“You were right all along.” She opened those beautiful eyes again, her long black lashes catching a tear. Her voice trembled. “My product is doing exactly what you said and more. It’s full-scale addiction—people aren’t eating, they take too much at a time, and it makes you very sick, bad enough it could probably kill you.” I didn’t tell her how close she’d come. Her expression filled with pain. “My touch is stamped all over Granny’s setup. Even the design is mine. I drew the picture on a birthday card I gave to Granny a long time ago. Did you notice the fucked up butterfly?”
I thought for a moment before shaking my head a little. “I don’t recall.”
“Why does no one notice the butterfly? The original was a fairy. Same wings, she just swapped out the body. All the product is mine, every single one. She’s putting some sort of waxy overlay on it and cutting it or squishing it or something to make it look nicer, but it’s mine.”
“Is that why you took it, to see if it was yours?”
“No, I could tell when I broke it open or scraped off part of the waxy stuff. I took it—multiple kinds—to see what kind ofeffect it had. How it changed the original product, you know? I think the waxy stuff is the same on all the products, it’s just dyed a different color. They made it look like candy. Snack boxes—what a fucking joke. It’s some sort of... chemical, or something. It’s not natural, whatever it is. It’s not meant to be consumed. Honestly, I almost think it’s some kind of poison. The first one made me feel sick, but it went away as soon as the product started to affect me. The second one made me feel much sicker, which was odd because there wasn’t more of the waxy stuff on that particular product. I wasn’t sure what to make of that. The third one was like some sort of terrible explosion in my body. I felt hot and then cold, with horrible pains in my stomach—“ She shivered. “I’ve never felt that sick. I think what happens is an accumulation effect. The more you have, the sicker it makes you. You need to wait until it is completely out of the system before having more or the compound effect poisons you. I would bet that’s why people are dying—they’re taking too much.”
“They’re taking too much because it is addicting,” Tanix said in a gruff tone.
“Yes, and it is cutting out their hunger, as well. I have yet to feel the hook, as they call it. Three back-to-back doses doesn’t seem like enough, unless it comes on slowly. I remember you saying two doses could hook someone, so I’ll monitor it to see. I would imagine the compound effect would affect the intensity of addiction, as well. What I don’t understand is why people are taking it. It’s very expensive and that sickness is incredibly unpleasant. Why go back for more?”
“They can’t help themselves,” Tanix returned. “It’s out of their control.”
She sat up a little more, wincing, her gaze going over my shoulder. “I have a couple things to say about this and I’m not going to be delicate, because I feel like shit and you need to hear it. First, in the beginning, they can absolutely controlthe situation. I had multiple people warn me away from taking Granny’s product. They told me how it would snare me. They told me not to touch it. There is no risk for addiction after just one dose. No risk for three doses, apparently. But the adverse effects are felt immediately. Taking it again would go against someone’s better judgment. It is not, at all, out of their control to continue taking it recreationally.”
She paused for comment and received none.
“Second, your precious dragons have a cure for that addiction, but it’s too expensive for purchase by the common man. Only the wealthy have the coin to buy the cure and save themselves. Make no mistake, your court is profiting off Granny’s snack boxes. They call it a crisis, but they have their hand out to collect the gold all the same. They are just as complicit as this kingdom’s court.”
She paused again, her tone hard. Still no one commented.
“In saying that,” she said, “I will gladly accept my blame in this. I will accept a harsh punishment. I have a lot to answer for, and I know that. My first apology is to you, Tanix. I am sorry for the part I have played. I spoke to people in that alleyway and saw firsthand what sort of horror I’ve caused. I’d intended to go back to them and offer to pay for the addiction cure but was taken before I could. That said, I will go to your dragon court and stand in judgment for what I have done. In so doing, I will return judgment and demand they do better.”
She took a deep breath and leaned heavily against me, and I wanted to take her away and hide her. I wanted to dote on her and fulfill her every desire. Anything but my duty to the dragon king and queen.
At the same time, I couldn’t have been more proud. She was standing up for herself, yet when confronted with her perceived guilt, she did not shy away from the consequences. Her pride inher product and her willingness to stand in judgment of what it had become was admirable.
I’d hoped that she wasn’t as evil as I’d often thought myself to be. Now I had my answer. She’d been through hell, lived a hard life, and still she maintained her honor and her dignity. I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect true mate.
“Lastly,” she said, “I will figure out how to take Granny’s organization down. I’ll figure out what that poison is and find a way to combat it. I’ll make this right, somehow. Let me down, Weston. I have to throw up.”
After our defenseswere set up and the camp was awkwardly arranged within the dense trees, I found Aurelia amid a drifting group of emberflies, sitting at the base of a thin trunk, staring out at nothing.
“They seem to congregate around you,” I said as I sat beside her, giving her space even though I wanted to immediately pull her into my lap.
“What’s that?” She glanced over at me, blinking quickly and then focusing her gaze.
I waved my finger at the glowing bugs. “The emberflies seem to follow you. We never had them around until you were in our camp.”
“Oh.” She frowned at them before looking out at nothing again. “That’s strange. Maybe they always thought of you as a danger until now. They don’t hang around danger.”
“And yet they hang around you.”
Her left eyebrow quirked up. “I guess I can fool bugs, then.”
“I wasn’t right about your product.” I entwined my fingers and dropped them into my lap. “I was right to let you go. Granny was the one creating the danger, not you. I found the productionvillage—yours—but not the packaging headquarters. We’re still not sure if it’s a village or a town or just a house. We don’t know.”
“It’s in a town, I guess. The guys who grabbed me didn’t say which one. I’m going to go back through my journals. Maybe Alexander mentioned it...” She shrugged and I could tell she was at a loss. “I don’t know, maybe I’ll find something you missed. That’s where he is now, anyway. Or was, I guess. On his way to collect me.” She shivered. “I’d rather be put to death by the dragons than end up in his hands.”
“You won’t. I won’t let either of those things happen to you.”
“You won’t have a choice. If the dragons sentence me to death, I will accept the punishment. There’s not a damn thing you can do to stop it.”
“Aurelia, I—” I gritted my teeth. This was the wrong thing to be stubborn about. I had time to talk her out of it, though. There was something more pressing we had to discuss. “Listen, it doesn’t sound like this kingdom will ever be safe for you.”
“No, it sure doesn’t. Thank you for coming for me. They happened upon me as I was shedding the influence of the first product. I didn’t have any weapons. Once I got into the house, I was able to grab a metal letter opener and kill one of them, but that was it before they threw me into the room. How’d you know I’d been taken?”
