Page 20

I had my fairy court work on creating a portal from the House of the Rising Sun directly to Max’s back lawn. If you punched that much magic into a delicate new terraform, you could dislodge the sky, or have the cave collapse, or any number of other mishaps which the court’s official fairy terraformers reminded me of, looking cross and sober as we stood in the large, pale stone courtyard, lit by the fingers of a delicate sun, Ruin at my side. They were appalled that I’d done a terraform on my own in such precarious circumstances and were determined to come with me to make sure the work of Berry, the betrayer, hadn’t tainted the name of fairy terraforms everywhere.

Max didn’t seem to mind if I brought those fairies, just Vervain. He was on the edge of the courtyard talking to Felix and Vervain, the fairy he was supposedly jealous of. The one he nodded at like they were old friends. Now I was jealous of Vervain, getting all of my consort’s attention.

“Do you mind if we come with you?” Mirabel the Music Master said, striding up to me with her ogre husband close behind. They looked tired, like they’d been dancing for a few days. Fairyland could definitely wear you out, particularly when you were in the arms of the one you loved. They clearly adored each other. An ogre and an angel? Then why not a fairy and a wolf? Because lupin sorcerer. But I wasn’t going to get Vervain to help me kill him. Slaughter wasn’t going to die, or I would have let the poisonous dagger do it. Nope. I’d had to drag him back to life instead of taking advantage of his weakness. I was such an idiot. I should feed my heart to him now and get it over with.

I refocused on the couple in front of me instead of Max with his powerful yet graceful gesture as he said something to Vervain. “Do you know the mayor? As the Music Master with so many ties to powerful factions, you could do something about his political machinations, couldn’t you?”

She stiffened. “I am not friends with the mayor, but he was elected by the people. Right now, I think we need to be careful not to make the opposition right about how we take and use power.” Her eyes were searching as she studied me. She’d cheerfully greeted me when I’d been the ethereal fairy queen, but now she’d seen the death fairy. Which one was I really? If only I knew.

I smiled at her. “Of course. His corruption is no excuse for our own. Law and order must be maintained.” I turned to her husband, the ogre. “If any of your soldiers come against my consort’s wolves, they will fall. I hope you understand that I mean no harm to anyone who doesn’t threaten my consort’s pack, but those that do are toast.” Mm, toast.

He nodded slightly. “I will issue a warning to my people regarding the dangers of fighting fairies. Particularly you. If they choose to take contracts that go against you, that’s the business of war.”

“I don’t fight wars like it’s business. I will ruin those that threaten me if I do not destroy them entirely.” I added a smile at the end so I sounded less psychotic. I don’t think it worked.

“Like Max,” Mirabel said brightly. “You completely changed his loyalties.”

Yeah. That was the most impossible thing of all. I cleared my throat before I gave her an awkward nod, then refocused on her husband. “At any rate, I apologize in advance for any of yours who may fall.”

He gave me a slight smile, showing his tusks. “I have several ogre mercenaries for hire, if you would care to engage them.”

Max growled. “We don’t need help defending our territory, but thank you for the offer.”

He put a possessive arm around my shoulder, pulling me away from the two. His touch was so good, so right, so absolutely dazzling. Why had I ever stopped touching him even for a second? He was everything. Including the big bad lupin sorcerer who would eat my heart for breakfast. My skin prickled where he’d put his fangs, breaking through the skin.

“Are you sure?” Mirabel asked, frowning at him in concern. “Ogres are actually trained for battle while wolves are a bunch of cagey street-fighters, sure, but in battle against experienced armored mercenaries?”

Max raised my hand and kissed the back of my fingers. His kiss burned into me like drops of holy happiness. “You misunderstood,” he said, smiling at me over my knuckles. Why was he touching me like this? We were still at an impasse, death fairy vs. lupin sorcerer. I suppose we had to show a united front to the ogres and angels. Yes, that was a distinctly good idea.

Max continued, “I was referring to the fairies. You’ve never known fear until you’ve faced an enemy that can disappear and rip through your throat like a bullet before returning to full size behind you to cut off your head if they don’t rip out your kidneys first. Ogres, particularly well-trained ones, would have no chance against fairies.”

“If battle conditions become untenable, they will leave,” the prince said with a shrug. “They have their contracts.”

