Tourqe kissed her cheek, giving her ear lobe a delightful little nip and tug, causing her ambient pussy-sparkle stirred up by the prince to glitter that much more, then withdrew with a warm smile.“I’m holding you to that, beauty.”He tipped an invisible hat at the prince.“You’re a lucky man.”
Cha dug into her burger—delicious with tongue-searing fat, sharp cheddar, and Jo’s special spicy red sauce—chewed the massive mouthful and, feeling the weight of Prince Charming’s stare, met his accusing blue eyes.“What?”
“Who was that?”
She shrugged.“A friend.”
“Afriend.”He made it sound like a banana slug.
“Yes, Your Highness.A sex-friend.It’s something us peasants indulge in, to fill our miserably empty, poverty-stricken lives.”
He picked at a parsnip fry, dunking it in a bowl of Jo’s sauce, after observing her do the same, then made a face.“I can’t imagine how cheap sex with strangers can possibly compensate for subsisting onthis.”He thrust the plate aside.
“First of all, this is the food of the gods.Second, sex with me is never cheap.Third, Tourqe isn’t a stranger, demonstrably.And fourth,” she added with a grin as she scooped his fries onto her pile and doused them with sauce, “sex, cheap or otherwise, has a marvelous way of making strangers into friends.I’d demonstrate, but…tick tock.”
A reluctant smile tugged at his mouth before he squelched it.“My loss, I’m sure.”
“Indeed,” she replied in a lofty tone, giving him a conspiratorial wink, then signaling for the check and a go-box.“I assume you’ve called your servants or staff or whatever to come pick you up, however that works.”
He sobered, not exactly nodding, but not refuting either.The royals had all sorts of proprietary tricks for pretty much everything, which was why they didn’t need hacks like the underground path-channels.
“Well, good luck then.”
“I have wealth, rank, and privilege,” he replied gravely.“I don’t need luck.”
“Yeah, well, you’ve also got a vengeful bride and fell wolves on your enticing tail, so a bit of luck might not go amiss.”
He hesitated, holding her gaze and seeming to be about to ask a question.“Point taken,” he said, which Cha was sure wasn’t what he’d been turning over saying.
She slid out of the booth and shouldered her stuff.“Good luck to you then.It’s been fun.Weird and occasionally provoking, but fun.”
“I’m not sure I would call it fun.”
She shrugged.“To each their own.”Tossing off a salute, she strode out, firmly not allowing herself to look back.Never mind all the cautionary tales about the devastating shit that happened to heroes who looked back—and Cha was absolutely the hero of her own story—she just wasn’t about the past.Walking away clean was always the best.So, though she imagined her wayward prince looking a bit slumped and lost in his finery, an exotic bird soiling his feathers in the grubby booth of Giant Jo’s, she didn’t look for herself.
He’d be fine.
She climbed into the jag, giving Katu an affectionate pet, then waved a jaunty acknowledgement to the ley riders calling out good fortune to her, several of them tuning up their own carriages with the clear intention of drafting her down the ley.That was fine.Some of them might even have legit business in Obsidian, so having a bit of traffic around them would only add to their cover.
She was about to tap the path-box to check in with Dy when ear-splitting howls rent the air, turning the already jostling scene into utter chaos.Herbivores stampeded in pure panic, dragging their luckless handlers behind them.Carnivores set up an unholy cacophony of challenge or solidarity—who could tell—and even the normally disciplined Katu trembled with an atavistic surge of challenge.Good thing Katu was in carriage form already, or Cha would’ve been hard-pressed to control him.Drawing her sword, Cha shifted in her seat to confirm what she was sorely afraid to see.
Fell wolves.A full dozen or more of them.
Well, fuck her sideways.
She’d glimpsed a few before, inside Obsidian, and seen horribly realistic paintings, but nothing like this.A deep, dull red with eyes such a bright yellow they burned like stars even in the daylight, the huge, shaggy creatures loped toward Giant Jo’s at a ground-eating pace.At the same time, every other creature fled in the opposite direction, quickly leaving the grill a small island surrounded by a seething sea of malice.A living weapon aimed at one target: her erstwhile Prince Charming.
“Good thing we ditched him already, huh, baby cat?”Cha murmured, resolutely turning her back.“Or that would be us.”
Not her problem.She had the shiny coin in her pocket and her responsibility—such as it had been—was done.Backing Katu out of the ley, she jockeyed for position among the other fleeing patrons, cursing the sudden traffic jam.
A shriek of righteous rage pierced the howling of the fell wolves.Despite her resolve, Cha looked.And bit out a curse that would melt bones if she had the sorcery behind it.Giant Jo herself had waded into the wolves, swinging her axe and bellowing for them to leave her place alone.This would not end well.
But, this was still not Cha’s problem.Spying a narrow opening between a badly angled armored rhino-carriage and a family donkey-sedan, Cha goosed Katu forward.A commotion behind them had her looking a third time—and, just like with the doomed heroes in the tales, that backward look did her in.
Prince Charming had emerged from the grill and had come to Giant Jo’s aid, indigo fireballs flying from his palms as he drove the fell wolves away from the giant woman.Oh sure,nowhe had to play the hero.And with real magic.
With a sigh, Cha told Katu to stay put, but be ready to peel out at top speed.Drawing her sword, Cha leapt out of the carriage and onto the grassy median, running back to the fray.
