Father rubbed at my arms again. “I hope you do.”
King Elon damned near dropped King Athon into the fire when he tried lying him down. “Queen Alora! A little help would go a long way right now.”
The merfolk queen muttered under her breath but helped to lie the shifter king safely down next to the fire. Their blankets were thrown over him next to help trap in body heat.
Queen Alora glared down at him. “I hope you do not expect me to cuddle you like King Traevon is with Princess Trixie. That will not happen. I don’t care how frozen you are.”
“T-thank…f-fuck,” King Athon croaked.
Father laughed quietly. “Well, King Athon, I think you will be all right since you are smart enough right now to stay away from another royal. Your mind isn’t completely bloody well fucked up from the Blood Forest’s wrath.”
Holy Fairy. Father doesn’t know how true that is.
“No o-one is p-pretty enough here for…t-that.” King Athon smiled a little, just a twitch at the corner of his frozen blue lips. “Unless y-you are o-offering, King T-Traevon, t-then I might reconsider.”
Father laughed hard. “You are your same old self, just a little more blue in color. You will be fine, though. We won’t do anything today just to make sure you, my daughter, and Queen Mikko have the proper time to recover.”
* * *
“Wake up!” Queen Alora chirped. “The day is bright. And we have an artifact to find.”
I started to turn…but I was trapped under heavy limbs.
Not bloody again.
I opened my eyes and glared at the shifter king lying halfway on top of me—and snoring. I griped, “Can someone get him the Fairy off me?”
Father groaned and rolled over to face me. His slow blinks were full of half-slumber. “I can cut off his arms and legs if you would like, my daughter?”
“I’ve already thought of that.” I sniffed. “But then we’d have to carry him around. And he weighs too much.”
“He would be lighter without his limbs.”
“Thatistrue.” I pulled my dirty blanket back up over my face. “Dammit all, I am too tired for all that. I think I will just sleep a little longer instead and save the butchering for another day.”
“Grand idea,” Father intoned. “Everyone, we are sleeping in today. We had a rough day yesterday with frozen royals, so go back to sleep.”
Queen Alora chuckled darkly. “I wanted to do that, anyway. We shall set off on our quest when we are refreshed.”
The snoring abruptly stopped. King Athon’s rasping, sleepy voice asked, “Is it time to get up?”
“No,” I stated quickly. “Go back to sleep.”
King Athon stretched like a cat, rubbing against me, his leg shooting out so far he kicked my father. “I cannot, elf. But nice try.”
“Just go back to sleep!” I whined under my cover.
King Athon snorted, his stretching limbs dropping back down onto my body with a distinctthunk. He growled, “Everyone, it is time to get your Fae damned asses up. We have a mountain to climb today.”
The other four rulers and I groaned.
King Athon snarled, “Do you want to leave this cursed place or not? We must find the fucking artifact to do so.”
“It is warm in here right now,” Queen Mikko muttered.
“That does not mean sleeping in.” King Athon chuckled under his breath, ignoring her plea. “Or severing the limbs off one another. We have Fae shit we have to do, so let us do it and be done with this place.”
I jerked my blanket down from my face. “Really? You are utterly ridiculous.”
