Cricket snapped her head up and stared at her father. “Wait,” she whispered. “Stop. You’re not—”
“It’s time, Cricket,” he interrupted, taking his seat again and watching her carefully.
“Time for what?” she grunted, closing the folder and the dozens of fae men looking at her before tossing it back on the desk. She couldn’t stomach looking at them anymore.
Snapdragon’s eyes narrowed, and despite sitting before his daughter, she watched the danger crackle along his large imposing wings. She hadn’t gotten her bright wings from him, not when his were like blue lightning. Cricket’s colors came from her vibrant mother. “It’s time to do your duty to this family legacy. Your job is to further the bloodline and to marry prolifically for—”
“You mean you’re selling me like a prized cow,” Cricket spits, standing up as emotion filled her body. Anger hit her first, sizzling along her wings, but it was the fear that nearly froze her. Not a single fae male in that folder would allow her to live her life, to dabble in business. She would be seen as a trinket and nothing more. “I thought you said I was a great marketing asset?” She was ashamed of the way her voice wobbled, as if she were pleading, but that was all she had right in this moment. She couldn’t very well get on her knees and beg. That would only hurt the situation.
“You are—”
“Then why can’t I further our family in that way? Why marry me off and lose the marketing that you claim is so great? I’ll be nothing but an incubator if I’m married.”
Cricket barely managed to keep the fear from her voice, her words matter-of-fact and clean. There wasn’t a single wobble in those words the second time, a fact she was proud of, but the fear was slowly closing off her throat, choking her, stealing her breath. Still, she was a Snapdragon, and she’d use all the tools at her disposal that came with that name.
“The family bloodline is more important than—”
“It doesn’t matter,” Cricket interrupted again, her anger taking over. How dare her father take such a choice from her? “I won’t marry.”
“You will marry, Cricket Snapdragon. It’s your duty.” His eyes were hard but despite the heightened emotions, he had not moved from his spot, as if he couldn’t be bothered to care.
Sadness crashed over Cricket so suddenly, she struggled to keep herself on her feet. “Is that all I’m worth?” she asked softly. “A merger and a good set of hips? Every man in that file is a business mogul or heir. This isn’t about the bloodline like you claim. It’s about furthering your business.”
“They go hand in hand,” Snapdragon argued. “You’re still my little girl—”
“Not if I’m to be married,” she spit. “I’ll be owned by someone else then, required to pop out babies. If I was your little girl, you’d respect what I want.”
There was no emotion on his face, just the shine of his will behind his eyes. Her father had already made his decision, and it was one that would change her life for the worse. “I’m allowing you to choose, Cricket. I could have chosen for you,” he pointed out but she was already shaking her head.
“It doesn’t matter who chooses when I don’t want it.” Cricket’s wings snapped out and closed with a sound that shouldn’t be possible with soft fae wings, but she’d long ago added tiny metal plates to the crease of her wings for the drama. They doubled as weapons in a fight, but not once had she been forced to use them so. Still, the sound was dramatic enough in the intimate office. “I thought you loved me,” she whispered, suddenly realizing that, perhaps, that was not the case at all.
The first beads of emotion popped through his façade. Remorse perhaps. But he wasn’t going to change his mind, not with that shine in his eyes. “Cricket—”
She arrowed for the one part of her father that she could attack without being brutally punished, the one they never discussed or openly admitted existed. Since the death, her father had shut down. Not once had he smiled since then.
“Mother would have never forced me to marry,” Cricket said, her chin tilted up.
Her father’s face shut down, any emotion there going cold. She’d hit a nerve.
Without waiting for his response, Cricket turned around and left the office, going to the room that was always hers when she returned home. The moment she stepped inside, she took a deep breath to still her beating heart. Peri had prepared the room, but she couldn’t even focus on all the nice things he’d done for her.
Instead, Cricket climbed onto the bed and curled up as small as she could. If she was smaller, perhaps the world could keep spinning and miss her by. Perhaps then, everything would be alright.