About thirty minutes later..

Ethan was in the living room’s couch with Isabella with between his legs, resting her back on his chest.

He had just finished recounting the entire meeting with King Carson, carefully walking her through each moment from the second he stepped into the throne room to the private conversation in the study.

When she reached the part where her father had mentioned marriage, Isabella’s entire body went rigid and she pulled away from him and stood up, turning back to face him with eyes so wide they looked like they might pop out of her skull.

"Marriage?!"

Ethan nodded, watching her reaction with a mixture of amusement and understanding.

"Wait, hold on." She raised both hands like she was trying to physically stop the conversation. "What did you tell him?"

"Well," Ethan leaned back into the couch cushions, "he gave me two days to think about the whole thing and let him know."

"Babe." Isabella’s tone became firm. "You absolutely cannot agree to an alliance with my father."

"I mean..." Ethan scratched the side of his head. "I’m not sure I want to."

Bella stared at him for a moment. Then she sighed and returned to sit beside him, this time angled so they could see each other properly.

Ethan turned toward her. "Why do you get so apprehensive whenever it has something to do with your old man?"

"I get it, the conversation went sideways after Beilong revealed what I am, and I could tell that everything after that point was just to secure an alliance. But at the end of the day, he’s doing what most people would do in his position."

Bella sighed again. "Babe, on the surface of it? Sure, it looks simple enough. Just politics, right? But there are things he’s not telling you."

She paused, her gaze dropping to her hands. "One of which is this: he’s always wanted dragon offspring. In fact, he’s tried."

Ethan’s eyebrows shot up. "With..."

"Yup." Bella nodded slowly. "With Beilong. And it failed every single time."

Ethan looked a bit surprised as he hadn’t expected that.

"But if you were to enter a marriage alliance," Bella continued, "he’s sure to have grandkids who carry dragonblood in them. And don’t think for one second your house name comes first in that arrangement."

"Yeah," Ethan whispered. He knew this part. There was a law in Gritnia that gave the King the authority to declare his house name first on any child or grandchild born from his bloodline or anyone connected to it through marriage.

In his case, the child would be a Tudor first, and a Stark second.

"The only value he places on people is based on how useful they can be to him," Bella said with some level of bitterness. "I don’t like that he treats people that way. Even his own children."

"I understand," Ethan nodded. It also explained why Bella had kept her reawakening a secret from her father.

Because the moment Carson finds out she was a Grand Caster, she would become the most valuable piece.

All that attention, all that sudden affection, it would be hollow. And Bella would rather be ignored than treated like that.

"But..." She adjusted in a way, her fingers almost fidgeting as she now looked nervous. "Did he say which of his daughters he would want to seal the alliance with?"

Ethan smiled. He reached out and pulled her closer to his chest, wrapping his arms around her.

"Nope. He did not. And something tells me that’s part of the problem with this whole alliance thing, right?"

Bella didn’t turn to look at him. She stayed facing forward, though Ethan could see the blushing red on her cheeks and a little embarrassed smile on her lips. "My father wouldn’t think in my direction at all."

Ethan laughed, and that made her smile grow wider.

But then a thought occurred to him, one of those intrusive curiosities that he probably shouldn’t voice but was going to anyway. "But just out of curiosity, what would happen if..."

"Nope!" Bella cut him off immediately, shaking her head hard. "Nope nope... nah, we’re not heading there."

Ethan laughed a bit more. "You didn’t even let me finish."

Bella turned to him with an amused but pointed look. "Babe, I know what you’re going to ask. And no, I’m not even going to think about it because you’re not agreeing to the alliance... right?"

Ethan shook his head, still grinning. "Yeah, right. I won’t. But..."

"No no, babe. No buts..." She cut him off again, her tone playful but insistent.

"Hold on, just hear me out first," Ethan said, raising his hands in a placating gesture.

She sighed, rolling her eyes but relenting. "Okay. Fine."

"So what’s the real problem here?" Ethan asked, leaning forward slightly. "Me between two sisters? Or me between two women?"

Bella gave him a puzzled look, tilting her head. "Babe, two sisters are still women."

"You know what I mean," Ethan said, raising an eyebrow.

Bella chuckled, then exhaled and answered. "Two different women? I understand that. But two sisters?... Ugh, that’s rarer than weird."

She shook her head like the very concept left a bad taste in her mouth.

"That is one fine way to put it," Ethan let out a short laugh. "And for the record, I agree with you."

Then Bella’s expression changed, with a mischievous glint appearing in her eyes.

"I also got curious myself..." she began.

Ethan chuckled, leaning back. "Okay okay, about what?"

"Two different women," she answered with a knowing smile.

"Oh ho ho," Ethan made an amused tone. "So any specifics, or..."

"Nope. No specifics," Bella replied, still staring at him with that playful look.

Then Ethan leaned in closer, his voice taking on an almost mocking yet sweet tone. "Two different women I understand. At least that’s not rarer than weird, no?"

He shrugged with a grin, throwing her exact words back at her.

Bella burst into laughter, doubling over slightly to cover her mouth. Ethan laughed with her as well.

She recovered slowly, then she leaned in close, with her voice dropping to a lower, amused tone. "Oh, you handsome sneaky thing."

Ethan leaned toward her, closing the distance between them. Their lips met in a deep, wonderful kiss that made the rest of the world fade into the background.