No one responded.
“I’m sorr?—“
“Don’t you fucking do it.” Dante held up a finger. “Don’t you fucking say it. Fuck those fuckers. They are going to get fucking blackballed.”
“Blacklisted,” Tanix corrected.
“I don’t give a shit what it’s called. They aren’t going to get away with treating people like that. What has happened to this kingdom? It’s gone backwards. Suppression and magiclessness had never been a big deal when I lived here.”
“Wait here.” Weston unhooked his arm from mine and walked with purpose into the stables.
“He didn’t have to pay extra,” Tanix murmured when Weston was out of earshot. “He did it to keep the peace after he scared the inn owner so bad the guy pissed himself. He flicked a gold coin at the man and told him to clean himself up and that the extra could go toward cleaning the room after we’d gone.”
“He shouldn’t have bothered.” Dante crossed his arms.
“Honestly, it’s a lot more common than you think. It’s fine?—“
“It’s not fucking fine.” Dante stepped up and bent, putting his face into mine. “It is not fucking fine, Aurelia. Stop acting like it’s no big fucking deal. Crap like that forced you to end up in a shit pit. It forced you to accept less just to survive. It took your mother and negatively shaped your life. You will not say you are sorry, and you will not shrug it away. It is terrible, and you should be outraged. Honestly, this fucking kingdom has gone backwards in the way it treats and views people. It’s shit.”
“Thank you. That means a lot. But if I spent my life outraged, I’d live a shallow, hate-filled existence. It isn’t worth shaping myself in the view of how others perceive me. Happiness is being comfortable in who I am and cutting out those who don’t agree. It is shit, though, I’ll agree there.”
He huffed, straightening up. “Fine. You take the high road. I’ll be outraged on your behalf and beat the living hell out of anyone that does it again. How’s that sound?”
I laughed and then braced my palm against my side. “Like friendship.”
“Damn straight friendship.” He spit. “Fuck that guy. Fuck his whole world.”
I reached out to put my hand on his arm and he twisted away. “Don’t touch me. I don’t need the alpha beating my head in. I might try to fight back and end up like you.”
He stalked into the stables just as Hadriel was leading his horse out.
“Well, hello my horribly diseased little darling,” he said cheerily. “I hear you’ve got half of the service staff afraid to breathe. Nice work. I usually have to try a lot harder to freak people out.”
“Now you know the golden recipe,” I said, noticing a waif of a girl peering out at me from behind a barrel just beyond the stables.
“I do not understand your terrible jokes,” Tanix muttered.
“No.” Hadriel thought about it for a moment. “You’d probably need a sense of humor for that.”
I grinned, especially as a dark look passed over Tanix’s face.
Hadriel walked his horse around, pausing while it stamped and glared at someone passing by on the road. That person jogged farther away.
“You look fresh as a daisy,” Hadriel told me. “And like everything hurts.”
“One of those things is true, yes,” I replied.
“If it helps any, I am terribly hungover. I spent the better part of the night and into the wee hours of the morning harassing people who thought you should be kicked out for not having any magic. They probably feel about”—he held up his thumb and forefinger—“this big by now. Some of them will be checking in with their mamas about what has gone wrong in their life. All in a day’s work.”
“I’m not allowed to apologize for that,” I said as our pack’s handsome horses strutted out of the stables.
Weston glanced my way before swinging his leg over the back of his, prancing a bit along the road. Dante followed him and the rest did as well. There were only a few walkers this time, the others with the carts and supplies having stayed on the ship last night, gathering extra supplies and getting ready to depart. Tanix walked forward to take his horse from a stable hand, nodding at me as he assumed his prestigious position behind the alpha.
Hadriel waited until the others were on their way before walking forward.
“Good,” he said, unhurried. “You shouldn’t apologize. Those people have less brain power than a goat. Fuck it’s early. I think I’m still drunk. The juggler was the highlight. If you heckled him just right, he’d drop his cones. That would then piss off the drunks in the back. When he took his break, the minstrel would sing a hilarious tune poking fun in the same way I was. That also pissed the drunks off. I won’t say we started the bar fight, but I won’t say we didn’t, either.”
“All this because you were annoyed how they treated me?”
