Page 47

I held up one finger. "Careful."

She recalculated, fast. "The Queen does."

"Good answer."

"And my Mating Ceremony?"

"You and Kai."

"My wedding?"

"You and Kai."

"My shoes?"

"Martha," Fate huffed with enough exasperation to make her bangs lift and fall.

"I wanted to make sure we understood the scope of the agreement," I explained.

That, at least, got a real laugh out of her, short and surprised, like she hadn't expected to actually enjoy this conversation. Which brought me to the part I'd been building toward since she'd walked in smelling like vanilla and stardust and unearned confidence.

"October 2027 is canceled."

Her eyebrows went up. "Canceled?"

"As a decree from the Universe? Yep." I picked my coffee back up, mostly so I'd have something to do with my hands. "I'm not saying Kai and I are running down to the courthouse tomorrow. I'm not even saying it won't end up being October. If that's what works. But everybody except the two people it was actually about handed me that date. So, it's gone. Kai and I will decide when we're getting married and/or Mated. Maybe it's October. Maybe it isn't. But when I walk down that aisle, it'll be because we picked the damn day."

Fate didn't argue that one either. Smart woman. Deity. Omnipotent Being.

Instead, she looked at the crown one more time, and something in her expression shifted, carefully, like she was choosing her next words with more weight than anything she'd said so far.

"There is one thing you should know about the coronation."

"There always is."

"Every living Dragon will feel it."

I set my mug down slowly. "Define every."

"Every."

Somewhere deep in my chest, Aideen went very, very still, in a way that told me this wasn't a throwaway detail. This was the kind of event that meant something enormous sat right behind those two words, patiently waiting for a whole different cacophony of chaos that I was not going to like at all.

I decided, wisely, not to poke at it before I'd finished my first cup of coffee. If it was going to happen… It was going to happen, and I needed my coffee more than worrying about another catastrophe in the making.

"Anything else?" I asked instead.

Fate opened her mouth.

"Think carefully."

"No."

"Excellent."

She lingered for one more second, longer than felt strictly necessary for a woman who apparently had an entire Universe to run. If it hadn’t been Fate standing across from me, I would’ve said she was nervous, but… well, it was Fate.

"You did well, Martha."