“What was the point of it?” Cole asks in exasperation. “It didn’t even work.”
“It did,” CK says.
“No, Liv already ‘fessed up. She screwed him, and now this fucking blessed baby is going to turn up,” Cole says, angry. I hear him throw a punch at the wall. He seriously has to stop doing that. He is destroying my houses all across the Realms.
“Perhaps,” CK says, still calmly. I cock my eyebrow at that. If anything, I thought he would be the one going ballistic.
“Perhaps?” Cole repeats. “Is that all you have to say?”
I hear CK give his world-weary sigh and picture him sitting in my desk chair.
“I put the curse on her, not to stop Sebastian from taking her, but to stop Thrace,” CK eventually admits.
Oh, really?
“I told her I didn’t trust her and Sebastian together and I had hoped she would pay heed to my warning her, but I didn’t expect it. She does what she wants,” CK continues and Cole mutters something that sounds like, “No fucking kidding.”
“But what is this about Thrace?” Cole asks.
“Sebastian has abdicated his throne, that means Thrace takes over. He is King now. I fully expect him to create a law that changes the way the Faerie regard marriage. In fact, I had expected him to just make a declaration and take her on the spot. Had that been the case, she would have been protected,” CK says.
“But how did it not work with Sebastian then?” Cole asks.
“Their bond is too strong, and they are both extremely powerful. If they wanted it, it would have happened,” CK says sadly.
“So, what now?” Cole asks, equally as sad.
“If she has the baby, she has it. Then this is over. Finally,” CK states.
“Except she will have a baby,” Cole points out the obvious.
“Hm,” CK says.
“Hm? What does that mean?” Cole snaps at him. “You would treat this child as your own? Raise it with her? I am not so sure I can do that.”
“I don’t expect she will keep it,” CK says and I frown at that.
What does he mean?
Cole wonders the same and says, “Stop with the cryptic! Just spit it out.”
“This baby is for the Faerie. I would imagine that Drake will want his hand in its upbringing. Actually, I would imagine he would want the child to live over there, with him. Aefre will give the child to him to raise. I have no doubt,” CK says.
What? Why on Earth does he think I would do that? I stand up, ready to storm in there and tell him where to go, when Cole’s next words stop me.
“You have based that on the fact that she was going to come home from the Dragon Realms without that child?” he asks.
“Precisely. Sacrifice is the measure of true love,” CK says, and I can almost hear the smugness in his tone. “She chose us. She will again.”
“You sound awfully sure of that,” Cole says, sounding awfully unsure of that.
“I am,” CK says. “I know my wife.”
I huff out the breath I was holding and step forward to confront them both when Sebastian lands next to me.
“Here again?” he asks, indicating the stairs. “What exactly is it you do here?”
I smile at him and tilt my head up for a kiss. He hesitates, but when he senses the curse is gone, he pulls me to him.