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We could have been working onskillsinstead of all these stupid power struggles.

“And not only that…” Bryce’s expression shifted, and he looked away. “You’re mysister. In the place of our father—as you’re not talking to him—and as the oldest male in your immediate family—”

“You better not finish that sentence,” I warned him.

He did it anyway. “It’smyresponsibility to look after you and make sure you’re taken care of.” Then he paused, raising his eyebrow and shooting me a strange look. “And why not?”

Could he be that dense? “You’re not my boss.” What was with all these men trying to tell me what to do?

“We’re a patriarchal society,” he reasoned with a roll of his shoulders. “That’s just the way it’s always been. It’s only because you’re used to life here that I haven’t taken you home.”

Was that so? My eyebrow twitched. “You’re not going to take me anywhere.”

“It’s safer there.” He was giving me a serious stare that made the hair on the back of my neck raise. “You know I’ve been considering it, especially lately with everything that’s been going on. We could go back to Whisperwind, our mother’s home. Our cousins live there too. They’ve been wanting to meet you and can help keep you safe. I’m getting a lot of pressure from every direction to bring you back, and sometimes it almost feels like it’s the right thing to do.”

That made absolutely no sense.

I didn’t know a lot about society types, but, “If the fae are such a patriarchal society and about following traditions, then why are we living in ourmother’shome?”

Bryce blinked and his mouth opened into an ‘o’, yet he remained soundless.

“What about theDuboisfamily residence?” I pressed.

Bryce crossed his arms sullenly. “We don’t live with them.”

I wanted to bang my head against the wall in frustration. “Why not?”

“Well…” He glowered at the wall. “Grandfather still hasn’t gotten over the fact that our parents got married.” He crossed his arms, and his features and body language closed off. “It’s a long story.”

I waited for him to continue, but his mouth remained stubbornly shut.

“Well…?”

“I’m sure you’ll meet him one day—” was Bryce’s short reply, “—he’s on the council.”

Right. It was no surprise that my paternal grandfather was part of a grander plan to kill me if he’d had the choice. I’d expect nothing less.

“It’ll be chaos when they find out you’re a woman,” Bryce was saying through clenched teeth. His fists were tight over his tense legs, and he sat stiff as a board. It looked as though he was three seconds from running out of this room. “I hope he has a heart attack.”

Okay…

I blinked at him, my hand falling back to my side. I remained uncertain how to react. I wasn’t even sure when, exactly, I’d gotten used to Bryce’s stoic expressions and logically comforting observations, but this was certainly something I wasnotused to seeing.

So, he could hold a grudge and harbor deep loathing too?

Amazing.

Bryce was a trained warrior who could slay without remorse—though I hadn’t seen any evidence of this yet, but I’d take everyone else’s word for it until I saw such deadly behavior in action. He also could resist most poisons—though I hadn’t seen this happen either, since he’d swooned during our first outing alone. However, hewaswise. He, alone, understood me when I was in the hospital.

He’d even brought me an engagement cheeseburger—without disgusting toppings!

It was like he could read my mind. There was nothing worse than a burger ruined by pickle juice.

There were other things that made him worthy, none of which had anything to do with our tentative brother-sister relationship. But those were his most impressive qualifications.

There was already too much nepotism within this whole organization, but truly he was the most qualified. I think.

“You’re my Er Bashou.” I pointed at him—I had decided for sure.