Page 14 of A Storm in Every Heart
“We won’t,” Alix soothes. “You said half an hour, it’s only been fifteen minutes.”
Daemon grumbles under his breath, but circles the table to sit down in his usual seat on the far end. Now, the only empty seat is Kastian’s.
A heavy silence blankets the room, interrupted only by the rhythmic tapping of my foot against the hardwood floor beneath the table. Each tick of Alix’s pocket watch sounds deafening. My fingers drum on the edge of the table, each tap echoing my growing frustration. The heat of impatience crawls up my neck.
Finally, unable to bear it any longer, I swivel in my chair to face Daemon, my voice slicing through the quiet like a knife. “Are you really going to make me wait for him? This meeting is supposed to be about me, isn’t it?”
Daemon’s brows knit together, casting a shadow over his eyes as his lips press into a thin line. He lets out a deep, resigned sigh. “Fine. Hydratta has sent several letters through courtiers and from the king himself. They’re interested in meeting you.”
“And by ‘meeting me’ you mean they want to organize an engagement.”
“Yes,” Daemon says flatly.
I narrow my eyes. “And you didn’t think this was worth mentioning to me? How long have you known?”
He flinches. “The first explicit mention of a marriage contract came about two months ago.”
“You should have told me!” I snap, my temper rising.
“Well I see thatnow,” he admits, and has the decency to look guilty. “I didn’t think it mattered because obviously it’s not going to fucking happen.”
“Here’s what I don’t understand,” Jett chimes in. “This king wants to marry you without ever meeting you?”
“You say that like it’s unheard of,” Daemon grumbles.
“For me it is,” Jett replies, a hint of his usual light heartedness in his tone. “The rest of you might have grown up royal, but I’m just a street rat. I don’t know shit about royal marriage customs.”
Alix throws him a sympathetic look. “I don’t get it either.”
“It’s not unheard of for a king to send emissaries to screen brides for him,” I chime in warily. “And, not that it matters but I have actually met him before. Once.”
“Wait, when was this?” Alix asks, glancing between Daemon and I in confusion.
I bite my lip. “Around a century ago?”
“And you were there too?” Alix asks Daemon. “You never mentioned that.”
He runs a hand over the back of his head looking flustered. “I didn’t know they’d ever met. Maybe I forgot, it was a long time ago, before Magnus Von Bargen was king and…fuck,” he breaks off, glancing angrily at the door. “Where the hell is Kastian? I don’t want to be the one to explain this.”
I frown and sink back into my chair, feeling slightly guilty.
Daemon didn’t forget anything. He doesn’t remember that I met Magnus because I’m lying. We never met directly, but I can’t explain what really happened. This is as much as I can say.
“I think the only important question here is do you want to marry the King of Hydratta?” Aurelia asks, her voice cutting through the uncomfortable silence at the table. I jump, startled as much by her voice as her question. Suddenly all eyes are on me and they’re waiting for me to answer.
“No!” I blurt out. “Of course not. I don’t know why he would choose me.”
The silence presses on, and finally Jett breaks it. He grins at me and gestures at my face. “Come on Dessa, you know why.”
My cheeks heat. “That’s not it. Anyway, I’m not…unusuallybeautiful.” I internally cringe.
Alix snorts. “Oh, please.”
“I’m not!”
I absolutely hate this topic. There’s no polite way to talk about it without sounding conceited, and I despise talking about it in the first place. Even when I asked Kastian why anyonewould bother kidnapping me and he said “Besides the obvious?” I would have been happy for the earth to open and swallow me. At least he’s not here now, that would make this all so much worse.
“All sirens look like me on land,” I add, trying to take the focus off me.
