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“Drogo…” Arlys takes a sip of his own drink, then twirls his glass. “Have you considered the possibility that she might be a pawn in all of this just as much as we are?”
“No,” I answer easily. “Not a chance.”
Rinan rolls his eyes.
I glare at him. “Got something to say?”
He grabs the bottle and tops off our glasses before answering. “I think you’re finding reasons to hate her because if you didn’t, you’d let down your guard and start seeing her for what she is, which is a lone woman, in enemy territory, forced into a marriage that she doesn’t want.”
For a second I think about punching him, but I won’t ruin our relationship like that if I can help it. Instead, I push the feeling aside and try to speak with measured words. “Remember when we were boys, and you thought you could pet that snake? How did that end?”
Now, Rinan is glaring at me. “It bit me, but–”
“You’re playing with a snake again, Rinan, and this one doesn’t have an antidote.”
He glances at Arlys, and the other man draws himself up. “Drogo, I’m not saying she’s perfectly innocent, but your level of hatred for her isn’t healthy. I know it was hard losing your brothers–”
“Don’t talk about them,” I snap.
My brothers. Idiots who were always grinning. Idiots who liked to play pranks and fuck any girl who looked their ways. Dead. Because of witches.
“You’re being angry because it’s easier to be angry,” Arlys says in such a matter-of-fact way that my deep desire to punch someone rises again.
“Being angry isn’t easy.” I thought the words were going to come out aggressive, but instead, they’re just sad.
“We know,” Rinan says, his tone gentle. “We’re connected. We can feel how much it hurts you. Since that day, when you were notified, we don’t think you’ve forgiven yourself for not being there.”
I chug my drink. This is getting too deep. “I’m not talking about me. I’m talking about her. She came here as our peace bride, but she has a bag of weapons. Does that sound like some innocent young thing?”
Rinan shrugs. “If she wanted to use that sword on me with the bear, she could have. Or she could have let it kill me, but she didn’t. She healed me, Drogo. I was dying. Whatever she is, she’s not that bad.”
I run my hands through my hair as I think about her. That tilted smile of hers. The little dimples. Her heart-shaped face. The stark contrast between her dark hair and her pale skin. The perfect curves on such a petite woman.
Fuck, I hate when I start thinking about her.
“She’s also not that innocent.”
Rinan gives me a weird look.
“What?”
He hesitates before pressing on. “She’s pretty innocent… given she’s a virgin.”
“Virgin?” Arlys says, almost on a gasp.
But I can barely worry about what he’s thinking, because my own head is spinning. Moments I’ve had with her start to take on a different meaning through this lens, casting her in an unexpected light. It’s a light that softens my heart to her. And yet, just because she told Rinan she’s a virgin doesn’t mean she is.
Arlys drags his hands through his hair. “That explains so much, like her trying to dry me at the river. She just didn’t understand what she was doing to me.”
Oh no, is their soft spot for her growing?
I snort. “Or this is all another ploy to make us see her as a sweet little thing, while she plots against us.”
Rinan shakes his head as if in disbelief of my very rational thoughts. “I believed her when she told me.”
“You believe every pretty face.”
Arlys sighs, but he sounds exhausted. “Virgin or not, we need her magic. Knowing who she is as a person would obviously help a bit with deciding how to handle her, but none of us have spent enough time with her to really know what lies beneath the surface, so we just have to move forward with the information we have.”
