Page 15

Chapter

Fifteen

H is forehead wrinkled. “Why would Dawn poison werewolves now? She didn’t believe in fighting even when the wolves were invading unless…” His eyes burned with unholy rage. “Did she betray your mother? The Queen, her own sister?” His voice was low with rage and ice. I knew that look and voice. He’d been the sanity to my feral, but we’d both spilled death like honeyed nectar at a solstice party.

I patted his hand. He was right. There was no connection. Why not? We’d worked together for such a long time, and I’d had the biggest crush on him when he first came to court. Was it possible that it was part of the blocking that was probably demonic?

I swallowed hard. “Vervain, I think she might be blocking our connection. She can block my mind, and she put blocks on Shotglass so she couldn’t say anything, even when you were torturing her. But why would she do that?”

His face was hard. “She offered me a place at her side. I refused. I came to your mother’s court to avoid the awkwardness. Lady Dawn is unaccustomed to being refused. But to invite wolves into our land? Exile is not enough for what she did.”

“Would you like to torture her first?” I teased.

He looked at me, and his eyes were cold. “Perhaps to be certain there are no other traitors sickening the air of Fairyland. Will you return? I’d thought perhaps you’d left for good. You truly wish to come back and find a consort, to take your place?”

I hesitated, then nodded while my heart ached alarmingly. “The cave is terraformed, the wolves and goblins are currently healed, the pixie dust fairies are in a better place and…there’s nothing else for me to do here.”

He studied me for a long moment and then held out his arm for me to take, like Max had done just a few hours ago. It felt like years. “Then we will return.”

Vervain took care of the train tickets, so I had a bed if I wanted to sleep, but I didn’t. I sat in the dining car, looking out at the passing scenery, and tried not to miss Max.

Vervain sighed as he sat to my left. He had a lecture for me. “Will you not eat?” he asked, gesturing at the spread designed specifically for fairy appetites.

I plucked a flower out of my salad and then put it behind his ear. “That’s better. You look too serious to be a fairy boy, Vervain.”

“Do I? You’ve been associating with werewolves and pixie dust fairies. I believe you have gotten unused to my habitual seriousness.”

“Yes, I suppose so. Don’t you ever smile?”

He smiled. It was a beautiful smile, but cold, calculating, and extremely unsettling, because it’s the smile he had before he stabbed someone. “Of course. I will smile for you any time you like. In fact, if you turn over your aunt entirely to me, I will be smiling for years.”

I shook my head. “She will be exiled according to law.”

“Of course, after I’ve questioned her thoroughly.”

“Vervain, you’re supposed to be the sanity here. How am I supposed to be whimsical and wild if you’re a vengeful vigilante?”

His smile remained as he took a flower off my plate and held it to my lips. “I will be whatever you desire.” As long as he could twist it into precisely what he wanted.

I snapped the flower in my teeth and then proceeded to eat like a good little charge. He raised a brow in surprise at my reasonableness.

“You’ll also have to teach me to read all the usual languages. Apparently literacy is a useful thing after all. Who would have thought that you’d be right about everything?”

His brow furrowed slightly. “The world has ended. He truly healed what was broken.”

I frowned and studied my salad, taking a careful bite. I wasn’t talking about Max. It hurt so much to be apart from him, but I’d survive. And I’d find another fairy to become my consort. I turned when I noticed a commotion at the door. A uniformed guard was dragging a reluctant and petulant Ruin towards our table. I inhaled and stood, rushing over to them.

“Take your hands off her! Ruin, are you all right?”

The guard released her while her eyes filled with sudden tears and she sniffed. “You really left. I thought you’d at least stay for the celebration. Max didn’t come, either. You said I could come to Fairyland, so I came. You can’t be mad at me.”

“Of course I’m not mad at you,” I said, pulling her in for a hug. She squeezed me tight, suddenly desperate. “I did say that you could come to Fairyland. And the train is very nice on the inside, with very comfortable beds. Are you hungry?” I pulled away so I could look at her.

