“And you don’t like being told what to do,” Bael finished, incredulous. She was dumping him because of a problem with authority?

“I don’t expect you to understand,” she said.

“Try me.”

Kett heaved a sigh then said, “All right. You want to count these? First up, my natural disaster of a marriage.”

“Lots of people have failed relationships.”

“Do they end up in jail as a result of them? All right, when I was about seventeen I was sleeping with this pro-Treegan player. He did some aerial stunts to impress me, fell off the gryphon, broke his back. And it’s not just sexual relationships. Look at my dad, he ended up dead.”

“Temporarily.” Bael still couldn’t quite process this.

“Look, even my friends get hurt. Jarven, there’s a nice, recent example. And my army buddies, they tried to stand up for me, and not one of them ever got promoted because of it.”

“So bad things have happened to you-” Bael began, but she cut him off, her eyes steely and defensive.

“It’s not just me. It bites everyone in the ass.”

“What does?” Bael asked, frustrated.

“Love. Whatever shape it comes in. Look at Chance-she sacrificed herself for Dark.”

“But she’s fine now. She survived.”

“Striker’s been killed for love at least three times that I know of. Chalia even shot him herself once.”

“Can’t entirely blame her for that,” Bael muttered.

“Captain Tanner-did you meet him? Got his finger cut off trying to defend his fiancée. The king? You know he’s a widower? His wife was killed protecting her children. And then there’s me-again. I tried to protect my dad from the sorceress who was bumping off Striker’s friends. Remember how that one ended up?”

He touched the scar on her stomach and she flinched away.

“And finally we come to you. Deliberate or not, Bael, because of you, I ended up almost dead in that cell. Maybe it is just me. The Curse of Kett, Bael. Falls on everyone. I’ve hurt more people than I can remember, and you can be damn sure they’ve hurt me.”

She rubbed her shoulder and Bael ached with the effort of not touching her, soothing her-contradicting her.

“So I gave up. Went to live with Jarven, who’s a total sociopath. Figured I couldn’t do any damage there, to me or anyone else. Don’t you see, Bael, I’m not like other people. I can’t do the relationship thing. I can’t do the normal thing.”

“You’re not normal.”

“Cheers.”

“No-I mean, why would you want to be? Kett, you’re amazing. You’re glorious.”

“Stop,” she said quietly.

“No. Kett, I love everything about you. Don’t ever be like other people, they’re boring. You’re-”

“No, stop. Don’t do this. Don’t praise me, don’t tell me I’m wonderful and for the love of the gods, don’t pretend you love me.”

“But-”

“You don’t love me, Bael. You just think you ought to because you’re stuck with me.” She touched his shoulder, stroked over the skin until she found a sore spot then dug in. Bael sucked in a sharp breath of pain.

“See? You’re hurt this bad already. Imagine what’d happen if you actually were in love with me.”

There wasn’t anything he could think to say to that.

“How’s that bruise on your face?” Nuala asked as Kett took a bite of toast at breakfast.

“Five by five,” Kett said through her mouthful.

“Are you sure you’re not having any problem with movement?”

She swallowed her toast and shook her head. “No, it’s fine, see? Else I’d be eating through a straw.”

“Oh,” said Nuala, frowning in a way that made Kett wave her hand for more information. “Well, if it doesn’t hurt that much, try smiling.”

Her father guffawed. Realizing she was being made fun of, Kett snarled at her stepmother and grabbed three bread rolls as she stood up to leave. She rolled them into a napkin and added some fruit.

“Oh Kett, I didn’t mean it like that,” Nuala said, looking like a kicked puppy.

“I don’t exactly see how I’ve got a lot to smile about,” Kett said, tucking the coffeepot under her arm, taking two cups and leaving the room.

Going back up the stairs was agonizing. With her arms full, she couldn’t lean on the banister to spare her aching leg or hop without losing her balance. The main staircase at Nuala’s house was enormous, as tall as it was wide, stretching into infinity.

She was halfway up and considering dumping the food when someone came up behind her and started taking bread rolls from her arms.

“Gerroff,” she said, because it was Bael, and she’d been avoiding him all morning.

“I’ve been thinking,” he said, ignoring her.

“Novelty.” She forced herself up another step.

“Yeah. Look, Kett. If you and I had just met, say in a bar or something, and hit it off and gone back to your place or mine-”

“You mean your castle with the turret cell? Cozy.”

“Or anywhere. And we’d felt the same kind of sparks we had from the start,” Bael went on, prizing the coffeepot from her arms, which left her with one hand free to hold the banister.

Kett stubbornly folded her arms, clinging to the two coffee cups, and trudged up another step.

“Would we have had something? If I’d never mentioned this whole mate thing? If we’d just…gotten together and had fun and shagged each other rotten-”

Kett lost her balance at the mention of that and Bael steadied her, his arm around her shoulders. She wondered where the hell he’d put the things he’d taken from her, then saw Var, dog-shaped, patiently standing there with the napkin held in his mouth.

“Great, now there’s dog slobber all over that.”

“He hasn’t touched the food. Kett, listen. Forget about all the mate stuff. Just think about how it’d be if you and I got together normally.”

“Weren’t you listening?” Kett asked, shrugging him off and grabbing the railing to haul herself up another two steps. “I ain’t normal.”

“And weren’t you listening?” Bael replied. “That’s why I like you.”

She made a very unladylike snort and climbed up the rest of the steps, ignoring Bael even though he was never more than a few feet away. He kept following her, Var trotting along beside him like a good little pet, until she got to Jarven’s door and stopped.

“You following me?”

“I think I am.” He gave her a charming smile, which almost failed to do anything to Kett.

“I’m going to see Jarven.”

“I’ll come with you.

“Bael-”

“Let me, Kett.” There was guilt in his eyes. “I need to.”

She hesitated, but relented. Let him see what his men had done to her friend.

She opened the door and was mildly surprised to see Angie sitting by the bed, looking slightly guilty, a book in her hand.

“I was just-I thought I’d wait until he woke up,” she said, “and, um. See if he wanted anything.”

Kett kept her face straight and just nodded. “Sure. How’s he been?”

They regarded Jarven, asleep, probably sedated. There were bandages on his chest and arms and around his head. Here and there his skin crackled with ugly red patches, burns from his own dragons.

“He’s been quiet,” Angie said, her lip quivering slightly. She attempted a smile. “But then this is Jarven, and he’s always quiet, isn’t he?”

“He is,” Kett said, her heart going out to both Angie and Jarven, who no doubt was totally oblivious to Angie’s crush.

Bael moved over toward the bed, reaching out to Jarven, and Angie said sharply, “Be careful!”

But Bael just touched Jarven’s forehead, closed his eyes for a moment and murmured, “He’ll get better. He’ll be fine.”

Kett watched, uneasy. “Come on now. Leave him alone.”

She gave the coffee and food to Angie and left the sickroom to find Chance outside.

“I was just coming to see if there was anything I could do,” she said. She peered at Kett. “Maybe for you too. How are you feeling?”