Trinket (Reverse Harem)

I'm Not Dying This Way

Korr caught my wrist. "Theia."

"What?" Korr wasn't usually so serious unless he was being very serious, which was never a good thing, really. But it was also a good thing that he was feeling good enough to be serious. In the shade of the temple quarters we'd been given, which was cool and refreshing, his frigid gloss had started to return.

"He's about to say something about the Pantere Priestess doing more than tasting your dreams," Ormiss said from the window, specularly silhouetted against the evening sun. He'd shed his necklaces again and now just stood in his low-slung skirt, all the shadows and hollows of his muscular body on display.

I gulped. "She said she just wanted to taste my dreams."

"And I'm sure the cat just wants to play with the mouse and not eat it," Ormiss said.

"Oh, she wants to eat it," Itek said.

"Are we still talking about a mouse?"

Itek snerked.

"But..." I didn't know what to say. I looked at Asund, who looked mildly uncomfortable. "Do you think she..."

"She's a Pantere," Asund said. "I have no idea what's going to happen tonight."

Korr tugged me wrist gently. "What happens will happen. And I for one give my blessing to whatever happens."

"Blessing!" I gasped.

He kissed me lightly, his lips not quite cold enough for my liking. "Oh, and you must promise to tell me all about it."

Ethat, shyly, and shimmering with fireflies, added, "I can deny you nothing."

"So long as Theia denies you everything?" Ormiss inquired.

Ethat shimmered with even more fireflies. Ormiss rolled his eyes.

Itek shrugged and had a little smile on his face. "I'm a cat-bird. I am loyal to a fault, but my species isn't. I won't begrudge you a little fun with a pretty Pantere. Since you'll have Asund with you."

"Exactly," Korr said, nodding to Itek. "She has one of us with her."

"I'm not going to have sex with her!" I exclaimed.

"Well, don't rule it out," Korr said like it was stupid that I'd rule it out.

"Ormiss?" I couldn't believe I was looking to Ormiss for sanity.

Ormiss glanced at Asund, then at me, and said, "A Queen decides who she beds, and a King accepts this. If he isn't enough to hold her attention, that's his problem."

Na-uh. "That isn't how it works. And it has nothing to do with holding my attention. Are you lot insane? We have trinkets!"

"And trinkets pick the most perfect consorts," Korr said. "Your consorts happen to not be paranoid about who you bed. And note that the one consort you have who would be very unsettled by you going afield is the one you're bringing with you. So you aren't actually going afield."

"So the Trinkets just give us an excuse to do whatever we want because whatever we want must be okay?" I could not believe what I was hearing. "Are you going to be like oh, well, she was pretty and I was attracted and it must be fine, so why are you hurt?"

Korr frowned.

Ormiss chuckled. "You're really putting your foot in it, dragon. Some diplomat you are."

"I admit my powers of communication seem to be lacking in this regard," Korr told him.

"You lot are going to kill me," I muttered. I wasn't dumb enough to say if I'm a unicorn, this is how you break my heart and I die where the Pantere might hear. They knew what I meant. Hopefully.