Chapter 89: A Massive Third Wheel

"I think you're right," Zale said grimly. 

Aila tilted her head, a frown on her pretty face. "Are you worried about her?"

"Yes. I am concerned she is too attached to that fairy."

"What, because she talks about him so often? Or because she seems to miss him so much when he is gone?"

"More the latter than the former," Zale admitted.

"I wouldn't worry about it too much, Zale. Missing your best friend is a perfectly normal thing to do," Aila said reasonably. "She'll cheer up eventually. She did the last time he visited then left." 

She scooted closer to him and began rubbing his shoulders. It was something she had started doing not long after they had their talk about her concerns because she had noticed him rubbing them at the end of a long day. Now she did it every night out of habit.

It was one Zale appreciated. He hadn't realized how nice it could be to have someone around to do things like this. 

He could have gotten a massage from any number of merfolk whenever he wanted but the thought had never occurred to him. It had to be offered for him to realize what he was missing. 

He was slowly but surely getting used to having a wife. Making time for Aila during the day was difficult but he always saw her at night and was sure to let her know her presence was appreciated so she didn't feel insecure in her position. 

Noble mermaids spent their whole childhoods waiting to be married off to benefit their families. If they fell out of favor, they were discarded and their families would suffer for it. 

Zale should have accounted for that mindset and realized she would have been worried. Especially since he was the merking and was expected to have a large harem of mermaids fighting over his favor.

He didn't want or need that. He had more than enough things to worry about already.

Keeping two mermaids happy was more than daunting enough. At least he seemed to be succeeding with one of them at the moment. 

"I suppose," he said reluctantly.

It was impossible not to worry about his only sister. She had been his priority for most of his life. He knew she was capable of taking care of herself—she had proved that during her time on the surface—but couldn't help it. Old habits were hard to break. 

"Talori is going to be fine," Aila said soothingly as she continued working some of the tension out of his shoulders. "You need to stop worrying so you can get some sleep. You have a busy day ahead of you tomorrow."

That he did. He had a lot of nobles to deal with. Going into all of those meetings tired wouldn't help.

Zale sighed. "I know."

He let his wife distract him until they needed to go to sleep and she yawned, curled up on her side, and rested her forehead against his. She smiled sleepily at him and wished him goodnight. 

She fell asleep like that easily enough but he couldn't sleep. He reached out to stroke her cheek, thinking that he should really try to take her advice. If only it was that easy. 

Aila was a much better ally than he had thought she would be. She was clever, beautiful, and had good manners. A perfect merqueen but a surprisingly decent companion as well. He didn't mind spending time with her the way he used to. 

Zale mostly trusted her at this point. She had proven herself useful in a variety of ways and seemed to be more wary of him than he was of her. She wasn't like to give him any trouble…at least not on purpose. 

Obviously, dealing with something he wasn't used to and had never wanted was troublesome regardless but it wasn't all bad. There were definite good parts to this mess. Like the shoulder massages and how she smiled at him when she was satisfied. He was glad she was adjusting better because that made his life easier too. 

He knew she hadn't wanted to be merqueen any more than he wanted to have one but they were both handling it fairly well, all things considering. Of all the mermaids he could have married, he was glad it was her. 

Aila did her duties very well, got along with Talori, and was easy enough to please once he knew what she wanted. He couldn't have possibly picked a better wife. 

Zale had always known he would have to be strategic about his marriage but he had wanted to save his little sister from the same fate. She was free to marry for love or not at all but he couldn't help but worry she would be lonely if she didn't find someone. It was the kind of fae she was. 

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But what sort of merman would be interested in someone whose head was up on land? The only ones he could think of were his guards. Maybe one of them would manage to woo her sooner or later. She did seem to be on pretty good terms with most of them these days. 

He sincerely hoped she would pick one of them so he didn't have to worry about her as much. If she was focused on someone down here, she wouldn't miss the surface as much. Right?

===

Harmony continued to worry about Brennan and how obviously he missed having Talori around as time went on but she had other things to worry about too once her pregnancy started to show. Everyone began asking her questions such as "why does your elf still come around when the job is done?" and it was driving her crazy. 

She got those sorts of questions at the coven. Castian got those sorts of questions at work. Both of them were getting very tired of it but there didn't seem to be an end in sight. 

She knew their situation was unusual but they weren't doing anything wrong. She had to remind herself of that every time she felt awkward about it. They weren't doing anything wrong and no one else's opinion mattered. 

The only one who didn't say anything about it was Brennan. He simply congratulated her on her good fortune because fae children were always considered blessings and left it at that. She knew he wasn't the type to be nosy but he had to be dying of curiosity. 

After a few weeks she couldn't take it anymore. "Why haven't you asked me about Castian staying with me even though I'm pregnant?"

He blinked at her in surprise. "I didn't think you would want me to. Besides, it's been obvious he's in love with you for quite a while now. I knew there was something going on but it wasn't my place to say anything."

Harmony's jaw dropped. He said it had been obvious for quite a while now. How long had he suspected?

"You knew he was in love with me?! Since when?"

"I don't know…not long after he started hanging out with us? It's pretty clear based on the way he acts around you. I felt sorry for him because I didn't think you felt the same way until somewhat recently. I'm happy for you guys," Brennan said seriously.

He was the first to say anything like that aside from her mother and aunt. Everyone else had been in various states of disbelief or disapproval. 

It really had been obvious, hadn't it? Harmony should have seen it sooner. 

"You are? Really?" 

"Obviously. You're both my friends. Why wouldn't I be?" Brennan asked, disregarding one very important detail. 

"Because what we're doing isn't what witches and elves normally do? Everyone else thinks we're crazy. Even I think I'm crazy for going along with it," Harmony said with a disbelieving shake of her head. 

"Harmony. Everyone thinks I'm crazy too for being a water fairy who loves the ocean. I know what that's like and have absolutely no right to judge anyone else for what they're doing if it makes them happy. You two make each other happy and that's good enough for me."

Right. She should have known. Those who were given a hard time for being different weren't about to go and go the same thing to anyone else. 

Harmony couldn't help but let out a small laugh. "You're one of a kind, Brennan."

"So I've been told." 

"Thank you. For being happy for us, I mean. That means a lot coming from you. I'm glad we're friends."

"So am I. Even if I am a massive third wheel now," he said dryly. 

"…my bad."

Harmony grimaced. She hadn't realized they were being that bad. Maybe it was worse for him now because he missed Talori. She couldn't help but wonder if part of the reason he wasn't fazed by a witch and an elf being in a real relationship was because he was in love with a mermaid. 

She didn't want to bring up a sore subject though. He had been more down than usual lately because Talori had been too busy to call all week.. Apparently some merfolk from another kingdom were visiting.

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