I stopped, turning and planting my hands on my hips. “Driscoll, you do breathe rather loud,” I announced, and his mouth dropped open. “Leoni, he’s right. It’s really not his fault. You don’t hear me complaining about how loudly you chew your food, do you?”
She gasped, brows drawing into a crease.
Driscoll turned wide eyes on her. “You do!” He pointed at her. “Yes, you chew very loudly. And you moan sometimes, like you’re having an intimate moment with your food. What is that about?”
Leoni shoved him.
Well, this hadn’t been my intention. Now they’d never stop arguing.
I held up my hands. “We all have faults. Except me. I don’t have any. Clearly.” I shot them my most charming smile.
At that, both of them turned their glares right toward me.
“You don’t have any faults?” Leoni asked, head tilting upward, and her bun bobbing with the movement. She started ticking her fingers off. “How about the fact that you make jokes at inappropriate times, that you’re arrogant, a shameless flirt, and that you don’t take anything seriously?”
Driscoll tugged at his coiled black hair, which had grown out the last few months—something I had to hear about daily. Apparently, he’d never gone this long without a trip to the barber. “Leoni, don’t forget he also has mommy—and daddy—issues.”
Ouch. That last one actually stung. Still, my plan worked like bait on a hook. Now they’d bond over their mutual dislike of me.
I smiled, turning and continuing on my way, Driscoll’s words echoing in my mind.
“I don’t have mommy issues,” I said over my shoulder. “You must be confusing me with my sister. Or maybe even my brother.”
“No, all three of you have mommy issues,” Leoni called back, both of them falling behind.
I stepped over a log, frowning.
“I don’t know why you and your siblings let her bother you so much,” Leoni said. “Gabrielle spent years afraid of telling her what she really wanted for her life. Mal lied about his relationship with the sea princess, and you, well... I haven’t figured out yet exactly how your mother has damaged you, but I’m sure I will.”
“Good luck,” I said. “I don’t even know how she’s damaged me, but you’re probably right. My mother tends to have that effect on pretty much everyone she comes in contact with.”
They had it wrong, though. I wasn’t the one who had the issues with my mom, or my father—before he’d passed away. Gabby and my parents had always butted heads, and I’d always played the mediator, helping mend the fractures in their relationship. I was probably the only reason Gabby and my mother still even had any semblance of relationship, especially now that Gabby had chosen to relinquish her crown and gallivant off with her pirate lord. Then Mal had chosen to fall in love with someone my mother didn’t approve of, especially not when that someone would be the future queen of Apolis. I sighed. Another reason I needed to find this woman in the tower and get back home. My family needed me. Mother and Mal probably weren’t even speaking at this point.
“So what are the odds this woman is real?” Driscoll asked Leoni as if I couldn’t hear him. “Because we’ve been following the prince for two months now, and I’m starting to think he might be losing it. Actually, I’ve been thinking that for a long time now. This is just the first time I’ve said it out loud.”
“Just let him get this out of his system, and we’ll be on our way back home,” Leoni said, also loud enough so that I could hear.
Get the woman out of my system. Like she was an itch I needed to scratch. Maybe she was. I wouldn’t know until I found her and figured out why shewas infiltrating my damn dreams. I wasn’t making her up. I knew she was real.
“Oh.” Driscoll snapped his fingers. “And you also have a big head.”
“What?” I asked.
“We were talking about your faults,” Driscoll said.
Leoni huffed. “I said that already.”
“You said he’s arrogant.”
“It’s the same thing!”
Here we went again.
Driscoll ducked under a branch, while Leoni walked straight under it, her gaze sweeping the forest floor. “Isn’t it strange we haven’t seen anyone in this forest? It’s so empty.”
I patted a tree, the bark rough under my hand. “Well, there’s not a lot of game to hunt. And this forest isn’t near any major village. Also, I heard it was cursed.” I turned and walked backward, a grin spreading across my face. “If you’re lonely, I could always announce my presence to the sky court. Tell all the ladies the famous playboy prince is here. The forest’ll be brimming with them faster than you can blink.” I spread my arms wide.
Leoni stared, horrified by my words.