I cleared my throat. “You are both welcome to return to earthland with my group of terraformers. My consort and I will go first to make certain everything is in order.”

Max finally dropped my hand, but the feel of his lips on my skin remained, burned into me. Didn’t we have to keep playing the part? Why not?

Ruin nudged me with her sharp elbows. “Hand kissing is so gross,” she muttered. Right. That’s how it felt, so gross. Which is why I wanted Max to kiss my hands for the rest of my life.

When the portal was finally ready, I took a deep breath, grabbed Max and Ruin’s hands, and pulled them through the shimmering oval that tasted like soap bubbles. We emerged into a moonlit scene of screaming metal beasts and tearing timber. Cats. That’s what Ruin had called the big machine that was going to help move the boulders. This time, they were moving Max’s house.

I gasped and took two steps towards the scene of devastation.

“Where are you going, Sparkles?” Max growled, pulling me back against his warm strength.

I looked up at him. “Your bed. How can I sleep in your bed if it’s demolished?”

His eyes flickered golden and bright. “We have a pack war to get to. My house can wait.”

Yeah. Sure. The pack war was the most important thing, except that his bed was the softest, sweetest, best memory I’d ever had with Max. Of course it had to be destroyed. But why was Max’s house being torn down? No way it didn’t involve the mayor. Wasn’t he behind the poisonings and part of the plot to overthrow my mother? No, he wasn’t that old. Or was he?

Max rumbled a growl and pulled me close, pressing a kiss to my forehead. “It’ll only take a few minutes, and you safe in my bed was part of the deal.” He pulled out his phone and pushed a button. “I need a lawyer,” he said impatiently to whoever was on the other side. “You’re the one who didn’t want to take the role of alpha, which means you have to answer to me. Yes, in the middle of the night. When else would I need a lawyer? Your husband can recommend someone if he’s not in the mood. I’m at my house, or the mayor’s next door. Yes, we are having fun.” He hung up and then walked towards a line of men in construction hats, keeping me close to his side. Ruin kept on my other, gripping my arm.

“You shouldn’t be here,” the largest man said, holding a clipboard, frowning at Max like he didn’t like what he saw.

Max rumbled a growl low in his chest. “This is my house you’re demolishing. I come back from vacation, and someone’s tearing it down? You’ve just stepped into a very messy lawsuit.”

The guy’s chin rose as he frowned at Max. “I have all the paperwork here.”

I checked the clipboard. There were a lot of letters on it that I knew. I looked up at Max with a shrug. I was absolutely no help when it came to reading. A flush of shame went through me. Why hadn’t I taken the lessons that would make me a better ruler? Because death-sickness, but why not before? Because I was busy chasing cobwebs and hiding from my duty, like my mother would be queen forever, and I could remain an innocent idiot. Burying your head in the sand never kept anyone from getting their head chopped off.

Max gave me a slight smile before refocusing on clipboard man. “You have the mayor’s signature, but not mine, the owner of the property. He can’t condemn my house without the proper legal proceedings, which you know. He must have paid you very well, but not well enough.” Max ended that in a growl and a flash of teeth.

The guy with the hard hat shook his head. “I’m working on a deadline. And the werewolves belong in Song, in the werewolf district.”

“True,” I said with a bright smile. “Because if you don’t remove your cats and your men, they’ll all be dead.”

“I thought we agreed that there would be no death fairy,” Max murmured to me before refocusing on the guy. “My mate likes my bed. And you’re on private property. I’m running out of patience.”

Clipboard guy raised his phone and called. “Hey, let’s take a break for a minute. We’ve had some new issues come up.” He put down his phone and the big cats went still, engines cutting, so the night was weirdly silent, except for some guy slamming a car door somewhere. “Look, the mayor’s going to kill us if we don’t get this job done fast.”

“And I’m going to kill you if you do,” I whispered.

Max shot me a quick look while I tried to make my eyes big like a sweet, innocent fairy princess who would never kill anyone. “The mayor’s right there,” Max said, pointing to a house at the edge of his grass. “I’ll go talk to him right now. You hold tight. Got it?”

Clipboard guy shrugged. “I’ll come with you. You’re seriously going to wake the mayor up in the middle of the night? You must want more than traffic tickets.”

“Always.”

We headed towards the house behind its fence and trees, through a garden with a lovely pond lit with subtle sparkling lights, and then we were at the mayor’s back door.

