The motherly affection slid off her face as he straightened, her jewel-like amber eyes moving from him to pin me in place with a cold stare. “I will not make this easy on you, Patrica Dells. You will have to work hard in your courting of Rema.”
Aw, how sweet! I was going to crush her bones into dust.
“Of course,” I said sweetly, batting my eyelashes at her. Rema stiffened beside me, his hand coming to my shoulder to squeeze me in warning.
A slow smile graced the Queen’s face, her eyes catching the light, making them twinkle merrily. “I think I will like you, Patricia Dells,” she said in her eerie voice, clapping her upper hands together once. “You may leave.”
Rema pivoted fast in a flurry of feathers, his arm coming around my waist to practically drag me out of the throne room. I could feel all the eyes on our retreating backs and wanted to look back to stick my tongue out at them, but the great doors groaned closed behind us as soon as we crossed the threshold.
Giving a shrug, I pressed further into Rema’s side, allowing him to semi carry me past the receiving room, through another set of open doors that stretched high above us, and into a long hall twice as wide as the one we’d arrived in. I tilted my head back to look at him, the question from earlier burning in the forefront of my mind.
“Why isn’t your mom coming to your wedding?Ourwedding,” I said, correcting myself. “I mean, I know you said your House disapproved, but your mom does too?”
Fucking bitchy thing to do, dip out on your kid’s wedding.
Rema slowed to a normal walk, his arms tensing around me. “Yes. She disapproves. My mother… was not the most affectionate female towards me, and that neglectful indifference turned to anger when I did not follow through with my House’s plans of me mating to one of the Queen’s nieces. I rubbed salt in the wound when I left to join the Unity Fleet.”
I scowled, crossing my arms over my chest. “Well, they can suck it then. We don’t need their approval anyways. Fuck them.”
Rema chuckled, his arms loosening to allow me to walk properly. “I agree, but thank you for your defense of me. It is adorable.”
I opened my mouth to give a smart remark , but closed it when I finally took a look around. We’d stepped from a barren hallway into a fairyland. My eyes widened, and I took a hesitant step forward, wonder making my mouth part on a sharp intake of breath. The right side of the hall was open to a courtyard with thick columns of twisting red marble seeming to hold the intricately carved roof up. A massive tree held court in the center of the area, its bark a deep pink with far reaching branches that created a canopy effect over the courtyard. Weeping willow-like strands covered in soft purple flowers hung from the branches, filling the air with a sweet fragrance.
The courtyard grounds were covered in a navy blue colored moss that had little white flowers speckled all over it, disturbed only by red cobblestone pathways that meandered through the moss in a lazy fashion with several wooden pink benches scattered here and there along the path.
“It’s like fucking Alice in Wonderland,” I breathed, taking another step forward. I was just about to look up to pout at him when something small and glowing darted past my face causing me to jerk back away from it and into the safety of Rema’s arms. He chuckled softly when I pulled away from him, following theglowing thing into the courtyard. It flitted all over before finally settling next to a white flower on top of the moss.
Crouching down, I leaned in close, holding my breath so as not to startle it. My fingers ached to reach out and touch one of the gossamer green dragonfly wings. They slowly flapped open and closed, the veins glowing a darker green, and then the little thing turned to look up at me. I gasped, falling the rest of the way forward to my knees as goosebumps raised on my arms. It was afairy. A tiny little fairy, like Tinker Bell.
The fairy tilted its head, emerald green hair falling to the side in a straight wave that reached its tiny waist, and then it took to the air, coming closer to me.
“Hold out your hand,” Rema murmured. I wanted to obey him, but I was frozen stiff. When I didn’t move, he crouched down, his body pressing into mine from behind, two of his hands coming to my waist, while another cupped under my hand and brought it up in front of me, palm up.
The fairy jerked in the air left, then right before landing on my hand, one little foot at a time. Rema guided my hand closer to my face so I could get a better look. It was female, her body covered in a dress that looked to be made of spiderwebs. The fairy smiled, showing off sharp needle-like teeth and curtseyed, holding out her dress with her hands.
A surprised laugh escaped me, the sound of it full of awed delight. I felt lit up like a sparkler, my inner child gazing at the fairy in pure wonder.
This close I could see that while she was very similar to what I’d imagined a fairy to look like, there were some marked differences. For starters she had six pupil-less black eyes… like a freaking shark. Combined with the needle teeth and the wicked set of sickle claws I could see on the end of her three dainty fingers, this little creature was a predator through and through.
“This is Sulu, one of our K’isees. They are native to our home planet. Every home has a few, though the palace has many. They are a natural form of pest control… and good luck.”
I grinned at Sulu, and she blinked all six of her black eyes at me before matching my smile with a toothy one of her own. A giddy giggle bubbled in my throat and I swallowed it back down. She was pretty cute for a bug eater. Sulu took two quick jumps before taking off across the courtyard and zipping upwards through the canopy of flowers.
“Huh, guess she had places to be,” I said, disappointment making my chest tight as I stared after her before letting Rema pull me to my feet.
“The K’isees need to eat nearly constantly to stay healthy, so she goes to hunt,” he explained, extending his arm to me. “But don’t worry, you will see her again, I am sure.”
I nodded, turning to take his offered arm.
“Come, I’ll show you to our rooms.”
His words made me come up short, my eyes narrowing.
Rooms? As in plural?Motherfucker.
We made our way down the hall, turning left to continue down another, and then another turn, and another, until I was so thoroughly lost I’d never find my way back to the shuttle.
“How freaking big is this place?” I asked, looking around at all the paintings along the gilded walls.
