“No. She’s beyond my reach now.”
“Then, thank you, but no.”
Ed’s exhaled relief was loud as a snore.
“What happened?” Félix asked. “Who was she?”
I waited for Baz to answer. After all, these were his friends. Due to their relationship with him, they were, by extension, my enemies. But Baz looked to me in a silent request to spare him from it.
So I recounted what Micaela had told us, leaving out what wasn’t any of their fucking business. I omitted the cages and how Rafaela had likely chosen to rebirth Teo and me just because we were also bonded twins. And I definitely left out the loop de loop of craziness that was Micaela and Baz’s theory about his and my supposed connection—which couldn’t be, absolutely couldn’t be. There was no way. Perhaps he wasn’t the enemy Rafaela and Alonso had led me to believe he was, or the one I’d conjured in my imagination. But he was not my mate.
The mate bond between lovers was powerful, a gift so rare that it was coveted among fae. Among sänglures, who lived even longer than the long lived fae, even more so.
Keeping my hand on his arm, Baz guided us to rise.
“It’s time I share something momentous with you all, my friends.” He glanced at Marina. “With you, too, since you are loyal to Vee.” At the nickname, Marina arched her bald brow. “Because of who you are to her, I absolve you of the punishment for breaching Ombrash Island without invitation, and for trying to free my prisoner.”
“What?” Zi said at the same time that Lev, who’d been uncharacteristically quiet since Terencia, also erupted.
“What the scorch, Baz? You don’t punish the princess of our most enduring enemy, not even when she tries to freaking kill you, and now you won’t punish her agent for breaking the dominion either? That’s too much.”
Ed’s pointed glare at him suggested that his questioning of their leader was what had gone too far.
“Why?” Night asked.
Some of Baz’s sorrow retreated. When he smiled, it was small, but genuine enough for my heart to thud—just the once, but every sänglure in that room would have heard it. Their attention, especially Félix’s, skimmed across me.
“Because Vee is?—”
“Uh, no,” I interrupted. “Vee’s not anyth?—”
“Vee and I are destined mates.”
They gawped, every single one of them. It would have been a comical sight had Baz not just lobbed a fucking fireball. Marina’s face was all eyes—I’d never seen those dark, pupil-less eyes of hers so round, so freaking huge.
The silence drew out.
Finally, Night said, “Come again?”
When memories of Baz coming inside me flashed through my mind, I rolled my eyes. I was screwed. Soooooo super screwed. Not much else was clear in this clusterfuck of a situation, but that one singular point most definitely was.
“She’s my mate,” Baz said, making it sound so simple, like it was an indisputable truth.
“That’s just … not possible,” I said.
Zi hitched her thumb in my direction. “What she said.”
Baz squeezed my hand that rested on his arm. I slid it out from under him.
“You’ll get there,” he told me.
“I will not. I came here to assassinate you.”
“That’s an excellent reminder,” Moncho said. Some of his pallor had receded, though the man’s usual bravado was still lacking. “Along with: she’s the crown princess of the D’Arcos. The D’Arcos, Baz. The motherfucking D’Arcos!”
Baz chortled darkly. “How could I forget?”
“Oh, you haven’t forgotten?” Lev said. “’Cause it sure seems like you have. Junot will skin your ass.”