Max pounded on it like he was trying to knock the door down with his fist. Boom, boom, boom! No one could sleep through that.

Except the mayor. The house stayed quiet, still, empty. He wasn’t still at the ball in Fairyland, was he? Of course not. He wouldn’t fill out all those papers if he was dancing at a ball. His fairy blood should keep him from getting caught up in the magic, anyway.

“Mayor, if you don’t open this door, I’m coming in,” Max rumbled, echoing on my skin. He was so powerful and delicious. But I still wasn’t exactly talking to him. He’d probably lie about something incredibly relevant, like the fact that he’d slaughtered thousands of my people.

The door remained closed.

Max took a deep breath and then hunched over and picked the lock with his claws. I blinked at his broad back, bent in front of me. He was picking a lock instead of blowing the door down. How disappointing. I couldn’t help but trace the outline of his scapulae beneath his shirt. So many beautiful, irresistible muscles. Why was he so absolutely delicious? And why was I touching him? I pulled my hand back as if my fingers were burned.

The lock clicked and Max straightened, shooting me a heated look that melted my bones. No. Bad bones. No melting just because the pretty werewolf looks at you like you’re his moon.

“I’m calling someone,” the demolition guy said, backing away, gripping his clipboard in his calloused hands. “You can’t walk into the mayor’s house without permission.”

I shrugged and moved closer to Max. We didn’t need a coward who didn’t even pretend that he wasn’t bought.

We walked inside, slowly, the two wolves sniffing to the right and left. Max glanced at me and then shifted into his wolf, dark fur gleaming in the diffuse light. I grabbed onto the silky fur, rubbing my fingers and soaking in his feel. I loved his wolf. I missed sleeping cuddled up to him on a blue mat. Why did he have to complicate an already confusing situation with the lupin Sorcerer thing?

“It’s so dark,” Ruin whispered. “And what’s that smell? Blood?”

Max moved forward, pulling me with him. I tried not to cling as we crossed the hall and into the kitchen, but it was creepy. Empty. No servants, no mayors. We continued into the hall beyond the kitchen until Max’s wolf stopped at a door and nudged it with his nose.

I turned the handle, opening it to reveal the descending stairs with the blooming scent of blood and pain. There was something really bad down there. What had the mayor been doing? Torturing? Slaughtering chickens and burning the feathers? There was also a touch of brimstone to the blood and carnage.

“Maybe we should get backup,” I whispered. “We could wait for the ogre and the angel to get here.”

The wolf started down the stairs. So much for backup. I glanced at Ruin and then followed him down, fingers still threaded in his coat. She wasn’t going to leave him, and I wasn’t going to leave either of them. At least we’d die together. Did I really want to die with Max? I didn’t want to die with anyone else. Even if he was Slaughter who’d really convinced me that he was a soft and sweet werewolf. I should have known that none of those existed.

The stairs creaked, and I flinched, but there was only a slight groan from the darkness below. I couldn’t see past the stair’s wall, but when we reached the bottom and turned into the main space, I froze. There, tied to a heavy chair, with shredded wings and serrated skin, was none other than the mayor of Singsong City. At his feet, a glowing red book was oozing something that made my own sparkly vomit look positively safe.

“Creepy,” I breathed.

“What is it?” Ruin asked from behind me, stumbling forward. When she stepped ahead on the cement floor, red lines flooded up in elaborate patterns, demonic, summoning, absolutely infernal, tied to the fairy strapped in the chair and the book at his feet. Ruin whimpered while I grabbed her, pulling her back into my arms. I pulled her close, leaning against Max. Panic made me tremble. I didn’t want to deal with infernal monsters that were worse than Slaughter. I wanted the mayor to be the biggest problem we had to face, but instead…

“We have to get him free,” I whispered, but I didn’t want to walk into that demonfield.

Max shifted to human and then took my hand and Ruin’s, leading us back up the stairs at a steady pace that belied the rapid beating of his heart. He didn’t stop walking until we were back outside the kitchen and in the Mayor’s backyard.

He dropped Ruin’s hand and pulled out his phone. He spoke into it in a steady tone. “Could you get me the Scholar and anyone else who specializes in demonic bindings? I also need the Librarian to secure a demonic tome.” He lowered it for a moment and looked at me. “You should go back to Fairyland.”

