Dancer offered her a kind smile. “Nothing. I should keep an eye on Kalea. I’ll be back in a few.”

“He spoke to his mother,” Fain said as soon as Dancer was gone. Sitting down next to her, he handed her a glass of juice.

Sumi tried to understand why a talk with his mother would hurt Dancer so much. And she didn’t miss the fact that even though the female had birthed them both, Fain didn’t claim her. “Why’s he upset?”

“Both she and his father are planning to sit with Dariana’s family tomorrow. And Dancer’s furious and hurt about it.”

Sumi snorted at their mother’s stupidity. “He shouldn’t let that upset him. I don’t care where they sit.”

Fain swallowed his drink before he sighed. “Easier said than done, Sumi. It’s another slap in his face that he really didn’t need. They know he loves you, and yet they’re supporting a female who has done nothing but insult and humiliate him since he was a boy.”

A furious tic beat a steady rhythm in his jaw as he watched the boys and Vik playing at war in their sandbox. “You’ve never seen an Andarion unification ceremony. The bride and groom are practically naked when they make their Disclosures. The male comes out and kneels so that the bride can inspect him.”

A chill went down her spine at what he described. “Inspect him, how?”

“She walks around his body and looks him over. If he’s acceptable, she nods to the priest to continue the proceedings…” His voice trailed off as his tic picked up its rhythm. “Dancer was only eighteen the first time he went before Dariana, in good faith. You’ve seen his body. You know how scarred up he was, and those scars were still fresh, then. There he stood and knelt, just a kid, in front of his entire family and hers with his whole body visible for all to see – including the marks his mother had given him as chastisement. It was the last thing he wanted to do. He knew Dariana hated him, and that everyone would sneer over the condition of his body. Yet he went forward with it so that he wouldn’t shame his parents. A decent female would have simply shaken her head no, and been done with him. Instead, Dariana sliced open his back, leaving him to bleed at the altar, and walked out in the middle of the ceremony.”

Sumi ground her teeth as rage clouded her vision. “What did your parents do?”

“They left him, too.” Fain set his drink aside. “Alone, he went and dressed, while his back bled, and returned home to find himself locked out.”

Stunned at that, she gaped incredulously. “What?”