She broke his hold and delivered a brutal combination right-left to his gut, spitting out words with each punch. “Grow. Some. Balls. You. Fucking. Coward!”
He tackled her, and they tumbled to the ground, grappling on the perfect green lawn.
I watched them for a brief second, absolutely speechless, then, a centaur couple tiptoed around them, long noses stuck in the air, heading to the squash courts.
Donovan elbowed Cress in the back; she shrieked and sank her teeth into his forearm.
This was ridiculous. “Cecil?”
He sat back on his haunches, a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. “Yes, Chosen?”
I sighed, leaned down, plucked the cigarette out of his mouth, and ground it under the sole of my shoe. He growled. “Don’t you growl at me, you little shit,” I muttered. “My patience is worn so thin, it’s practically non-existent. Now, come with me. I’ll take you through the portal. Nate, Eryk—” I sighed. There were a dozen people headed this way now; chances were, they were all centaurs headed to the portal. “Just follow us when they’ve stopped fighting. If I have to save Audrina myself, I’m going to do it.” I stomped down the path, absolutely furious with both of them.
“You can’t blame Prince Donovan, Chosen. His hands are tied.” Cecil trotted along beside me. “And no matter how much he moans about it, he actually does want her here.”
“I know,” I snapped. I rubbed my chest absently because it hurt.
“And Cress means well, but for her, violence is always the answer.”
We reached the door to the squash courts; a young couple walked through in front of us.
“Well.” I held open the door so Cecil could go through. “Violence might be the answer, but it would help if I knew what the question was.”
“Cress just wants him to be happy,” Cecil said simply. “And, of course, she feels like the best way to do it is to bully him into taking action.” He paused at the doorway, looked up at me, and shrugged. “You know what little sisters are like.”
Chapter
Twenty-Six
Cecil’s furry rump trotted ahead of me into the room, but I was frozen, holding the door.
What?
WHAT?
Cecil turned and looked at me. “Are you coming?”
I couldn’t move. My whole reality was exploding. Again.
“Chosen?” He tilted his little doggy head and peered at me. “Are you okay?”
I mouthed for a second and forced some words out. “Did you say… little sister?”
His eyebrows furrowed. “Yeah?”
“Cress is Donovan’s little sister?”
“Of course.” Cecil frowned. “Why? Did you think she was the older sister? That’s silly, Chosen. He’s the heir, so of course he’s the oldest. If she were the older one, she’d be the heir, and she would be throwing herself at you with far more enthusiasm than she already is.”
“I can’t… I can’t…” I felt like I’d been hit by a truck. Everything I ever thought was true and correct lurched, tilted sideways, caught on fire, and exploded in my head. “She’s his sister? Cress is Donovan’s sister?”
This couldn’t be right. Someone must have told me they were together. I shook my head, bewildered, trying to run back every interaction I’d had with them so far.
But now that I thought about it, nobody had told me anything of the sort. I’d just assumed, because they were both so beautiful, so in sync, so well-matched—a prince and his princess.
Cecil peered at me. “Isn’t it obvious? Nobody else could get away with treating the prince like Cress does. The bullying, the jibes, the explosions of violence? The fact that she keeps trying to annoy him by feeling you up? She’s trying to provoke him into making a proper move on you.”
“I— I—” I couldn’t understand it. But now that Cecil had spelled it out, it was so obvious. “I’m an only child,” I said faintly. It was no excuse. “Oh...” I buried my face in my hands. “I feel like such an idiot.”
A horsey-looking couple came in the door behind us; sheepishly, I shuffled aside, letting them walk ahead of us down the hallway towards the squash courts. We followed, leaving a little distance between us. “What did you think she was?” Cecil asked. “A fae general? A spoil of war, like me?”
“I thought they were together,” I mumbled. “I thought they were in an arranged relationship. Maybe even a marriage.”
“What? Oh, my Gods, Chosen, that’s insane! Why would you even think that?”
“He told me about his fiancé, he said that was arranged, and I just assumed that his mom had arranged another marriage for him, and since they appear to be equals and everyone calls her Princess Cress…”
Cecil let out a bark of laughter. “Oh, you idiot. That’s so stupid, Chosen. Human royals might wed their family members and happily have inbred children, but we don’t do that in Faerie. Wait.” His grin vanished. “Is that why you’ve resisted all the Prince’s attempts to woo you?”
“Yes.”
His eyebrows shot up. “Oh. Oh, no.” He shook his head. “And he’s been trying so hard.”
“No, he hasn’t!” I wailed. Maybe he had, but I didn’t know what he was doing. “I just thought he was a bit of an overprotective control freak. Cress literally got into bed with me!”
Cecil chuckled. “She was hoping that would give him the push he needed to declare himself. She’s been trying to give him tips on how to seduce you, but he’s being all noble about it because he wants the decision to be based on your feelings and not some stupid prophecy.”
“He was getting so jealous whenever she came near me,” I mumbled. I had automatically assumed he didn’t want her touching anyone else. But he didn’t want her touching me.
