Page 195 of Sky’s Edge

Unless you were prince and future king of a whole realm, it seemed.

“It’s not insensitive,” Aleece replied. “I understand why you’d do it. But unless the witch is accredited, spells can be risky.”

“That’s why it was so expensive,” Gayle explained. “Because I went to the best of the best. It took a long time for it to ferment. But that’s where I was yesterday when Cormac tried to grab me again. I was picking it up.”

“And what does it do?” I asked, but I had a feeling I knew.

“What Bainon’s is doing to Aleece,” Gayle told me what I knew. “It eradicates the connection I feel with my mate.”

“Well, although you taking a spell doesn’t fill me with glee,” Laura started, “it’d serve that male right for him to have a mate on his hands who doesn’t give a fuck if he’s around or on the Trivesta Space Station.”

“I might take that potion when Bainon unbinds me just to make that same point,” Aleece grumbled.

I thought this was an excellent idea.

However…

“How long does it last?” I asked Gayle.

“She said a month,” she answered. “If Cormac doesn’t back off by then, I’ll have to take it again.”

“How much did it cost?” Laura inquired.

“Five thousand marks.”

We all gasped.

“Yeah, so much for my vacation fund,” Gayle said. “It, and a hefty bit of my savings will be wiped out if I have to take a second dose. Not that work will let me take a vacation since I keep disappearing. I am really not looking forward to calling in tomorrow and saying, ‘Guess what! I’m in Abyssinia for the foreseeable future. So warm up the holo decks!’”

“Honestly,” Laura snapped. “If he doesn’t promise to back off during dinner tonight, I’m taking you to Trivesta myself.”

“And how will that help me keep my job?” Gayle asked. But she didn’t wait for an answer. “I love you. That’s so sweet. All of you are being so sweet. But”—she twirled her fork in the air to indicate the queen’s breakfast room—“he’s made it clear I won’t be moved permanently into his fabulous fortress to be princess of the manor, and as such wouldn’t need a job. I have a mortgage to pay. And not only do I like the job I have, if I lost it, job hunting sucks.”

It really did.

“One way or another, we’ll sort this tonight,” I vowed, only to have Zyra cast an odd glance at me when I did.

“Okay, so today…interact with staff on duty and get a feel for them,” Aleece said. “The rest of the time, lick our wounds and spend loads of it complaining how males can be high-handed, arrogant assholes. And dress straight past the nines all the way to the elevens for dinner tonight so they can eat their hearts out at what they’re missing. Or, the two who are missing something will eat their hearts out. The other three will just get laid.”

Zyra laughed softly at that.

“And we need to conference comm Mon, so she’ll know where we are and what’s happening,” Gayle added.

“This sounds like a plan,” Laura agreed.

It sure did.

And I knew exactly what I was going to wear to dinner.

Tanyn left me hot and bothered with a smirk.

We’d see about that.

His kind of payback was mega.

Mine was going to be a bitch.

(And then…mega.)