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“Oh no—I’m totally letting Starling do the wedding planning. If she wants to,” I amended, remembering some of her dissatisfaction at being assigned the less-adventuresome tasks. I wandered over to my grimoire, which was waiting on the workbench Rogue had made sure to have here for me. I wouldn’t tell him that either, how much it meant that he paid attention to my habits and occupations. With a judiciously placed claw, I opened the cover, flipping the pages to the Rules of Bargaining section. So much to add about the marriage stuff and here I was, unable to grip a pen. Maybe I could write magically? A thought occurred to me.
“How are people invited, anyway?”
“Via Brownie, of course.”
Of course. So, even with their amazing speed, it would take them days to reach everyone.
“Who all will we invite?”
“Everyone who matters. You can make a list.”
“Ha-ha.” Though he might not realize I already had a list of everyone I’d encountered, plus all the people I didn’t know who’d sent me tribute to curry favor. At least, as far as Athena had gotten in memorizing them for me. “How soon do we have to do this wedding?”
“Haveto?” Rogue came over and leaned against the bench, crossing his long legs at the ankle. “Iwantit as soon as possible. Don’t you?” His voice had an edge, one I knew to tread carefully.
Now that the giddiness had started to wear off—especially with the evidence of all of the various rules I’d painstakingly observed and collected on other topics staring me in the face—my nerves were getting to me. I should have investigated before I agreed.
Too late.
“It’s just that great, big weddings like the one you seem to have in mind take a lot of planning. That’s the only reason I wondered.”
“No, it’s not the only reason, but you need not fear this, Gwynn.”
“If you say so.”
“I do.”
“It seems really unwise to me to make a big spectacle when Ti—the Queen Bitch is determined to come after us. Wouldn’t an event like a wedding, with all of our friends and allies gathered together, be a great time to attack? What if she shows up?”
“Of course she’ll attend—she won’t be able to resist the invitation.”
My mouth literally fell open, the ten thousand things I wanted to say to that all jammed in my throat, crowding each other to come out. Finally I seized on one.
“Youcannotbe serious.”
“I’m always serious.”
Which was a lie. Though he looked deadly grave at the moment. I paced to the crystal wall and back, bursting with the need to do something about this horrible plan. I envisioned something like the christening inSleeping Beauty,with Maleficent showing up in all her evil glory to curse the newborn Aurora. This was how it always worked in fairy tales—someone stupidly invited the nutbag relation, who then wreaked havoc on them all.
“You’re going to all ofthistrouble—” I flung a hand in a wild, encompassing gesture at the fortified walls “—to then invite her in? That’s insane.”
“No more insane than not inviting her and risking even greater wrath.”
“But she could scope things out. Learn all of your secret defenses and so forth.”
He smiled at that. “She’s been here before. Another visit could hardly matter.”
That sunk in as though I’d swallowed a stone. Or taken a bullet to the heart. Suddenly, all those dreams or visions or whatever they were, rushed back to me.You know that there is less of a boundary between dreams and reality than you’d like to think.In those dreams I’d had while we were apart, when he’d been Titania’s captive, I’d seen him as her lover. Both of them laughing at me.
Before that, she’d dropped hints about Rogue’s abilities in bed.
Had it all been true?
I felt ridiculous, standing there in this fabulous crystal dome Rogue had made for me, wearing the robe he had given me, stupidly bound by a vow to be tied to him forever, my hands crippled beyond use. Had he played me? Maybe they both had. Despite my vigilance, regardless of all the efforts I’d made to stay sharp, be suspicious and beware of every damn bargain I’d made. I faced the yawning chasm of terror that I’d totally and completely miscalculated.
At the same time, I absolutely hated that I couldn’t seem to simply enjoy the moment. I should be happy. Instead, fear and suspicion gnawed at me from the inside out.
Rogue straightened from his indolent posture, wariness changing the lines of his body as he surveyed me. “Gwynn?” he asked, his expression guarded. “What are you thinking?”