I was shocked, hurt, and absolutely not going to leave him here, but this wasn’t my world or my problem. Except that the fairy trees in his cavern were being threatened.

I raised my chin. “No.”

He frowned, eyes glimmering with gold and a hint of infernal flames. “You’ll be safe there from…” He glanced at Ruin.

She flashed him a bright smile. “Yeah, I saw the thing that makes your beast look like a puppy. Sparkles is right. You need so much therapy. Can that guy, Slaughter, go in there and save the mayor?”

He frowned and then glanced at me. “You should go back to Fairyland,” he repeated

I scowled at him. Why did he keep saying that, like he wasn’t hopelessly stuck with me? “I’m not abandoning my people or the trees.”

“They left Fairyland. They don’t want to be bound to you.”

I flinched. His words were hard, hurtful, and true, but I shrugged and let them roll off me. “And you? Do you not want to be bound to me as well?”

“It would be better if we parted like this. You gave me wings when you should have let me die. You’re not a good match for me. I’m a dark thing. You will always be something I can’t have.” He shrugged, but his soft eyes were sad, determined. He would let me go and die. Again.

I grabbed his irritatingly beautiful chin. “Mating is for life. You really think this is going to kill you? What do you think’s really going on? Do you know who did this to the mayor? Do you know who bound you and gave those bindings to my aunt, the traitor?” I grabbed his arm, gripping him tight. “This is our problem, both of us. It’s not going to go away just because I run away and bury my head in Fairyland. Tell me what you know. Please.”

He blinked at me, brows drawing together. He didn’t want to tell me, to involve me like I was part of his life and his problems. Did I really want him to? This wasn’t just pack business, this was lupin sorcerer business, and I wanted nothing to do with Slaughter, his real monster. Or did I?

I slid my hand down the strong forearm to his fingers, spreading mine through his as I gripped him, feeling his strength flow into me. “Please, help me to understand. I’m not running away from this fight or from you.” That’s what it came down to. Maybe I wasn’t happy about Slaughter, but I wasn’t going to let him die. In time, I’d come to accept him and love him like I’d gotten used to his beast.

He frowned at me, eyes glittering gold with a flash of red, before he finally said, “Malamech had a mate. She’s the one who introduced him to the old sorcerer who taught him how to enslave his own, to draw on those infernal powers, to become an unholy mess, like me.”

I squeezed him tighter. “You think she’s behind this?”

He gave me a sickly smile. “I know those infernal runes, the bindings. She’s trying to claim those who were bound to Malamech, as well as all of their descendants. She’ll want revenge on you as well as me. She’s mad. No one plays with those powers unless they’re mad, and she was always unstable.” He frowned, wrinkling his nose. “It smells like…”

“Dominia,” Ruin said, scowling. “She was down there with the mayor. The brimstone threw me off for a second, but if you’re talking about an insane female werewolf, the bus stops at her. No wonder she hated you automatically,” she said, turning to smile at me. “Because you ate her mate’s heart.”

I slowly smiled, and absolute happiness winged through my soul. Finally, I had a really good excuse to kill her! “That’s the best news I’ve heard of all day! Together, we can kill her easily. You’re bound to me, so she can’t control you.”

Max studied me for a long moment. “That’s right. No one can control me, including you. I can’t defeat her without Slaughter, but he would prefer to subjugate the world.”

“Subjugate the world?” Ruin asked, frowning at him. “Oooooh. So, like you think that you’ll become worse than her if you let the wolf out of the bag? Don’t worry so much. Princess Sparkles wouldn’t ever let that happen.”

He frowned. “The mayor isn’t going to last long. I need someone else who can walk through those bindings. Slaughter can’t be trusted.”

I took his hand and then reached on my tiptoes to kiss his cheek. “He’s never let me down yet,” I whispered.

He looked into my eyes, his own panic and turbulence showing in that sweet, warm gaze. “I brought the wolves to your land.”

I cupped his face. “You also took them out. You have my heart to devour or protect. I hate that you lied to me so much, but everyone has a past. Like me. So much past. But I want to be better. I want to live up to my mother’s ideals, to be a queen that she would be proud of. What do you want?”

