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She points behind me. “What’s going on over there…?”
I turn my attention to…decidedly something. What exactly is a question I stopped asking millennia ago. For my own sanity. “It’s best not to worry about that.”
Her attention drifts. “’Kay…”
“Are you well?”
“I’m…overwelmed, if that counts for anything?” Her fingers tighten around mine. “Dinner was…a lot. I talked more than I’ve talked in decades, and I’m tired now.”
“I’m sorry that everyone showed up with only an invitation from Meda, and not us. I should have known better than to think she had not memorized her…‘mother’s’ phone number.”
“Meda thought it was a family dinner. It was.”
In spite of myself, I can’t stop smiling. “It really was.”
“I’m glad everyone was there. I mean, what if they hadn’t been there to distract my parents from how jittery I’ve gotten?” Kassandra blows out a breath. “My word. Who knows what they might have thought the reason behind my nerves are? It’s not like I moved in with my husband tonight or anything, right?”
I arch a brow. “You…did. I’m sorry. I don’t think I’m following. What would they have suspected as the reasoning behind your heightened energy were everyone not there?”
Kassandra presses her lips together and stares at me. “I forgot. You do not look as innocent as you are. You are like a skank conduit made of the purest crystal. It’s entirely possible I received all the gutter brain pieces in our two halves of a perfect whole situation here.”
“Oh.” I understand now. “You were talking about…the things husbands and wives enjoy.” I clear my throat. “Dearest, prior to that, I would like to share vows. And…also…claim you without a pretense of expecting more. Just…” I swallow, hard. “Just because I want you to be mine. Because I love you, and I want our souls to be together.”
Somehow, the red in her cheeks deepens. “Faeries also share vows? Is that what was supposed to happen after you gave me Chai? But you walked into a bush instead?” She narrows her eyes and drifts closer to me. “Wait, if we never exchanged vows, doesn’t that mean we’re not actually married yet?”
Confusion niggles its way into my more tender emotions. “We’re married according to human traditions, aren’t we?”
“What?” she says.
I echo, “Aren’t…we?”
“Where in the world did you get the idea that giving me a kitten meant we were human married?”
“It goes as far back as the vikings.”
Kassandra blinks. “Are you talking about the viking tradition where men gifted their wives a kitten as a symbol of love because their goddess of love’s chariot was pulled by giant cats?”
My mouth opens.
I close it.
Swiping my free hand over my mouth, I murmur, “I believe…perhaps…I’ve misunderstood something that I have internalized as the truth for a long time.”
“Yeah.” Kassandra rolls her lips into her mouth, but she can’t stop the laugh from escaping for long. “I think maybe that’s the case.”
“In my defense…” I reference whatever is going on in someone’s dream to the left of us.
Kassandra plants her golden fingers over her lips. “That is an excellent defense.”
“I also asked Willow for clarification when something I couldn’t quite decode felt off.” Sighing, I close my eyes, then—in unison—we say, “Willow.” I, however, add a curse.
Kassandra snorts, barely keeping herself together as she caves against my body and rumbles with joy. “I’m so glad she’s my friend. I hope she likes me. I want her to like me. Do you think she likes me?”
With a sigh, I hold her. “She does not tolerate anyone she doesn’t like.”
“That’s reassuring.” Kassandra’s cheek rests over my heart. “So. We’re not married. And when you questioned Willow about the situation you believed to be true because you spend too much time in absolute chaos, she lied. Since you’re a precious dreamboy, you had no natural defenses against lying, and, therefore, believed her.”
“I am torn between an urge to retaliate and a desire to congratulate her on her most effective mischief. For a little human-seelie creature, she acts with the mischief of my kind. I appreciate that immensely.” No doubt, she would suggest arson in response to emotions, just like Castor. In no small way, that makes her priceless to me.