She nodded. “I’m starving to death.”

I patted her hair and smiled at Vervain. If he were Max, he’d have a softness in his eyes at the ridiculous hijinks Ruin was capable of, sneaking on a train being one of them, but Vervain was studying her with calculating eyes, considering what piece she would play in court politics and my reign. Was I really going to be Queen? Yes. And I would do my best.

He bowed. “I will secure an extra ticket for the young lady.”

She looked at him like she’d only just seen him, and then she blushed bright pink before he turned and strode away. Once he’d left the dining car, she grabbed my arm. “Who’s that? He’s the hottest fairy boy I’ve ever seen. They’re all pretty, but he’s deadly. Are you dating him now instead of Max? He’s probably better looking, and I can’t tell how his muscles are under his fairy shirt. Max is probably better. So pretty, though. And deadly.”

I laughed and pushed her down into a chair before sitting next to her. “That’s Vervain the Terrible.”

She gasped and leaned forward. “Really? The one who’s always rejecting you? We should prank him hard. Like rocks under his pillows, replace his sugar with salt, all the typical things, but also maybe cut his hair in his sleep so he looks like a hedgehog.”

I laughed and felt slightly better. I’d been feeling blue and slodgy since I’d left the city, since I’d left Max. Hopefully my attachment faded quickly. “That’s perfect. The trouble with Vervain is that if I ask him to cut his hair so he looks like a hedgehog, he’ll do it without question. So I must protect his dignity.”

She frowned as she studied me. “You really are the fairy queen? That’s what I heard someone call you when you came into the caverns with your glow-up.”

“My glow-up?”

She gestured at me. “New dress, new skin. The whole new you. Maybe I can get a glow-up in Fairyland and be irresistible to all the other wolf boys.”

I laughed. “Oh, definitely, the court would be in total heaven if I brought you in for grooming with me. I’ve kind of avoided them for a century, but it’s their life purpose to make you unrecognizable to yourself. I guess I have to do that kind of thing if I’m going to be Queen. Too bad.”

She elbowed me. “You always looked like a Queen.”

I laughed and elbowed her back. “That’s because all the fairies you knew were dust addicts. I’m going to be horribly respectable from now on, like Vervain only hopefully less…”

She grinned at me. “Snobbish? That’s the thing about you. Even the dust addicts are snobs about being fairies, but you’re not at all, and you’re the Queen.”

“I’m not. I mean, I haven’t had the official coronation and chosen my consort. It’s a process that involves so much grooming.” I sighed glumly. Mostly because I had to find another fairy boy since Vervain was off the table. Berry was in love with Shotglass, and all the other fairies I knew, I didn’t really know.

“Oh! You can have a ball, and all the eligible men can attend, and you can dance with them and decide which one is the hottest. Like Cinderella, only reverse. We should find a hottie poor boy and dress him up. You can be disguised as the fairy godmother, and he can be so surprised when he realizes that it was you all along. That’s what that story needed, some kind of relationship before they danced, you know?”

I blinked at her, then patted her head. “I don’t know Cinderella, but it could be arranged. The people would love a ball. We could invite some elven musicians, make it part of the whole coronation ceremony. Good idea, Ruin.”

She stared at me in shock. “Wait, you’d actually have a ball and invite all the eligible men to see which one is hot? But how will you know if they’re nice? Anyone can pretend to be nice for a few hours. Even me.”

My heart constricted at the thought, but I just shrugged. “I suppose the moon will bring me my consort.”

She narrowed her eyes. “You sound like Max.”

“Well, maybe he rubbed off on me. That was a lot of insanity for one person to keep all to himself.”

She shrugged, but was still looking at me weirdly. “True, but it seemed like you kind of liked him.”

I laughed and sounded slightly hysterical. “Of course I like Max. He’s an excellent leader, and I’m always looking for ideas on how to be better.”

“And you think he’s hot.”

“Of course, but…Waiter, would you come and take my friend’s order? Vervain is paying.”

