Page 53 of Fated or Knot

I hadn’t heardfishandfishlingfrom the princes before, but it was clear they were talking about Cymora and Laurel. I felt compelled to say, “Please don’t kill them.”

Fal and Marius exchanged a glance. “She probably doesn’t mean that,” the dark elf said.

“I do,” I said woodenly.

“See?” he said.

Marius responded with a kelpie’s snort, looking unconvinced.

Kauz helped support me as I limped toward the couches. Everyone scrambled to sit ahead of me, and three sets of hands reached out when I realized I needed to sit in someone’s lap to make this work. I picked Marius. He held me tight, nuzzling my neck with a soft sigh. “If we took care of Cymora and you never saw her again, would that really upset you?” he asked.

I nodded once, compelled by some order made long enough ago that I’d forgotten the wording.

His ear flicked. “Kauz is convinced she’s controlling you through a spell or a vow,” he said.

I dropped my gaze, unable to talk about it. “The ‘yes, Stepmother’ thing she does any time Cymora gives her an order,” Kauz said. My head snapped around to stare at him. He lifted his shoulder. “It benefits to be observant. And there’s no one I’ve paid closer attention to than you.”

Marius skimmed his callused fingertips down my wings. “Let’s let it go for now. We have a problem to solve. Fal’s plan didn’t work.”

“It was going so well, too,” Fal said.

“Plan goes well until it doesn’t. Like every other plan,” Tormund grumbled.

“We didn’t grasp how bad it was. But now we do, and we’re displacing the fishling from this room. I’ll take her place,” Fal declared.

“I’m moving in as well,” Kauz said. “Lark can sleep with me.”

The other three males protested at the same time.

“We can decide that part later,” I ventured. I was just relieved that they’d be coming here, leaving no room for my stepfamily. Even though two more days of being crammed together like this may be less fun soon, I was tentatively excited. Two days of nonstop cuddles awaited, as long as we could all get along.

Kauz and Fal started searching the room for Laurel’s things, putting them into her bag haphazardly before they left the room. I dozed against Marius in the quiet that followed, breathing in trace amounts of his waterlily and mint scent. It sent me straight to sleep.

Sometime later, I awoke still propped against his muscled chest. He had one arm around me and held his book open with the other. There was no way he was actually reading it. His eyes were dilated too much again.

Tormund stared at the ceiling beside us, while Kauz and Fal whispered intently in Serian on the other couch. Somehow, the sandwich and cookie Tormund had brought earlier were still onthe table, and I brightened, finally feeling hungry enough to eat it.

“Welcome back, love. I have something for you,” Fal said in Theli. “Hold out your hand.”

I did so, and he dropped silver into my palm. My lips parted in surprise to see the necklace and earrings Laurel had taken from me earlier. I put them back on with an eager smile. “How?” I asked.

“Well, as I was moving out of the other room, I told Laurel in detail how my tongue had been on one of these three things without sharing which one. She searched the female’s bath and, lo and behold, found your jewelry.” He looked entirely too proud of himself. Marius didn’t stir, but the other two brothers looked at Fal with raised brows.

I picked at my fingertips nervously. “They didn’t mind you changing the room assignments?” I asked.

“I don’t give a single shit if they mind or not,” he answered, expression sobering. “You will never be alone with them again if any of us can help it. Not even to take a bath. We’re going to make sure the female’s bath is closed when you need to use it. We’ll be a little uncomfortable for a couple days, then we’ll soon be in Serian. Things will be different there.”

I nodded, my dry eyes stinging as my lip wobbled. “Thank you. It means so much that you’d do all this for me.”

“You’re worth it,” he said, giving me a warm look. We gazed at each other for a long moment before he clapped his hands. “Well! I don’t know about you all, but I’m ready to play one of Kauz and Marius’s endless card games.”

The kelpie finally seemed to acknowledge the conversation by asking in a roughened voice, “Which one?”

“Let’s teach the li’l bird Liar Liar. It’s my favorite,” Tormund suggested.

“I’m the champion at that game. Have the trophy to prove it, too,” Marius said to me as Kauz fished out a deck of cards and began dealing five piles. The kelpie explained the game efficiently while we waited. We split the deck evenly between us, except for the last card, which was flipped over. The objective was to put up to four cards from our hands face down on that card and suggest whether they matched its suit or color.

If no one challenged them, the cards were flipped and the next fae had their turn. But if they were challenged—called a liar—they flipped their cards right there. If the cards didn’t match what they suggested, they took every card in the pile except for one. But if they weren’t lying, the accuser took the pile instead.

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