“So he’s just going to get married.”

“Yes.”

“And that’s what he wants?”

“Why wouldn’t it be? He’s doing it, right?”

Zal smiled sadly. “Sometimes we do things for the greater good, even if it causes our hearts to break.”

“You bother me,” I said to him. “I’m not sure if I’m pleased that you exist.”

“He watches you, you know,” Zal said and what?

“No he doesn’t,” I said weakly.

“All night,” Zal said, as if I hadn’t spoken at all. “Since the moment you walked in together. He rarely takes his eyes off of you. You might not have been looking, but I was.”

“It’s always like that,” Gary said.

“It is not.”

Zal shrugged. “He’s doing it right now.”

I told myself not to look. I told myself that Zal was full of crap. I told myself that having hope for something so ridiculous was dangerous because it would crush me when nothing happened.

I looked anyway.

Of course I did.

Across the tavern, Tiggy and Ryan stood among a group of revelers vying for their attention. A man was talking to Ryan, a hand against his bicep.

But Ryan was looking directly at me.

And when he saw me looking back, his eyes widened slightly and he dropped his gaze.

“That doesn’t mean anything,” I said. Because it didn’t. It couldn’t.

“Stubborn, isn’t he?” Zal said.

“Painfully so.”

“The Prince is my duty,” I said. “I’m sworn to protect him. That’s all this is. That’s all this ever was. I allowed him to be taken by the dragon. I should have been faster. Stronger. Better. If I’d done what I was supposed to do, none of this would have happened. Ryan needs me to get Justin back. That’s all this is.”

“Sometimes, I want to punch him in the mouth,” Gary told Zal.

Zal stared at me. “He’s like this every day? Maybe he just needs to get laid. Take the edge off. I can talk to Oyev and see if he can help out. Virginity is a sweet thing, but it’s so much better to be destroyed and be sticky.”

“No Oyev!” I said. “And selling sex as being ‘destroyed and sticky’ is not the best way to go about it.”

Zal rolled his eyes. “Sorry. It’s slow and gentle and he’ll stare into your eyes and your souls will meld together and the only thing you’ll taste is his sweet breath upon your lips. He’ll whisper in your ear how you are his treasure and when his seed blooms within you, the flower of true love will begin to grow.”

I didn’t know what it said about me that I kinda got a boner from that. Maybe that I was awesome. Or very, very sad.

“I will be excellent at boning,” I said. “When I’m ready for it.” Now. Now would be good. I’d be fine with now.

Zal shook his head. “I think I understand why everyone adores you. You’re a conundrum wrapped in an enigma in a package built of twink.”

“That’s… remarkably astute,” Gary said.

Tags: T.J. Klune Tales From Verania Fantasy
Source: readsnovelonline.net