Page 49 of Wickedly Ever After (A Fairy Tale Romp, #1)
Hector
Queen Annabeth petitions Witches’ Council to remove His Wickedness, Hector West, formerly Hector Prim, and Her Goodness, Ida North, formerly Ida Moonshadow, from their positions as Cardinal Witches!
No word yet on how King Rupert has responded.
Sources say the king is in the counting house, counting all his money to repair his botched nose job, which keeps regrowing as a sausage.
Queen Annabeth has also filed to have Crown Prince Archibald’s marriage to Captain of the Guard Caedan Cay annulled on the grounds it was performed by a drunk centaur. Sources say the centaur told the queen to take advantage of her husband’s sausage and shut up about everyone else’s.
—The Sorcerer’s Star
Hector found the Flamelord in dragon form, lounging in a hot mineral bath. He appeared in good spirits for a man whose own son had taken a large bite out of his foreleg and back. The wounds were contracting, black and green in the center. Alistair hadn’t restrained his venom. He’d meant business.
“Hello, Hector!” Adair submerged briefly and grinned as he rose above the surface, showing all of his sharp, red teeth. “How kind of you to come visit me in my dotage.” He chuckled.
“I’m sorry.” Hector stared stricken at Adair’s arm. “Morga told me about the…mating.”
“Arrrrragh,” Adair sighed. “I’ve mixed feelings about it. On one claw, it’s utterly absurd, even for Alistair. On the other claw, it’s the first time that boy has ever attacked me. I was wondering if I’d have to jump him to get him to claim the kingship.”
“You’re not upset?” Adair had always been protective of his position, almost to the point of arrogance, but here he was, lounging in the bath, looking positively amused by the situation.
“It was bound to happen sooner or later. I’d quite enjoy rolling over and letting him take over the responsibility if it weren’t for the girl who’s made a lizard out of him.
He won’t even take dragon form with us now, apart from the day he chewed me up and spit me out, and I don’t think he’d have done it if I hadn’t challenged him to combat with the girl there. Amber, I believe?”
“That’s right.”
“She’s made of stern stuff for a human,” Adair said.
“But no dragon in these mountains will stand for it. Sooner or later, he must take her back where she belongs. I hoped the prince would turn up demanding his bride and one or the other of them would come to their senses, but I’ve given up on that fantasy.
Even if Alistair refused to fight, Amber would pick up a sword and go after the poor man.
She’s utterly smitten with my son. Some sort of fetish, I suppose.
I’ve heard human women go for shapeshifters. ”
“Those wounds look infected.”
“Pshaw. I had worse when I got drunk and flew into a manticore’s nest, but to hear Morga talk, you’d think I was dying.
” He heaved himself out of the bath, and with a grunt, he contracted down into his human form, naked and proud, and strolled over to a shelf of rock for his robe.
The wounds looked even worse on human flesh, and from the way Adair moved, they bothered him more than he let on.
“Tinbit will be here soon with the pack pony and wound balm. I’d let him tend those,” Hector said. “In the meantime, can you tell me about what happened when your son flew home with the princess? I asked Morga, but she was…understandably upset.”
Adair shook his head. “He is our only egg after all. I doubt even a high-dragon from the ancient Silver Mountains of the north would’ve met with her approval. But then again, I doubt she’d ever expected to get in the middle of a dragon fight with a human by her side.”
“She said Amber tried to stop Alistair.”
“The child practically jumped down his throat and told him if he bit her father-in-law again she’d kick him in the groin.
He stopped in a hurry. I probably ought to thank her.
She’s the reason I have two bites in nonvital places and not three very vital places.
” He laughed. “I don’t know what Her Goodness feeds princesses these days, but this one grew up on nettles and brimstone.
Pity she isn’t a dragon.” He wrapped his robe around himself and took a seat on a large stone chair.
He motioned Hector to take a similar chair drawn up to a table where a large flagon of smoking liquid sat next to a large glass.
Adair poured the black ale, took a long drink, and set his glass down.
“So, Hector. Why have you brought Her Goodness with you? I expected you, but not Ida North.”
Hector squirmed. “Well, as a matter of fact there was a little mishap at the start of Happily-Ever-After. Due to some issues with—” He hesitated.
Yes, it might have been the choosing, but he didn’t want Ida eaten.
“Well, never mind exactly what the issue was. It looks like the princess and the dragon fell in love with each other instead of the princess falling in love with the prince as usually happens. Nothing I can’t sort out, but Ida deals more with that part of the magic than I do. ”
Adair’s pupils constricted slightly. “A mishap.”
“A minor one.”
“Hmm.” Adair snorted smoke. “Better not mention that to Morga.”
“I don’t intend to,” Hector said. “Adair, I am deeply sorry this happened. You have my word I will make it right.”
The Flamelord placed his fingertips together.
“I trust you. You’ve never done anything detrimental to the safety of our nation before.
But this can’t stand, Hector. She can’t be a queen of dragons, no matter how much my son demands we recognize her.
I told him if he wanted to have a fling with a human, I’d look the other way, but to have a human wear the mantle his mother has worn since we mated—completely unacceptable.
” He took another swig of the drink. “That’s when he jumped in the middle of me. ”
“I will—I will fix this,” Hector said. “But it may take time.”
“And I will give you that time,” Adair said. “I owe it to you, both as my friend and as Alistair’s protector and teacher. But if my son doesn’t divorce that princess, the dragon council will meet and they will choose another king. I don’t think either of us want that.”
No, Hector most certainly did not want that. The dragons would find Alistair unfit to be Flamelord and appoint another. Then they would kill him, his mate, his father, and his mother. Hector would be left with a messy diplomatic situation as well as four burials—well, three.
Custom dictated they’d eat the Flamelord.