“Well, so have you and I still want you. No one is a better King than I. They won’t be able to deny that when I bring the Calix.”
“Then show her, Noth. What would you do for me if I lived here? How would you fix this?” She gestured to the ghost village.
“I would move the heavens and hells to see you safe, happy and prosperous.”
Her smile stopped my heart. Armor or no armor, I almost fell to my knees.
“Then do that, Your Highness,” she said.
The honorific on her lips tasted sweeter than I ever imagined. It sparked the best–worst idea I’d ever had. It wasn’t a romantic gesture, but restoring the harbor for trade and transportation would be the practical, dare I say honorable, way to see Maggie happy and prosperous in Portsgrave Harbor.
I lifted my chin, letting my hair stream out behind me in a black banner. I felt dumb I hadn't thought of it myself. So eager to get back to my territory, I tried to crash through the solution with force rather than my usual good sense. If this didn’t prove my worth to the Calix, then I didn't deserve to be King.
“Stand back and turn away, Pumpkin.”
She didn’t need to see this. Only my full Nightmare form would accomplish what I had to do.
He sleepily complied with my call, stretching out of my skin, lengthening my jaws, my teeth. Luckily my armor was flexible enough that it fit him as well because we grew and sprouted into a terrible beast form. He dotted eyes across our cheeks, blossoming our ears longer than ever. A thick tail curled around Maggie’s ankle.
“Hey now!” Vera’s voice echoed distantly.
My Nightmare was wholly uninterested in her, or the sword she held. He just wanted to flex his power in the waking world, in front of his Mate. I drew the darkness tight until it was tangible, shaping it to my will, swirling it beneath the water. A waking dream wasn’t useful.I needed access to the place dreams came from. The dry ale taste of phantasies flooded the back of my tongue.
The ground shook and I steadied our mate with a cage of claws at her back. Her small hand wrapped around one of them and I couldn’t move it after that. She might have let go.
A whirlpool formed in the harbor. My darkness drew in the rocks, debris and shipwrecks the sirens filled the water with. It was easy to crush it all into the dust of reveries once it passed the portal. More boulders fell into the void and townspeople left their homes to gather on the pier to watch. Maggie’s gasp was satisfying enough to flutter the shadows around me. But daydreams were less powerful than night terrors. My power wasn’t endless in the daylight.
My Nightmare wanted to play with our mate, scare her into a dark corner to feast on her. We shifted into the smoke and shadow bunny Vera suggested before I reined him in. Hopping around, I blinked too many eyes at our mate for her sanity. She bent down like she would actually touch us but my will was sharper than my strength. By the time the harbor cleared, I settled back into my Elven form, my tongue pushing my long teeth back into my gums. I shook out the armor so it settled correctly and turned to the women by my side.
“Something like that?” I asked, too pleased to keep it from being smug.
Vera yelpedand I looked down to find the Calix in my hand, twining around me, seeking beneath my armor. Power flooded me, searching Maggie’s bond and pinging around my body.
“Noth, won’t the Siren Queen be mad? I assume she closed off the harbor for a reason.” Her voice was little more than a whisper. From fear or awe, I couldn’t tell.
I shrugged. “Let her come for me. Enemies are the price of the crown. See? I always get what I want.”
The Calix glimmered in the sunlight, twisting up some green shoots amongst all that dead growth. But Maggie wasn’t staring at the Calix. Her eyes appraised me with an emotion I couldn’t name. Was she wondering if I meant that I would have her too? Did I? With all this power in my hand, my wants had never conflicted more with my realities.
“Well done, little King,” Vera interrupted as she made her way back into her snug house.
When I turned to her, that expression on Maggie’s face was gone.
“What do we do now?” she asked.
I showed her all my sharp teeth. “Now, Pumpkin, we get revenge.”
Chapter 11
Maggie
The magic sloshing around inside me felt an awful lot like guilt, and I brimmed with both for the first time. Rue always described her power as a full heart that had endless love to give. She had plenty of salt to add to it, but that was how she practiced because that was the tradition. The lessons she passed on came from her guide, who learned from her guide, tracing back to the witches who lived in the Harrowlands when Godds roamed. Those women had come here seeking refuge from some horrific place that had burned them alive. Amazingly, the Harrowlands proved less fatal, so they practiced their craft to a different set of stars and moons.
But those cruel lessons taught my sisters how to hide in plain sight, make sure their potions were called tonics, talk about their knowledge in gossipy star signs andharmless idioms. Even in the Harrowlands, where monsters wielded magic like breathing air, women with power still had to be careful. Watch our words.
That was the tradition. That was why Rue’s cottage sat on the outskirts of our village. And why Rue dressed like a grandmother when she hadn’t even counted her fourth decade. From the moment Rue met me, she laughed and laughed until tears squeezed out of her eyes. If it were possible, I acted even more impulsively when I was younger, so I almost fought an old lady. Well, she looked ancient to me.
I had fisted my hands on my chubby hips. “Laugh at me again, witch, and I will teach you a lesson you’ll never forget.”
