Page 49 of Ogres Don't Play

She frowned at me and put a large, meaty palm to my forehead. “Sick? Fever?”

I pushed her hand off. “I’m fine.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Arrook take poison arrow. Save you. Why you so stupid?”

“So?” Anger ignited like I hadn’t felt in years. “Arrook is betrothed to someone else. Where I’m from, that’s called unavailable. Asking someone else to marry you when you’re already betrothed to someone else is the most vile, reprehensible, disgusting thing I can imagine.”

She frowned at me, studying my face while she considered. “Worse evisceration?”

“Much worse than evisceration.”

She nodded, then cocked her head. “Arrook betrothed? He run fast. Who catch not you?”

“I don’t know. Just someone he forgot to mention.”

She snapped her fingers. “Garnagth. Now remember.”

“Oh, that’s great. I’m glad you remember his betrothal to someone else.” I shook my head and seethed. I’d actually started to trust him.

“Betrothed when born. Stop war. Treaty. She not dead?”

I whirled around to stare at her. “Wait, you’re saying that he was betrothed when he was born to stop a war?”

She nodded slowly. “Bad times. Dark. Blood. Before angel demon war here.”

My stomach started churning. Did it count if Rook was betrothed to someone for a treaty when he was a baby? That explained why he didn’t think much about it. Almost explained. Why hadn’t he said that? He’d just said, ‘so,’ like that wasn’t something he had to explain. Also, he had to break his betrothal with her before he could marry me. That was obvious, wasn’t it?

“Can he break the betrothal?”

She shrugged her massive ogre shoulders. “Could. Rook not like big war.”

“How big?”

She raised her hands up above her head. “One third dead?”

“One third of the ogres were wiped out in the war before the treaty? What in the world did they fight against?”

“Troll.”

“Trolls? Aren’t trolls mostly too lazy to go to war?”

“Garnagth lead. Very big troll. Very hungry.”

My stomach gurgled. I should have eaten more before our big opening, except maybe I’d throw it up. I hadn’t had time to eat more than grabbing a bite here and there while I raced around trying to make sure everything would be in the right place at the right time. Maybe I’d just throw up if I’d eaten at the thought of Rook sold to some big troll. No, a very big troll. No one hired trolls for mercenaries, not when they had no focus on who they were supposed to kill and who they were supposed to leave alive.

“Can we assassinate her?”

“Yes. Then big war.”

“But you can’t just marry someone off to a very big troll to stop a war.”

“King can.”

“Yes, but…” I sighed heavily and almost ran a hand through my hair, but happily I remembered that it was in an elaborate updo that made me look more elegant and pulled together, less like an errant wandering minstrel, before I undid all my efforts.

Another black car pulled up, and out stepped a tall, slender vampire with dark hair and pale eyes. He glided towards me, hand outstretched.

I bowed instead of shaking his hand, but as soon as I straightened, he grabbed my shoulders and kissed both of my cheeks in an exuberant Euro greeting. “You are stunning,” he said in a rich, deep voice while his eyes gleamed.

---