Page 126 of Sky’s Edge

Was the holo glitching or was she blushing? “They only grabbed me. They did it when I was at work. They didn’t give me time to pack. So there was an entire wardrobe waiting for me when I got here.”

Monique, Laura and I stole glances at each other because…

What?

Again, Laura voiced it.

“I thought he kidnapped you on the spur of the moment due to the threat.”

“He did,” Gayle said.

“So how was he ready for you with a whole wardrobe?” I asked.

She peered down at herself not only to indicate her clothes, but where she was sitting, which was not in my living room in Nocturn, before looking between us. “When Prince Cormac wants something done, it gets done. And he doesn’t mess around doing it.”

Obviously, that was true.

Equally obviously, he had good taste in clothes.

The thing was, they suited Gayle completely. They were her style, except higher quality. Gayle didn’t do badly for herself, but not so good she could be wearing a lightweight cashmere sweater I knew for a fact was from this season’s look book of the House of Giandra, the foremost designer of knitwear, maybe in all twenty realms.

Though, bottom line, they were her style. Something she’d choose herself.

But he chose them for her.

Like he knew her.

Or had been watching her.

“Have you…spoken to Sirk?” Monique queried hesitantly.

“I have not. But Cormac has,” Gayle told us.

“He has?” Laura asked, and she sounded surprised, as she would, considering Sirk was tight with Aleksei. And my guess, Sirk shared with Aleksei, and Aleksei told Laura everything.

“I don’t know what was said. I just know he ‘had words,’ which was how he explained it, and Sirk is aware that Cormac is assuming responsibility for my safety.”

We all took a moment to digest this, and Laura broke it again to mutter, “I’ll talk to Aleksei about that.”

“You see just staff?” I asked.

Her face twisted angrily. “Although Cormac lives here, this is his fortress, I rarely see him. Though, he prowls through occasionally to inform me the threat is still real, and I’m not leaving until he’s assured it is not.”

“So…essentially…you’re prisoner?” I queried carefully.

“Yes. Absolutely, yes. There’s no ‘essentially’ about it. I am prisoner,” Gayle stated firmly.

My blood started heating.

“What else do you talk to Cormac about?” Monique inquired. “Anything?”

“Well, I tell him I want to go home. He tells me that’s not going to happen. I tell him he’s made it explicit how he feels about me and our destiny, that being, he doesn’t want me, and we don’t have a destiny. Therefore, I don’t understand why he took me in the first place. But I also don’t need to understand. He has no claim on me and needs to let me go. He tells me that’s not going to happen, and I need to accept it. Or he shouts it in my face.”

Lord in Hellfire.

He shouted at her?

“Then he stalks out, like I offended him,” Gayle finished.