Cha was delighted to discover she retained enough contrariness to glare at him.He might have saved her life, but she didn’t have to take anyone’s shit.Especially not someone so clearly fae.
For his current appearance removed all doubt, if she’d really still had any.
Azul looked even taller—though that could be her perspective, piled at his feet as she was—and radiantly beautiful in fabulous garb in shades of blue.His curly, indigo hair waved back from his moon-pale face in perfect ringlets, pierced by high, delicately curved, and elegantly pointed ears.He wore a crown again, though not the gaudy one he’d had when she picked him up a day before and forever ago.This was a simple diadem of some unearthly glowing metal set with an amethyst of remarkable clarity.
And then there were the wings.
They lay mostly folded against his back, not feathered but composed of a thin membrane of such a deep violet they looked almost black.Like a bat would have, claw-tipped thumbs crowned the points of the wings where they towered above his head, framing him with regal lethality.Also like a bat, the lower part of his wings were tipped with clawed fingers that flexed restlessly, the only indication of restiveness in his otherwise statuesque poise.
He glanced down at her when she didn’t immediately obey, blue gaze coolly distant.“I gave you an order, pet.”
Deciding that particular moment wasn’t ideal for demonstrating that she was no one’s “pet,” let alone some fae prince’s, Cha took the hint and pushed to her feet.Unfortunately, her body had apparently had enough of, well, everything and dizziness swamped her as she staggered up.Azul clamped a hand to her upper arm, dragging her to her feet with a hiss of impatience.The grip also steadied her with welcome strength, so she didn’t try to yank away, simply letting him hold her upright, hanging her head in what she hoped looked like submissive obedience.
“This is your human pet, Your Highness?”a Sugarplum inquired in a fluting voice, sounding doubtful and fawning at once.
“Yes.”Azul gave her a little shake.“A disobedient one.I shall remove her and deal appropriately.”
“Ah, Your Highness, if I may…” a different Sugarplum began, and paused respectfully.How messed up had her life become that she could tell Sugarplums apart by voice alone?Answer: seriously messed up.
“What will you know?”Azul replied, an edge of warning in his tone.He didn’t scare Cha—she’d seen him fighting a chartreuse, life-eating, silk cloak after all—but even she wouldn’t want to cross him in that moment.
“I beg your pardon and indulgence, Your Highness,” the Sugarplum answered, “but there is the matter of an, ah, astra.”
If possible, Azul cooled further beside her, emitting a wintry chill.“Excuse me?”
“It was being smuggled into Moonstone by thishuman,” the Sugarplum replied stiffly, hastily adding, “Your Highness.And my superiors have concerns, as you might imagine, Your Highness.”
“I fail to see what that has to do with me,” Azul replied with such icy disdain that Cha felt a little afraid.“Surely you’re not implying that my realm has anything to do with an astra smuggled into Moonstone?”
“No, Your Highness!Not at all.But we have reason to believe this human may have knowledge of the astra.”
“You have a curious way of extracting knowledge, unless you expected bits of information to bubble up from the human’s dissolved neural tissue.”
“Well, we did attempt interrogation and torture, Your Highness, but…” The one Sugarplum trailed off as it seemed to realize it was admitting to harming the Prince’s property.Several others chimed in, disavowing knowledge and protesting various other things.
Nearly smirking at the Sugarplums’ back-pedaling, Cha was glad to have her head hanging.
“Enough,” Azul declared, his single command sufficient to shut them all up instantly.“I am uninterested in your problems.Now, return my Scepter of Nialis to me and I shall leave you to your… activities.”The final sneer said everything about his opinion of their pursuits.
The Sugarplums squabbled quietly about the location of this scepter, which must be Cha’s magic wand.“My sword, too,” she muttered to Azul.
“I’ll get you a better one,” he muttered back.
“I liked that one.”
“Hush.”
Fine, it wasn’t that great of a sword, but… “And Katu.”She wouldn’t save herself by sacrificing her cat.“Non-negotiable.”
“Handled,” he answered shortly.A putto ran up, presenting the wand to Azul with a deep bow and Cha risked glancing around the room.All the assembled fae appeared chastened, some bowing deeply, some fully prostrate on the floor.A better person wouldn’t have enjoyed the sycophantic display, but Cha had never been above pettiness.
“I shall leave you,” Azul informed them as he tucked the wand away.He spread his wings.
Cha gaped, despite herself and despite her resolve to remain totally cynical and unimpressed.With a span three times his height, Azul’s wings shone with eye-blinding beauty.Unfurled, they went nearly transparent, the light shining through them a glorious, pure violet.
Azul pulled her hard against him and Cha reflexively struggled, startled out of her momentary trance.
“Hold on,” he told her, and she had a moment to realize what he planned and wrapped her arms around his lean torso, enveloped in the haunting scent of ripe blueberries.“Close your eyes and press your face against my chest.The sun in Moonstone is too bright for mortal eyes.”
