Page 33 of Kingston (Savage Dragons #2)

“She’ll just have to be. I’m at my wits’ end trying to make sense of those books she gave us.

And even if she’d have given us different books that made more sense than the ones we have, I still wouldn’t want to take on this job.

There are just too many things that they expect of us, which means we don’t have a life.

” Kings said that was the perfect answer.

They’d have no life if they took the job.

“Besides that, no one asked us if we wanted to be king or queen. They just gave us a bunch of power that hurt like hell and assumed we’d be all right with it.

No way in hell would I have said yes if asked.

And especially now that we’ve had a chance to look it over, I’d say no again. ”

Supper was just sandwiches. The cook was off today and tomorrow to go and visit her children, and they were going to have whatever they could forage out of the freezer and cabinets.

He supposed that they could have ordered out, but that was just too much effort for what they were doing.

Tomorrow was going to be a big day in talking with Lady Earth, and he wondered about a few things.

Would she take back the magic that she’d given them?

He didn’t mind. It would be one less thing that he’d have to mess with.

Kings laughed a little and thought that he was getting lazier in his old age.

But if she did take the magic away, he wondered if it would hurt as badly as it had when she gave it to them.

Then there were the faeries. He’d gotten used to having them around since he’d shared with his family.

He didn’t care if she took them back, but it would be a huge disappointment for him if she did.

They were turning out to be quite helpful around the house, and he was going to miss them.

Then there had been the perks of going to the other world to visit the Lady.

The realm was otherworldly and beautiful. The air smelled so much cleaner and fresher while there, and sometimes he would linger a little longer just to be in it. The colors seemed to be brighter as well, especially in the trees and flowers.

“Have you given any thought as to what you’re going to say to her?

” Supper was over, and it looked to him like they were going to bed early as well.

“I’m going to flat-out tell her that I don’t want the job.

I know that I’m going to have to have good reasons, but I frankly don’t care if I have any.

I didn’t ask for the job in the first place. ”

“I’ve been thinking about what I was going to say to her for the last week.

It’s basically the same as what you’re saying.

We didn’t ask for it. Not to mention all the things that we’re going to have to give up if we were to take it, like getting to know one another without traveling all over the world several times.

I told Brenin about how we were going to get paid, and he made a joke about how that’s easy to change out for food.

He’s a great guy to have around when you have a hard decision to make, don’t you think?

” She told him that she’d been complaining to Kaida, who agreed with her.

“Yes, I can see her being a big advocate about not being asked to do the job.”

“If I wanted a full-time job, I’d find something that I’d like to do and be able to learn it in a reasonable amount of time.

” She sat down on the couch where he was sitting.

“What do you think she’ll do? That’s my biggest worry.

That she’ll kill us off because we told her no.

I mean, she did say that she created all dragons, didn’t she? ”

“I’m hoping she won’t do that. It would be scary to think that just because we tell her no, that we don’t want the job, that she’ll just destroy me.

I’d bargain with her about your life, however.

I’d want you to be turned back into a human and allowed to live.

” She said she couldn’t go on without him.

“Oh, Skye, I know I wouldn’t be able to live without you either. ”

As they made their way up to the bedroom after leaving the living room, he made sure that the house was securely locked up for the night. It was getting colder out, and he didn’t want the least bit of coldness to come in either. As he was going up the stairs, he realized just how tired he was.

He’d not been sleeping well, worrying about this king job, and he thought that tonight, with his decision made, he’d sleep very well.

He thought that he should be worrying about what she was going to do to them, but he just didn’t care at this point.

Kings was dragging by the time he had stripped down and gotten into bed.

Almost as soon as he snuggled up with Skye and closed his eyes, he was sound asleep.

~*~

Listening to them talk about the job as king and queen, Lady Earth couldn’t find fault with what they were saying.

She’d ambushed them into taking the job, and since she’d made it clear that she had created dragons, they’d just simply be too afraid to not take the job when she’d gone to so much trouble in making them take it.

“We want to have a life. With this job, we’d have nothing.

” She didn’t bother answering them when they said things like that—They’d said it several times now that they’d have no quality of life taking the job.

What did they think she had with her job?

No, best not to bring up how much she hated her own job to them. “So what are you going to do?”

She realized that she might well have missed something. They were both looking at her like they were expecting an answer to a question she didn’t listen to. Instead of admitting that she didn’t know what they had said, she instead asked what they thought that she should do.

“First and foremost, I don’t want you to kill either of us.” She must have really missed something important if they’d gotten that far in the conversation. “You can take back the magic if you wish, but we like the faeries. But you can take them back, too, since we’re not going to be doing the job.”

“No one likes the job that they do.” She thought about it for about a second before she admitted to them that she didn’t like hers either.

“So you see, I didn’t think beyond the need and I didn’t want to have to mess with it anymore so I gave it to you.

All this time, I assumed that you’d be training and doing the job so that I didn’t have to bother with the dragons.

I so love those creatures, but I have so many other things that pull me in all kinds of directions all the time. ”

“Maybe you need some help with your job.” She nodded at Skye and told her that there was no one who could do her job as well as she could.

“Perhaps not everything, but I’m betting that there are people who can take over portions of your job.

Say, watching over the faeries. They seem to be a handful unless they’re busy. And too many of them in one place.”

“How did you fix that? If I remember, a great many of them were sent to your home.” Kingston told her what he’d done.

“That’s a splendid idea. And it worked? They’re no longer pestering you all the time for things to do?

You know, there are only so many flowers that they can take care of.

Perhaps I should send them around in your realm for things to do. ”

“There are plenty of flowers they can be caring for over there, yeah, sure.” They looked at each other, and she wanted to ask them what was going on. “What’s up with you? You seem really distracted today.”

“I have so much to do. I was hoping that you’d take over the dragons so that I don’t have to mess with them anymore.

I mean, since I thought you were messing with them for me, I never heard from them, so perhaps they’ve been taking care of themselves.

I don’t know. I’m overwhelmed and overworked right now.

” She felt the tears fill her eyes. “I’m sorry.

I’m this all-powerful person, and I’m whining like I’m a toddler without their nap. ”

“Is there anything we can do to help you that doesn’t involve us taking over the dragons?

” She laughed. It had startled her; it had been so long since she’d had an occasion to laugh about something.

And she realized that she’d missed it. “What do you do for your organizational skills. I mean, do you have a daily plan that you follow? That’s the only way I get anything done is to have a set plan on what I’m doing. ”

“I don’t have time to plan out a plan for anything.

Even in the spring, when we’re our busiest, do I have a plan about how to plant things.

I think I messed up last spring in forgetting to plant a couple of fields, and that’s why the faeries are without anything to do this fall.

I’ve just messed up so many things that I’m behind in everything.

” A large map of her realm appeared in the room, and she looked at it as other things began to appear.

Colored pencils, rulers, and markers. There were even sticky notes that she so loved to use when she had time to make notes.

“This is all very lovely, but I have all this in my office.”

“But you’re not using them.” The map was placed on the table with all the other things around it. “While I don’t have any idea where things are planted, I can assume that it’s someplace on this map.”

For an hour, she worked on the map with the two of them. It came to her that she had missed three fields of flowers being planted, and that was why everyone was just sitting around. After they deemed the map filled out, she looked it over.