Page 225 of Sky’s Edge

I turned my Palm away and replied, “I know. I mean about your response. I don’t know what in the hells. I think, I’m so sorry, Gayle, but I think you need to talk to Cormac about this.”

Her attention was still on my Palm, even if it wasn’t facing her anymore, but it came to my face when I said that.

“Why?”

“Because he might have seen a portrait of Selediel. He might have some understanding of what this means.” I settled my ass more firmly in the couch and stated, “Breaking this down, we haven’t had a True Heir, and therefore, not a True Bride, for decades. Now, we have them. Two royals of two different realms are fated mates. Destiny, or something, is guiding me to Tanyn, again, linking realms. And then there’s you and Cormac and this ghost from the past who was hounded out of Land’s End. Not to mention, Laura told you that you have direct ancestry to one of the most celebrated heroes in Endian history. This all means something.”

“What it means is this all seems to be gearing us up to unite the realms to face a common foe. Doesn’t it?” she asked quietly, and there was unease threading her words.

“It does,” I agreed.

“It can’t just be Tatra,” she went on.

“I worry it isn’t, though it seems apparent she’s a part of it.”

“Ugh.” She slouched back into the arm of the couch. “Okay, I’ll talk to Cormac about her.”

“Good. Now, are you all right with this new…whatever it is?” I shook my Palm to share what I was referring to.

“I have a feeling we’re all going to have to learn to be ‘all right’ with a lot of stuff.”

I had a feeling she was correct.

We shared a moment of frustrated camaraderie before I said, “You need to get to work. And Tanyn’s worried about your response to this, so I need to go tell him you’re good.”

“He’s worried about me?”

“Yes.”

She eyed me. “He’s a good male, Cat.”

I smiled at her. “I know he is, Gayle.”

“He’s it for you, isn’t he?” she whispered, and some of her melancholy about what I was building with Tanyn, what Aleksei and Laura had, all of it she did not have, beat the spell, because I could see it buried deep in her gaze.

I scooched closer to her, took her hands, and shared, “I’m guessing this won’t surprise you, even though hearing it may upset you, but I’ve already laid the groundwork to move up here. Because, yes, he’s it for me. I think…I think…” I swallowed and let it all hang out. “I think I knew it when Avie the lynx took him down to the snow when we were on Sigil. He’s been open and honest with me since the very beginning. We fight. We make up. He’s not a dick. He’s not a pushover. And he makes no bones about the fact he’s in love with me.”

The melancholy left her gaze, it softened, and she squeezed my hands. “I love that for you.”

“Thanks,” I said gently. “I love it too. It’s a great deal of change for me, and I can’t say I’m there yet.” Understatement! “But I’m coming to terms with it.”

“Isn’t this freaky?” she asked, giving me another squeeze before letting me go. “You and Laura and Aleece are all going to be queens.”

And you are too, I thought, but didn’t say because, call me rosy-eyed due to the fact I was falling in love, I had hope for her and Cormac.

“Who would have thought all those times we were on the prowl, we’d end up like this?”

She laughed. “Only you were ever on the prowl, Cat. Laura, Mon and I were just your wingbeings.”

“Please,” I scoffed. “You could prowl.”

“You were the expert.”

I couldn’t deny that.

“You good?” I asked.

“I’m good. Go to your male.”