These were ominous signs but I kept going. “See, I went to sleep and then I woke up and I was here. I mean, I went to sleep at home, my home, where, you know, beds aren’t made of feathers but of…” I didn’t know what mattresses were made of but I was sensing his patience waning so I sallied forth, “Other stuff. And you don’t understand birds and there are no curses. That was why I didn’t know about the Rosa and Dash thing. See, we don’t have curses but even if we did, I wouldn’t know about that curse because I’m not the Cora you know. I’m a different Cora, one who’s fat but polite and doesn’t snore and…”

He cut in with, “You aren’t fat.”

“You said I’d gained weight.”

“You have. You’ve also grown your hair.”

Now we were getting somewhere.

“See!” I exclaimed. “That right there proves I’m not the Cora you know.”

“No, it proves that in the six months since I last saw you, you stopped watching every bloody morsel you put into your mouth and let your hair grow.”

He hadn’t seen me in six months?

“You haven’t seen me in six months?” I asked.

“For the gods’ sakes,” he clipped.

“We’re married!” I cried. “Why haven’t you seen me in six months?”

“Because you hate me, Cora, and I’m not overly fond of you.”

I latched onto that. “There you go. See, the Cora I am knows how to baste meat and isn’t lazy. I’ll admit, I’ll drag my feet on stuff I don’t want to do but eventually I’ll do it. I’m polite and my parents and friends think I’m funny. I don’t want to brag or anything, but I’m pretty cool to be around. If you give me a chance, I can show you I’m not the Cora you know.”

“I’ll wager you can. And I’ll wager you’ll stick with it every second of the day and live it with every breath you take. But all of it will be an act of pure deception.”

Jeez, if he believed that then the Cora of this world must be a serious bitch.

“No one can do that,” I said softly.

“You could,” he returned. “You see, my love, a year and a half ago I bedded a woman so cold, it was a wonder my c**k didn’t splinter to shards when I drove it inside you.” I gasped at his words but he kept talking. “And but hours ago, just your mouth was so warm it lit a fire inside me. If you could turn that around, you could do anything.”

I flattened my hand on his chest, got higher up on my toes and said quietly, “But, don’t you get it? That also proves I’m not the Cora you know.”

“It, and this nonsense you’re spouting, only proves how desperate you are to keep me on your good side so I’ll keep you safe from Minerva and do it in the style which you undoubtedly require.”

Minerva?

I didn’t get the chance to ask, he kept talking. “But Dash believes your performance, Rosa adores you and therefore, out of respect for them, I’ll keep you safe and fed but I’ll damned well get what I can out of you in the process.”

I fell back to the soles of my feet but kept my eyes to his, asking, “Why do you hate me so much?”

This was the wrong question. I knew it when the light of rage hit his eyes at the same time his face went stone cold.

“Why?” he whispered.

I knew he thought I shouldn’t have to ask but I felt I should know what I was dealing with.

“Yes, why?”

“You dare ask?”

“Yes, Noctorno, seeing as I don’t know you, I met you just yesterday, I dare ask,” I stated cautiously.

“So this is your game now?”

“No, this is honesty,” I told him honestly.

His hold on his temper slipped and his face got in mine where he clipped, “Sly cow.”

Um… ouch.

“That’s mean and it isn’t true,” I returned quietly.

He kept at me. “Black with trickery to your bloody soul.”

“That isn’t true either,” I whispered.

He glowered at me and I did my best to brave it out. When I was about to give up, he gave in.

“This is the game you wish to play?”

“It isn’t a game,” I reminded him of something he refused to believe.

“This is the game you wish to play,” he decided and I sighed.

I was right. He refused to believe or, likely, Cora of this world was just that much of a bitch.

“Right,” he went on, “then you play your game, I play mine.” That didn’t sound too good, I braced and he kept talking which luckily meant he explained. “You’re the other half to my soul.”

I blinked.

Then I whispered, “What?”

“You heard me.”

“I’m the other half to your soul?”

“In all the kingdom, in our generation, there are only two men whose souls were split at birth, the other half put in their lifemates. Dash to Rosa and you to me. The she-god saw fit to award Dash all the sweetness of Rosa and for some bloody hideous reason she saw fit to saddle me with all the foulness of you.”

I didn’t know what to say to that, it wasn’t nice but it also sounded like something the Cora of this world deserved so I didn’t speak.

Noctorno did. “For any other man but Dash or me, they could take anyone as bride. For him, it was only Rosa, the reason why you couldn’t have him, not that he wanted you. To hold back the curse you started to unleash yesterday, and because we agreed to do it in order to give the others the happiness they deserve, you had to leave him to her and wed me. And for me, it was only you. I had no other choice.”

Oh my God.

That was crazy.

“That’s crazy!” I cried, pressing back into the wall.

“Bloody right it is,” he agreed firmly.

I stared at him.

As crazy as this was, it was worse. Because he struck me as a man who liked choice, a man who would value, beyond anything, his free will, a man who’d fight and die for it and yet it had been taken away.

“Couldn’t you, um… protest this decision?”

His brows shot up. “To the she-god?”

“Uh… yes?” I tried.

His brows descended and his eyes narrowed. “You are mad.”

“I take it you don’t question the gods,” I muttered.

“No, Cora, even you wouldn’t question the gods. Our fates were written in the sky the moment we were born.”