Chapter
Two
CRYSTALLO
T he chair was an insult.
I sat with wings tucked tight, my feathers pinched against the carved back that was shaped perfectly for a wingless individual.
A fairy worker wouldn't have made the mistake of providing me something that would be irritating with my wings; they had wings themselves.
The Seelie Ard Rí must have ordered the seat to see if I would react.
This was always the case every time I came for my yearly spell inspection, as mandated by our tenuous treaty.
Once a year, I put myself in danger, but it was the only chance I got to check on my younger brother.
What my brother told me this morning had changed everything.
I had to finish this farce and get back to our people to prepare.
Across the span of an obsidian-slick table, the Seelie Ard Rí, one of the two High Kings, lounged in an ivory tabard short enough to reveal knee-high leggings latticed in gold thread that glittered with small sewn-in diamonds.
His black hair spilled like water over porcelain shoulders, every strand reflecting the light cast from light globes, spelled to the walls.
Between us sprawled a ridiculous feast.
A mountain of powdered donuts flanked bowls of steaming soup; beside them, a platter of blueberry pancakes dripped maple syrup, and then a tray of fried pickles.
In front of me was a wine glass with a milky liquid, and small balls of gelatin at the bottom of it.
A plate of funnel cake was off to the right, while sticks of candied apples leaned against a tureen of neon-green curry.
Someone had stacked what looked like pizza slices, pineapple, and jalapeno into a conical tower, crowned by a single chocolate eclair.
The mingled scents, lemongrass, frosting, brine, and melted cheese, fought in the vaulted air with nauseating tenacity.
The Ard Rí lifted a sugar-dusted cronut between manicured fingers, inspecting it.
"I've been told that the diversity of mundane cuisine is entertaining.
" A sneer curled in the corner of his lip.
"I'm sure a... creature... such as yourself must enjoy such a thing.
Your people do have a taste for mundanes, do you not? "
My wings ached from where they were trapped by the chair.
"You are one to speak on the use of mundanes," I said as I took a slice of pizza with pineapple on it from the odd tower.
The crust was hard and brittle, which was how they managed to get it to stand upright.
I put it on my plate without taking a bite.
"Unless you plan to change the way this school is run?
Has your Goddess changed her mind about the best use for mundanes? "
"The Goddess does not change," the Ard Rí spat out the word like it was a curse, setting the donut down on his plate.
"She changed enough to allow the treaty," I pointed out.
"The Goddess decided to wait," the Ard Rí leaned back in his chair as he dipped his sugar-powdered fingers into the bowl of water to his left, wiping his fingers off on the small towel next to the bowl.
"She has awoken," I said. Then I used one of the tidbits of information my brother fed me.
"She believes the Chaos God has returned.
She announced it to the school. You are moving some of the army onto the campus.
Tell me, Adoivencal, do you think the final battle will be fought here?
If so, I should bring in my army to provide winged support for the troops.
My people are all unbound by the grace of the Goddess, with the exception of one, of course. "
It wasn't by her grace, it was by her failure. She hadn't managed to bind all of the creatures of chaos before being imprisoned.
The Ard Rí's eyes narrowed with my use of his first name. Or it could be the fact that I was pretending like we would fight on the same side of the battle. I had been pretending that from the very first moment I came to power.
"I will consider that," he said, his tone neutral.
"With what happened to the headmistress, I would think you would be eager. What would happen if all the dragons came unbound at once?" I asked, pressing my point. If I could get my army in position before the Chaos God called us to fight, even better. "You need soldiers in the air to defend."
"The dragons are loyal to Order," he said.
"Even the one who ate the headmistress?" I asked.
"You will not speak of my family's loyalty," the Ard Rí snapped. "Only the Goddess can release the bonds. She is the one who decided on the headmistress's end."
I kept the smile from my face at his lie. It was a good story to sell the Order army in the wake of the chaos that had happened on campus. My brother had filled me in on the results of the Blood Moon, the destruction that had brought the Ard Rí to the campus in the first place.
The small servant’s entrance to my right opened, and my gaze shifted.
I watched the farm worker cross the threshold.
Fresh lavender soap drifted ahead of her, a clean counterpoint to the grease-sweet air of funnel cake and curry.
The crimson dress they’d poured her into barely deserved the word; two narrow silk panels, laced together at the spine, left her broad, muscular shoulders and most of her flanks exposed.
The fabric stretched when she breathed, fighting the breadth of bone beneath olive skin.
Her belly was exposed by the dress, and though the rest of her had thick strength to it, her belly had a soft layer on top of the muscle, pudging out a little through the space.
Light-brown hair, brushed those shoulders in gentle waves.
Every strand caught sparks from the rune-set lights, so the locks seemed to smolder.
They shifted as an invisible wind brushed against them.
There was no airflow in the room to clear the complicated smells of the table, so she must have a familiar that had wind powers that was not allowing itself to be seen.
All mundanes that came to this school had familiars; it was a requirement for them to get into the school at all.
It was the one thing mundanes had that made them valuable to the people of my world, the ability to bind those lesser sprites to their bidding.
Her hazel eyes, green near the iris, brown at the rim, swept the long table, stopping on the absurd towers of pineapple-pepper pizza and powdered donuts, a small smile twitching at the corner of her lips at the sight.
Her weather-worn skin was scrubbed free of every last fleck of mushroom dust, but it couldn’t erase the damage done by the sun.
Her skin had spots and leathery lines unable to be erased by scrubbing and lotion.
She paused just inside the door, shutting it quietly behind her, squared her heavy-set shoulders, and waited, clean, stocky, unmistakably strong.
The heat that burned in me while I gazed at her startled me, a searing need that had kindled the moment she had charged me in the field, her feet thudding into the soil with every step.
Her eyes caught mine and widened, and for a moment, I couldn't breathe.
I tore my eyes away to realize the Ard Rí was also staring at her.
“Farm girl,” I said. “Come here.”
She rounded her shoulders, hunching as if to make herself look smaller as she walked over to me.
There was no way she could ever look small.
It wasn't just her frame and musculature; it was the very essence of her being that seemed to fill up the room.
I reached out when she neared, grabbing her by the waist. A small shock ran through me as my hand landed on her bare flesh.
Another rush of heat flooded me, narrowing my thoughts to the soft gleam of light on her skin, the feeling of her strong, thick body under my hand.
I hadn’t been with a woman in years.
There was a risk of marrying and producing an heir.
As soon as I had a child, my younger brother would no longer be my heir, and no longer be considered a valuable hostage.
I knew how these people thought, how they operated.
The moment he was no longer considered valuable in that way, his life would be in more danger than it already was.
So I had avoided any thought of love, romance, or even the simple obligation of royal duty.
I dragged the farm girl down into my leg, avoiding the center of my lap as I settled her down on my thigh.
I regretted that I hadn’t asked her name.
It was incredibly brave of a mundane to speak to me.
The ones that lived here had the singular experience of pain and suffering.
They were traumatized on their first day arriving here, their idea of a beautiful opportunity of an elite college shattered against the reality of what this place really was - a prison and a training ground, a place for the forces of Order to grow and train, to prepare for the coming war.
A war my people would be on the other side of.
The farm girl shifted, her large, thick bum brushing against the hardening log between my legs. It took everything in my power not to groan. Instead, I grabbed her firmly around the waist and shifted her again, so that she was no longer touching me there.
This was not about taking pleasure in her body.
This was about saving someone brave enough to ask for help.
I ran my hand through her hair, pulling her head back to expose her neck.
The Ard Rí was still staring at her. I needed to divert his mind away from her loveliness.