She gave me a raised brow and then focused on ordering.

I couldn’t talk about Max without wanting to burst into tears. He was so good. Not that it mattered. He was a werewolf and I would make a point of never seeing him again. Maybe a ball with random men to dance with would be a good thing. Essential to my future happiness and that of all of Fairyland.

When we got off the train, I walked with purpose towards the portal, crossing fields in the darkness until I got to the small copse of trees.

“I don’t see a portal,” Ruin said, looking around.

I grabbed her arm and knelt down to peer at the tiny door in the rock. “It’s there. Are you ready to go to Fairyland?”

Her eyes grew enormous. “Is Fairyland so small that it fits inside a rock?”

“No, it’s just really a lot of energy to make a portal, so we keep it small and shrink while we’re going through.”

“Wow. Will I get stuck tiny?”

Vervain exhaled loudly, reminding me that he was waiting patiently, directly behind us.

I patted her shoulder and then grabbed Vervain’s hand. I shrunk us all, so the blades of grass were poking up above us, and the cobbles had to be leapt from one to the next.

Ruin laughed, and her voice was tiny and hilarious. I laughed just from hearing it. Vervain did not look amused. When we got to the door, I opened it and stepped into the darkness, coming out with Ruin on a large, smooth platform. I unshrank and smiled at the guard, who had strangely golden eyes and very thick hair. He had werewolf blood? There were some children born while the wolves were in Fairyland, but I hadn’t seen any this close before.

I smiled at him. “Protect my miniature guest, if you please. Vervain will be here shortly. I have business.” I opened another portal and stepped through, coming out in the courtyard I’d seen in Shotglass’s mind. It was empty.

I searched the house of the Rising Sun, but the entire, formerly glorious place was stripped to the bones. Even the golden chandeliers were gone.

I walked back to a balcony that overlooked the surrounding slopes of mountains and valleys, beautiful woods that shifted in the afternoon light, and felt nothing.

Vervain found me like that. “You didn’t wait for me.”

“I didn’t want you to torture her, but she’s already gone. She knew I was coming for her.”

“I didn’t betray you.”

I glanced at him over my shoulder. “I know, but it would be strange if she didn’t have connections in Singsong City if she was able to arrange a snack factory to poison goblins and werewolves. Max was going to get a list of everyone who could have been involved. I’ll have to send someone to go get it.”

“You could set up a communication sphere.”

I blinked at him. Seeing Max would be torture. But I wanted to anyway. I shook my head, because wanting him was absolutely off the table. “No, I’ll send someone. I’m going to bring the court here. We’ll establish a new Queen’s Court when we have the ball. You should announce Dawn’s treachery so she has no place in our world to hide. No one would easily forgive her betrayal.”

“The ball?”

“As part of my coronation ceremonies, we’re having a ball with elven musicians.”

He stepped closer to me, brows furrowing. “You’re actually going to accept the title?”

“Didn’t I say that I would? And I’m going to find a consort at the ball, so we’ll have to have every eligible gentleman in all of Fairyland, especially the poor ones.”

He stared at me. “Seriously? You’d choose someone you’ve never met before?”

I shrugged. “If I dance with them, I’ll read all their thoughts and know their character. How is that less random than my mother, crashing into a swamp and being rescued by my father? It doesn’t matter who I choose.” I sighed heavily, thinking about Max, the war beast who had accidentally buried his fangs into my heart. He wouldn’t ever bury his fangs into anyone intentionally.

“So, you wish me to notify the land that this is your new court?”

“It’s one of them. I can’t use the Queen’s square, not with all the blood soaked in the stones, and the memory tree.” My heart ached as I mourned for my mother, for the world she’d created, that her sister had betrayed, and I had finished destroying. “It’s for pilgrimages, not business. We will turn my Aunt’s betrayal into an opportunity. This place will be the beginning of a new era of life and vitality.”

“Of course, my lady.” He bowed deeply and then turned and strode away.

