A slow smile spread across his face. "Especially if you're my nemesis," he said, practically purring. "Obsessive hatred would never allow anyone else room in your life."

An answering smile turned up the corners of my mouth, the stress easing, and I turned back to Zhiolas, who was busily staring at the floor. "Let's try this again," I said, and held out my hand for a second time. "Leah Escarra; pleased ta meetcha."

He looked sidelong at me, then at Dain, as if looking for permission. With an inhale, Zhiolas took my hand, pressed a kiss to my knuckles and released me. "Zhiolas Ulahana, your highness," he said. "I will take care in the future not to let my power overwhelm you."

"For which I am appreciative," I said. "I prefer my breathless appreciation ruled by my wayward biology, and Dain has few enough friends that I'd hate for him to lose one on my behalf." Next to me, Dain snorted, and I cast him a sideways glance in time to see him flick one ear in a dismissive gesture.

"Zhiolas has won much breathless appreciation by means of wayward biology," he said with dark amusement. "Some men are granted all the affection of Sarcaryn." To my raised eyebrow, Dain gave me a half-smile, lacing his fingers behind his head and stretching one wing-arm. "The god of beauty and sexual pleasure," he clarified. "Or sometimes the goddess. Sarcaryn is the patron deity of Stag Court, and wears the form of a stag or a doe, especially during the rut. My mother is a devotee."

"What my prince isn't saying is that the Queen's great triumph as a princess was being mated by Sarcaryn, when she offered herself as a sacrifice of beauty," Zhiolas said, ignoring Dain's snarl. "Just as her great failing left her under Faerqen's geas and returning from the forest with the crown prince beneath her navel."

"This is why I didn't want to introduce you," Dain said, his voice almost unintelligible through his growl. "You and she are matches for being unable to hold your tongues."

My brain short-circuited. I stared at Zhiolas as if that might help me comprehend what he'd said. He was fae. He couldn't lie. I couldn't think of any other interpretation of his words besides the literal. The Queen had... fucked two gods. Two actual, physical gods. She was a god-fucker. A person who had sex with gods. A whole Leda-and-the-swan situation, but with deer and wolves. And that meant Dain was... a demigod?

Very slowly, I turned my head towards Dain and stared at him, instead.

He wore an expression of anger and disgust. "I would prefer it if you stopped looking at me like that," he bit out, not looking at me.

"Are you..." I started.

"I am not answering that question, and if Zhiolas has any sense of self-preservation, he will not, either," Dain snarled.