gritted teeth, angrily adjusting his crown. “Which is more than I can say for you lot.”

Tormalugh coughed into his wine, but Rainn appeared unaffected by the merman’s accusations.

“Besides,” Cormac took a deep breath to calm himself. “No one will question our union.”

“I hope you know what you’re doing.” Shay’s eyes glittered as he studied Cormac with condemnation.

Cormac sniffed, tilting his nose in the air with indignation as he walked away.

Chapter 20

I’d had enough of watching merfolk feast and dance and definitely had enough of being around Cormac Illfin.

Rainn and Tormalugh offered to walk me back to Cormac’s chambers, and though I wanted to ask if there was another room I could sleep in, I knew it wouldn’t look good if I did.

I should have been happy that I was somewhat protected from Lady Bloodtide’s wrath—though I would have preferred to have been halfway to the Dark Sea by now rather than surrounded by enemies.

There was too much hurt on both sides. For years, I had felt detached from it all, as if I was looking down and watching a play, until the Frosted Sands.

I wondered if that made me a terrible person.

I heard about fae dying on the front lines. I sat on the High Throne and allowed the lake to pull visions of our enemies through me so my uncle could stay one step ahead. I had ridden horses, swam the castle grounds, and ate plenty. I had slept on a comfortable bed while my undine kin died in the trenches on the front line.

“You’re awfully quiet,” Rainn noted as he twisted the chain around his waist between his fingers.

I sighed deeply. “I didn’t think I would become this.”

Rainn’s brow creased. “Become what?”

“A pawn,” I said, staring into the distance.

Tormalugh cocked his head to the side in question. “You lived in the castle, at Cruinn, if I recall,” he said impassively. “Surely you know how wars are fought?”

“I thought wars were won on battlefields,” I murmured.

The kelpie chuffed, his dark eyes bitter. “Wars are won by people that will never step foot on a battlefield.”

My lip curled. “What does Cormac hope to achieve?” I wondered out loud. “He doesn’t even like me. He damn near hates me, in fact. The undine and the merfolk are enemies. What possible advantage can Cormac see from making me his bride?”

“You don’t seem to be cut up about marrying him,” Rainn pointed out, an edge to his voice that took me a second to identify.

“Are you jealous?” My eyes rounded incredulously.

Rainn waved my question away with the flick of his wrist. “No,” he said, and there was no room for argument. “I was simply making the point that out of this entire farce, the thing you seem most upset about is that you have been left out of Cormac’s plan, rather than the idea that you’ll have to marry someone for whom you have no affection.”

Tormalugh nodded his agreement. “Yes. I agree. You may have to spend the rest of your existence as Cormac Illfin’s wife.”

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