Two minutes later, fairies poured out of a portal in the courtyard, bringing things with them that would probably expand into rooms of furniture. I walked over to the nearest fairy as she was bustling by.

“Fiora, have you seen my guest? It’s a werewolf girl I left in the company of the guard at the square of doors.”

“No, my lady,” she said with a bob of respect before she hurried on.

I frowned and went to find some guards. They were setting up on the far side of the courtyard, and when I asked about the portal guard, they told me he was still guarding the square of doors. Of course he was. I sighed and made another portal, stepping into the square to find the guard holding Ruin in his palm up to his eyes so he could see her clearly.

“And the queen will rip you apart if you so much as breathe on me!” She squeaked.

He grinned. “What’s that, little wolfie? I can’t hear you. Your voice is too small.” He was messing with her.

I tapped him on the shoulder and he almost dropped her. I unshrank her, and then he found himself holding a full-sized Ruin, who promptly elbowed his throat and bit his arm, and then would have kicked his head, but I pulled her down instead.

“I’m sorry I left you. I had to see to an exiling, but they’ve already gone. Did the guard hurt you? I asked him to protect you.” I shot him a look which was met by a cringe and a wince.

She huffed. “Well, he didn’t hurt me, but he wouldn’t let me go find you. He said he couldn’t unshrink me, since it would be going against the will of the Queen, although you’re not technically the Queen yet. Anyway, no, but he was really annoying. He’s just like a werewolf.”

The guard looked down so his eyes wouldn’t be noticeable.

I put a hand on his shoulder. “It’s okay. I like some wolves. Ruin is my best friend. Don’t tell Vervain, though. It will hurt his feelings to know that he’s been displaced.”

He looked up and his eyes glowed. “I’m not a wolf. I’m a fairy. I’ve never shifted and I never will.” His low growl definitely was the opposite of convincing.

“Ooooh, that explains your attitude,” Ruin said, nodding sagely. “I didn’t know there were actual fairy-wolves.” She turned to me with an expectant look. “You and Max could…” I covered her mouth with my hand and dragged her back to the portal I’d made on my way here.

No. Max and I couldn’t. Not ever. She couldn’t say that it was possible, because if I heard it, I’d start believing it, and then I’d do anything to make him mine. He was in my skin, in my heart, in my head, an infection that seemed to only be spreading the longer I was without him.

“Vervain,” I called as soon as I was through the portal and in the courtyard.

“He went to get some list about the snack factory,” a fairy boy said, carrying a stack of shimmering fabrics. “He said that you’d need a new court wardrobe, as well as things for your young companion.” He gave Ruin a polite smile, but he looked nervous, probably because the last fifteen times he’d approached me with fabric I’d disappeared or bitten him.

I smiled regally. “Pontif, I am grateful for your alacrity. That’s right. My friend and I are going to do makeovers so that we can really glow at the ball, which will be the finale of my coronation. Everyone in the land will be invited. All eligible males will be required.”

He blinked at me, and Ruin snorted. “He looks like he’s going to have a heart attack.

Pontif rallied quickly. “I am in the process of making arrangements with another female. I am not eligible.”

Ruin burst out laughing at that. I shot her a frown and then smiled at Pontif. “Best of luck with your hopeful beloved. I’m going to walk about the grounds. It’s quite barren, isn’t it? There should be several romantic walks to stroll along during the ball to interview candidates.”

He gasped, then covered his mouth with a bolt of fabric, horrified that he’d made such an undignified sound. “You are going to choose a consort at this ball?”

“If all goes well.”

“But surely Lord Vervain…”

I raised a brow. “He wishes to remain friends and nothing more.”

“Why will you not take him? It is your right, your power.”

I scowled at him, forgetting to be regal. “Pontif, do you honestly think it’s a good start to my official ruling to force some guy to be my one and only? Seriously, you think I would do something so unjust and stupid? Move along. You have work to do. If we’re going to make me queenly, everyone will have to do their best.”

He bowed low and hurried off.

