“We are. Follow the yellow brick road.” I motioned in front of us. “I’m just suggesting we talk while we walk.”
She shot me a confused look. “How do you even know that reference?”
“Corvo is a bit of a cinephile. Guilty pleasure for him, I think. He made me visit your realm so we could watch it. Said it was a classic. Personally, I think the flying monkeys were more realistic than the humans.”
She shook her head. “Stop changing the subject.”
“Me? You’re the one changing it. Addressing that we’re mates clearly isn’t what?—”
She spun on me, heat flaring in her gaze. “I’m worried about my sister and not in the right headspace to deal with”—her hands gestured wildly between us—”this.”
I didn’t respond. I wasn’t sure how. We just kept walking, letting the tension stretch. Mentally sifting through topics of conversation that she might consider benign, I thought about some of the books she read. There had been one with a zodiac, and I knew enough about it to speak. “Okay, what’s your sign?”
She blinked. “My what?”
“Your star sign,” I repeated in feigned nonchalance. “I’m a Scorpio. You?”
Meera stopped short, cocking her head at an angle. “Are you fucking with me?”
With a slow, coquettish smile, I loudly whispered, “I would think after last night, you’d know if I was fucking you.”
My attempts at flirting with her failed miserably. Her expression turned from incredulous to murderous in an instant. “You know what I meant.”
“Do I?” I stepped up, leaving only inches between us. Sweat gathered at Meera’s hairline. Her fair skin was flushed pink,almost like she was blushing—if she were able to blush from chest to forehead. I worried about her skin in these conditions. We were fae and could heal better and faster than humans, but we weren’t immune to sun damage.
“I’m a Pisces.” She stepped around me and resumed walking.
Even though I felt like I was drowning, I nodded with faux smugness. “I can see that.”
Her neck cracked from how hard she whipped her head to the side to stare at me. “What is that supposed to mean?”
I shrugged, letting the silence thicken. I counted to forty-three before Meera finally broke.
“So now I’m getting the silent treatment?”
“Did I say that?”
“You didn’t say anything!” She snapped.
“They’re highly compatible,” I finally answered. “Scorpio and Pisces. Also Pisces are prone to avoiding confrontation. So ...”
I wouldn’t have seen it, were I not watching out of the corner of my eye. Meera stiffened.
Instead of taking the bait, she asked, “How do you know? I mean, I know the fae zodiac is like a big deal to some people, but the human one?”
“My human anthropology tutor was just this side of obsessed,” I said, holding my thumb and forefinger apart with little space between them. “She and my etiquette tutor liked playing matchmaker in my teen years. The number of times I heard that I should look for a Cancer or Pisces are too many to count.” I shook my head. Meera snorted.
“Did you?”
“Did I what?”
“Look for a Cancer or Pisces?” Her lips twitched with barely concealed amusement.
“No, I can’t say I did, though it seems I ended up with one anyway.”
And just like that, the humor faded from her expression.
“You’re not going to let this go, are you?”
