“There's a massive crowd at the outer gates, Sire. Humans.”
Sire and Your Majesty. That still made me grin. The Fey don't use honorifics for their royals. Nothing beyond “King” or “Queen.” But the knights serving Azrael had taken to giving him those titles as a way of showing him the respect he deserved as their boss, but still differentiating him from their true royals. To me, it sounded as if Az got more respect than me, but that's not how they looked at it.
“A mob?” Azrael growled. “What terrible timing.”
“No, Boss. Not a mob. They're supporters. They're here because of the attack on the charity event. You should come too.” The knight said to Machar. “They want to see your son. They want to know he's safe.”
“Humans want to know if Alexander is safe?” Machar asked in a dubious tone.
“We are not all bad, Machar,” I said. “And your son is part human too.”
“Fine.” Machar grunted. “I'll fetch him. But only because I want him to see that he doesn't have to be afraid of humans.”
“Good.” Azrael smacked Machar's arm, then took my hand. We followed the knight through the citadel and outside.
My other husbands joined us, so we had to take two SUVs.
“Hey, what about us?” Pan called from the doorway. “We haven't finished talking about this.”
“There's nothing we can do,” I said. “Returning to Naraka would be a mistake, and we don't know who the trickster is. We can't even track him. All we can do is wait and hope he'sdone with his games. If he starts up again, we can revisit the conversation.”
I climbed into the passenger seat without waiting for an answer. Because I was right. And because I didn't want to keep a crowd of human supporters waiting. We had so many people against us. Fostering good relationships was important.
Pausing with the driver's door open, Azrael said, “You're all welcome to join us.”
My Intare whooped and ran for the road, not bothering with a vehicle. It wasn't that far to the embassy, and they always enjoyed a good run. Seeing that, the Froekn took off after them, and the jackals whined. They could probably sense the Wild Magic in the woods.
“Go on then,” Anubis said to his jackals. Then he shouted, “Don't kill anything, you scamps!”
I snorted a laugh as Azrael climbed in. And then we were off, Azrael driving us through the woods and to the inner gate. To either side of us ran shapeshifters, grinning ear-to-ear. I smiled back at them, my heart lightening to see their happiness but also to be victorious yet again. Sure, the trickster was still out there, but he had also saved our lives. I don't like attacking people who have saved my life, no matter what they'd done previously. The trickster had done some horrible things. He had stabbed Viper with a pitchfork. That was an image that would haunt me. But it was nothing compared to the memory of seeing my friends and loved ones drowning in a hellish pit of poison while I couldn't do a damn thing to save them. And the trickster turned that memory into a victory. He gave me back my life when it hung on the brink of destruction. As long as he left us alone and didn't fuck with the world, we were square.
Azrael flicked his hand and the inner set of gates opened. We passed through, leaving the Wild Magic lands to enter the buffer ring of land where our employees and the families with Wild Magic children lived. The neighborhoods were alight, people filling the streets. They cheered as we drove past, then followed in our wake, everyone heading to the outer gate. I'd always thought of the outer gates as our first line of defense. Anyone attacking would have to go through them and then the embassy before they could reach the Wild Magic lands.
Tonight, we didn't need the protection.
I got out of the car and shot Az a surprised look. We were in the back of the Fey Embassy, a whole building between us and the outer gate, but we could already hear them. Not that anyone was shouting.
“Are they singing?” Viper asked as he stepped up beside me.
“Oh, my god,” I whispered and immediately started to cry.
“Carus?” Azrael took my hand.
“Sorry, this song gets me every time.”
“What song is that?” Re asked.
“It's “Baby Mine” fromDumbo,” I said, swiping at my eyes. “His mommy sings it to him. She tells him not to cry about all the people who are mean to him, that once they get to know him, they'll love him too.” I covered my mouth with my hand, then ran into the embassy.
“Why'd it have to beDumbo?” Trevor huffed as they ran after me. “That movie always makes her cry. Fucking Disney. They love to kill mothers.”
“Holy shit, you're right,” Viper said. “They kill all the mommies. Bambi, Dumbo, even baby Grogu is an orphan.”
“That'sStar Wars,” Odin said.
“Disney ownsStar Wars.”
“Huh.”