Ruin elbowed me. “Even with your glow-up, you still scare the snot out of him. He looked at you like you were going to rip off his head and eat his brain as pudding. Doesn’t he know that fairies are vegetarians?”

I stared at her while I remembered Pontif in the battle, helping hold Malamech down with strands of ropes he’d made out of silk while I ripped out the Lupin Sorceror’s heart and ate it. “It is a puzzle why he’d react like that,” I murmured.

“Seriously, if all the fairies are that nervous around you, maybe you should cast your net a little wider. What about elves? They’re kind of beautiful, and they have lots of skills. Like shooting bows, and their warriors are pretty tough. They wouldn’t be so nervous around you, just because you’re a princess.”

“Elves dislike fairies, and the feeling is mutual.”

“Why?”

“Music, magic, and information. Fairies record their knowledge in plants, but elves have scrolls. Elves collect knowledge from everyone, but they can’t source ours, which is eternally frustrating to them. They can’t terraform a shell, but we’re so flighty and undisciplined. It drives them crazy that we can do so much with so little effort.”

“What about music? Oh. The fairies sing and the elves weep. That makes sense. Fairies really are awful.”

“We do more dancing than singing spells.” I shrugged. “It’s what we are. Anyway, it will be enough of a peace offering to request some musicians to play for my coronation.” I grabbed the arm of a fairy going by. “Gerania, will you see that someone polite and willing to condescend goes to elf land to request musicians for my coronation and the ball?”

Gerania stared at me. “Wouldn’t Vervain…”

“He’s not here right now. Which reminds me, I need to find someone to go after him. Which of the guards is not personally in his pocket? I could search minds, but that would take time.”

She flinched at the idea of me going into someone’s head. “The wolf-fairy, his name is Felix. He stayed away from Vervain, and Vervain hasn’t officially interfered with his success, but he’s made his disapproval clear.”

“Thank you, Germania. You’re doing a great job.”

I summoned the wolf-fairy while Ruin climbed on a balcony railing thirty feet from the stone below and then did a handstand.

“My Lady,” Felix said, sounding uncertain, like he should call me ‘Queen’ but traditionally I had punished people for using that title by making them listen to Vervain lecture about the history of Queenship and explain all the reasons why I wasn’t a Queen. “You summoned me?”

“Yes, Felix. I would like you to go into earthland after Vervain and bring him back before he starts torturing fairies outside of my jurisdiction. We can make a statement about the former Lady Dawn, but as she has exiled herself, there is nothing more to do.” However much I wanted to personally rip off the head of the person who had betrayed our people, my mother, her own sister, it was out of my hands. Even if the thought of her made my hands tremble and my claws prick. I really was incredibly balanced, thanks to Max. I could focus on the future. Be a Queen that my mother would be proud of.

“Yes, my lady. Can I take some guards? Vervain will not be easy to control.”

“For his protection, you may take as many guards as you like. You will not harm him. He is my most loyal subject, even if at times he gets slightly unhinged.”

Felix bowed low and then loped off, ready for excitement.

Ruin dropped to the stone behind me. “Felix is a funny name for a wolf-fairy.”

I turned to look at her. “Is it? Oh. Cat. That is funny.” I smiled and linked arms with her as we walked towards the doorway. “Are you ready for the glow-up? The fairies are dying to get started.”

She grinned at me mischievously. “Yes, my Queen. The next time Felix looks at me, he’ll think I’m a goddess.”

I kept smiling as we walked, but my skin was starting to flinch away from the entire idea of losing my old skin, my old wings, and becoming something else, something that couldn’t hide from the burden of responsibility. But it was time.

I had to protect my people. I would need to establish alliances with as many races as I could, which meant correspondence, which meant reading and writing. I would need to have a system of spies throughout Fairyland and all the other worlds who reported only to me. I would need to organize our entire kingdom, and hunt down the producers of pixie dust and put an end to that as well as…The list went on forever and ever. I needed this ball to get as many people together as possible so I could ferret out any traitors before I lost more of mine.

And I had to do it all without thinking about Max.