text: “So,” Mor began, “I had work to do but no one from Summer Court would be able to meet with me over the weekend. I asked Cassian if he wanted to come to Adriata and spend a few days in the sun. Warm his wings for a few days, that kind of thing. And it was a terrible mistake!” Nesta lifted her eyebrows. “I’m probably not supposed to tell you this story, but Cassian saw these two females and decided he was male enough that he could pull off getting both of them.” Nesta laughed now, of course Cassian had decided he was fae enough for two females at the same time. “He invited them to go to dinner with us, at this gorgeous little bistro near the water, not there any more, of course. Who knows why they said yes, but they did. Cassian was trying so hard, he ordered all these delicious seafood delicacies with dripping butter and garlic. And so much wine. Everytime we finished a bottle, he would order a new one. So, we are all drunk sitting on the patio looking out at the water and these two tall males storm the place.” “Why?” Nesta prodded, entertained by Mor's story. “One of the females had just been discovered by her mate. And her family was thrilled, so excited, because I guess this male who said he was her mate came from this really good family. So she promised her parents she would accept the bond and that she was going to go and find this male, but ran off with her friend instead. I don't even know, maybe she was going to find him eventually, but she'd decided she wanted to like, live it up first before accepting the bond with this complete stranger.” “I can't blame her,” Nesta laughed a little. “And the mate showed up at her parent's hoping to get to know her better but she wasn't there, her parents were all she went to find you, we thought she was with you, and everyone starts freaking out because no one knows where she is. So, everyone calmed down enough to have the mate track her with the bond. And, like, everyone's bond is a little different, I guess, I don’t know, I’m not bonded, but the mate can pick up on her being drunk and with a male. Who is not him clearly. The family lost it because their daughter is, quote, ruining her bond and the male himself fell into this crazy, jealous, overprotective rage males can get at the beginning. So by the time they find us, they are worked up.” “And?” “Oh, Mother. The mate and the dad are both yelling. The dad's yelling at this female and he’s yelling at Cassian, and the mate is yelling at Cassian and he keeps asking the female if she's rejecting the bond to be with Cassian. She starts crying and she's yelling at her dad and this mate. Her friend kept giving me this look like she wanted me to somehow get her out of there. Cassian's drunk so instead of keeping his stupid mouth shut he starts yelling back at the dad and mate.” Mor shook her head and laughed, “None of this should be funny, but the other patrons are just throwing money on their tables and taking off. Not even asking for their checks, just trying to get out before they get caught in the middle of these four fools all yelling. The bistro owners are trying to calm everyone down but its not working. Cassian is up now and he starts walking towards these two like he's going to fight them, and I'm still sitting at the table with these females, both crying now. The mate goes full rage and picks up a table, just up over his head, and flings it at Cassian.” “Cassian has never told me this.” “Not his finest day! So, anyways, Cassian sees this table flying thru the air and drunkenly assumes its going to hit the three of us behind him so he blasted out his siphons. Like the time you saw during the battle, how he can just make this giant red bubble of safety shield. Except he was drunk. So not only does this giant red bubble protect us from the table, which I still say was not going to hit us, but he like went into overprotect mode. He sent out a wave of energy outside the bubble too, to attack. Thankfully the owners ended up in our bubble and the top floors of the building were day offices so they were all empty because his power just shattered everything above us.” Mor continued, “I think he was just trying to destroy the table cause his energy all went up and over, but instead, it just decimated this whole building that bistro was in. Gods above must have been watching out for faes that day sending his drunk Cassian wrath upwards, because as soon as Cassian lowered the shield we were in this terrible broken brick crater, but everyone was ok. Even the dad and the mate somehow but, like, all that was left of the building was this giant cloud of dust and just mounds of broken building all around us.” Mor just kept quietly laughing, “It was so awful, all this broken building dust falling down like snow. But those two mates were finally holding hands, just checking each other over next to her dad and the other female was creeping backwards away from us towards them. The owners started yelling then and Cassian just looked around at this tiny, terrible crater he created and said he thought that maybe I should winnow us back home right then. You could hear all these fae outside the rubble yelling trying to make sure everyone was ok and I thought he just might be right, that maybe staying any longer was a very bad idea. So I took his hand to winnow us out and I looked him dead in the eye and I told him, ‘I am never going out with you again'".