“Are you fucking kidding me?” I don’t realize I’ve spoken until Isabelle’s hand covers mine and she squeezes my wrist. Hard.
Cordelia flashes me a look and then refocuses on Ursa. “I’m listening.”
“I have business with Olympus, which is troubling because I’m no longer welcome within the city limits.” She shrugs. “I’m sure you understand.”
“Explain it to me.”
“There is a girl there, an unfortunate soul if you would like to put it that way, who is in desperate need of my assistance. I require her.”
Now it’s Isabelle’s turn to tense. “We are not going to kidnap some girl from Olympus for you.”
Cordelia looks like she wants to strangle her youngest sister, but manages to get herself under control before Ursa looks back at her. “We have no issue with Olympus, and I fully intend to keep it that way. What my sister says stands.”
“I’m not in the business of stealing princesses.” Her smile doesn’t dim in the slightest, as if we’ve amused her. “I simply need a message delivered. I can’t send my people for obvious reasons.”
“Then send a text. An email. A goddamn letter. I don’t see why you need my people to play messenger.”
Ursa sighs. “It needs to be in person. She’s under lock and key so the normal modes of contact won’t work.” She looks at Isabelle. “She will, however, take you as a visitor.”
“No.” Again, I don’t mean to speak.
Gaeton’s protest echoes mine. “Fuck that.”
Ursa ignores us both. “Orsino’s precious youngest daughter. You’ve been to Olympus before, little Isabelle. You’ve even spoken with this princess of sorts. No one would think to bar you from her.”
Isabelle leans forward a little. “Who is it?”
The Sea Witch’s dark eyes light up. “Zurielle Rosi.”
“Triton’s daughter?” Gaeton murmurs. “What the hell do you want with her?”
“That’s my business. I simply need a messenger girl.”
“No.” I shake my head. “Absolutely fucking not.” Going to Olympus is a special kind of dangerous, but I’ve never had the authority to tell Isabelle it was a bad idea, not when Orsino gave his blessing. Doing it for her own amusement is one thing. Doing what could potentially come down to an act of war? Fuck no.
Isabelle squeezes my wrist. “I deliver a message and there are no more ‘border skirmishes.’ You stay in your own territory and stop bothering with ours.”
Ursa’s grin widens. “Consider it a deal.”
“No,” I say again, but Isabelle isn’t listening to me.
“I want to know the full message before I agree to anything. And your promise that you won’t hurt the girl.”
Cordelia’s shaking her head. “You don’t have to agree. We can find another way.”
“You know better, Cordie.” Isabelle tenses like she wants to say more, but finally refocuses on Ursa. “The message.”
“Simple, really.” Ursa touches her hair almost absently. “Tell her that I know where her precious Alaric is, and that I am only too happy to assist her reuniting with him.” Her smile is far too satisfied for my peace of mind. “And I have no intention of doing anything to the girl that she doesn’t want. She’ll remain unharmed.”
I narrow my eyes, but Isabelle speaks before I have a chance to. “Deal.”
“I knew you were a smart girl.” Ursa looks around the room. “A pleasure doing business with you.” She turns and sweeps from the room.
And then all hell breaks loose.
Chapter 29
Isabelle
As soon as Ursa leaves, everyone in the room starts arguing. Sienna thinks this deal is a good idea. Cordelia doesn’t want to agree, but she’s in a crappy position of having to worry about me versus worry about the entire territory. Neither Gaeton nor Beast wants me anywhere near Olympus.
They especially don’t want me there when my sister rises to her feet and levels us with a look. “It’s decided. Izzy is going and she can take one of you as escort.” She holds up a hand before either of them can get a word out. “You just got back here. You can absolutely not leave again. I’ll allow you to pick which one will act as escort and which will stay behind.” She motions to Muriel, Sienna, and David. “We’ll let you discuss it amongst yourselves, but don’t take long. Dinner’s going to get cold.”
Gaeton is on his feet before the door shuts. “This is a shitty ass idea.”
Beast moves around the couch to glare down at me. “You shouldn’t have agreed.”
I feel a little silly sitting here while they glower down at me, so I join them on my feet. “There wasn’t another option.”
“You keep saying that, but you didn’t give us a chance to find another option.”
They’re right and they’re wrong, all at the same time. All afternoon, in between worrying about whether or not they’d show up for dinner, I listened as Sienna lounged on my bed and posited scenarios to get us out of this conflict with Ursa. Eighty percent of those scenarios ended in a conflict that could cause the death of one or both of the men I love. I won’t let us get to that point, not if there’s another option.