He gazed at me, eyes so soft and flickering with warmth. “First, I want you. So much, it terrifies me. I want to crush you into myself so that you’re safe, warm, and mine forever. But I also want peace, order, justice. I want to keep what we’ve built here, in Singsong City. I want to work with you to rehabilitate the fairies I betrayed. I want to make it up to you. But part of me also wants to watch the world burn while you warm your feet on the flames.”

I ran my nose slowly over his, inhaling his scent, his essence and finding all the pieces of Max, including that hint of bitter where Slaughter lived. His eyes glowed at that contact, that connection, and my heart tripped in my chest.

“But I’d rather warm my feet on your beast’s belly. If Slaughter can save, I’ll let him wash my hair.”

His jaw clenched beneath my fingers and slowly, so slowly, Max expanded, shifting into the dusky-skinned lupin sorcerer I’d feared and hated for a hundred years.

“I will save the weak fairy for you, mate,” he growled.

Ruin squeaked somewhere behind you while I found myself getting wobbly knees as he wrapped his hand around my waist and then dragged me with him towards the mayor’s door again. He didn’t pick the lock or even turn the handle. Nope, that door crunched open, along with some of the frame, just pressed into a passageway for us without Max moving a muscle. So many muscles beneath the blood-robe he wore over black loose pants, but he didn’t need them to destroy the world.

I hesitantly slid my hand up his forearm, exploring the silky skin and the muscles beneath while my heart beat faster and faster. Danger. So much danger. But I’d always liked living on the edge.

“I will bathe your hair in blood,” he murmured, which shot a bolt of alarm up my spine.

I swallowed hard and continued working my way up his arm to his stronger ropes of muscles at the top. “You may bathe your Queen in anything you’d like, as long as it’s not the mayor’s blood. We need him for leverage.” Right? We had to need him for something, or who knows what Slaughter would do with him after he’d ‘saved’ him.

He turned to look down at me with those molten gold eyes roped with crimson. “Anything I like?”

I gulped and tried to smile brightly. Those eyes. Could melt the skin off your bones. “Maybe not a volcano?”

He flashed a sharp-toothed smile and pulled me close before he wrapped his hand around my neck, black claws curled over my jaw. “I will bathe you in my saliva.” His mouth covered mine before I had a chance to gasp at the shocking idea.

He tasted like Max, only with a coppery hint of blood. He was so demanding, taking what he wanted, and what he wanted was me. He wasn’t hard or fast, but firm, increasing the pressure until a shock of pleasure went through me, and my wings unfurled as I pressed against him, knotting my hands in his hair and pulling him closer, tasting him deeper, consuming him with a growing desperation that he didn’t seem to have.

“Can you guys get a room? Not like we’re trying to save someone’s life and the werewolves. Sure, let’s take a break to make out. Unless you’re trying to kill him. Again. Seriously, if you don’t stop, I’m going to kill both of you!” Ruin was apparently stressed out.

He broke away before I could, giving her an unblinking stare before he turned and gestured, just a little flick of his fingers. The mayor’s house melted around us, walls and roof peeling away until we were left with nothing but the floor beneath our feet and the stairs leading down to the now open basement.

I froze, still tucked against him, but he’d just demolished the mayor’s house in a breath. Not even a breath. So fast. So much just gone with a flick of his fingers. This was different from Malamech. Slaughter-Max was more powerful than he’d been. Because we need a more overpowered beast.

“You smell of fear,” he whispered in my ear.

I shivered and grabbed Ruin’s hand. “That’s right. I’m afraid I’m going to fall through the floor.”

Ruin gripped my hand tight enough to hurt. “Fairies don’t fall. I’m the one who’s going to break a leg when Mega-Max melts the floor under me.”

“I am Lord Slaughter,” he rumbled and put a massive hand on her head. “You, ward, will stay with my Queen-mate. Keep her from following me into the runings. Otherwise, I will melt your feet very slowly, then your ankles, then…”

I put a hand over Lord Slaughter’s mouth, pulling away when he licked my palm. I liked that way too much. “Sure. We’ll both stay put while you rescue the mayor. No need to threaten to melt people.”

His lips curved into a diabolical smile. “I want her to understand the stakes. If you follow me into the runings, you will both die. Now, my precious heart, be still and cling to the child. Watch your protector and master save the pathetic life of the dying fairy.”

The poetry of my megalomaniac. Somehow, it may have been lacking.