“That’s when you and I will leave.”
“Is this like an…orgy?” I whisper. Vera’s grimace gives me all the confirmation I need. It actually couldn’t get worse—my face flames. I turn to Sitri, who looks slightly amused again, though he’s taking great lengths to hide it. “I’m surprised you even know what it is.”
“Yeah, well, unfortunately, not everything they say about you all behind the Wall is false it appears. And what if the henbane calls you to…with someone? What will I do then?”
He scoffs softly. “It won’t. Henbane is only a mild aphrodisiac at best.”
“Aphrodisiac?” I ask in mortification.
“It’s a—“
“I know what it is,” I interject, recognizing the word from when I inquired into the effects of maca on his shelf.
“When I say mild, I mean mild. It doesn’t do much, or if it does, it’s extremely rare. It’s just an excuse for Magi to go out and… fuck.”
I narrow my eyes. “Have you been to this before?”
He holds up a finger. “Once.”
I look over at Vera. “Have you been?”
“No, like I said…that’s not really my style.”
“You’re single,” I say obtusely.
She giggles. “Despite the meaning behind the ritual, most people don’t go with the intention of reproducing or finding a partner. They go for one thing.”
“But Morin wants you to choose a second wife at this Rite?”
He snorts. “Morin doesn’t give a shit if I choose a second wife. She’s just playing politics. This marriage has created controversy, and she needs it to look like she’s giving me an opportunity to choose a second wife. I need to look like I’m…participating,” he equivocates. “It’s just another opportunity for her to humiliate me.”
Humiliating for him becauseI’llbe with him. I turn back to staring at the floor. I’m not sure how many glasses of wine I get down before Sitri cuts me off. “You have to be able to walk, Pandora.”
Thankfully, I’ve had plenty enough that the daemon is fully sedated under the haze. We’re quiet as he leads me under the canopy of trees. We’re joined shortly by other Magi venturing in the same direction, laughing and talking casually amongst themselves. Unlike us, they’ve already removed their clothes in preparation. My heart picks up pace in my chest.
Not only because I’ll soon be naked among them but after the events of our wedding party and the Magi that attempted to lodge a knife in my chest…I’m downright paranoid that, at any moment, someone is going to jump out and attack.
Keeping close to Sitri’s side, I startle every time a Magi comes too close, swiveling my head this way and that as I try to keep track of them, getting an eyeful of parts of people I’ve never been privy to.
Soon, I’ll be even more exposed to them…and exposed to Sitri too. Sweat accumulates across my palms, a flush spreading over my skin. Even with the haze of alcohol, my stomach twists with the warring emotions.
Sitri stops suddenly and tugs me to the side. “Come here,” he demands, leading me away from the trail of Magi. He pulls me further into the Woods until the Magi’s voices grow faint in the distance. He finally slows when it’s just the two of us in the moonlit clearing. He leans down and starts unlacing his boots and I follow suit, tugging at my laces with shaking fingers and trying without success to swallow the tangle of emotions clawing up my throat.
He gets his boots off before me, unclasps his cloak, and tosses it on the ground before working at the buttons of his shirt. “I wanted to make you a deal. Since you claim you don’t want me to look at you.” He says the words with such an air of arrogance my eyes roll to the back of my head. Like there’s no one that wouldn’t want to be seen by him.
“I don’t.”
“I won’t look then.”
“Right,” I huff.
“I swear. I’ll only look at your very lovely face,” he says, eyes unwavering as if to prove his point as he tugs away his shirt and tosses it on top of his cloak. My gaze rakes down his chest, the faint definition of the muscles in his abdomen, to where his pants hang low on his hips over prominent hip bones. “Unless—“ He holds up a single finger, drawing my eyes back to his very smug expression
“Unless?”
His mouth twists into a taunting grin. “You do.”
Oh.
