Chapter 7
Confession of a princess:
Alligators are fun. As long as they’re bones.
Why did I never notice the sky shivered so?
The realm sounds marvelous when it sings to me.
My hand is pretty funny when it traces.
I love the Castor Kingdom.
Drugs are bad.
My Fae-gift’s hooves frantically clip-clopped on the cobblestone street. She was thoroughly unable to calm herself. I couldn’t particularly blame her, either. Casters raced by us, brushing against her flanks and jarring my legs, while they shouted at the top of their lungs at the billowing smoke in the sky. One word was all they said, repeatedly.
“Traitor! Traitor! Traitor!”
Again and again, they screamed it.
I ran my hand over my Fae-gift’s neck and whispered, “Shh, precious girl. We are fine. All is well.”
Thatwas a grand lie.
All wasnotwell.
The Caster Kingdom’s capital city, Wickley Marsh, was pure pandemonium right now. There were looters right next to me and Father, who were breaking down the doors to shops with only a few words whispered from adults. At the wink of a child’s eye, glass shattered. Carriages floated in the air and crashed into each other raining debris down upon everyone. And my king was currently extinguishing four fires that blocked our way toward Queen Mikko’s castle.
We shouldn’t have landed here, but there had been no better option. Queen Mikko’s gates were swamped with her people banging on the iron bars and throwing items on the swampy estate. Eventually, we would have to go through those same casters to reach the guards to allow us entrance.
“Trixie, hurry up!” Father shouted and twisted on his saddle to look back at me. “Do not get separated from me.”
I ground my teeth together and kicked a caster in his face when he thought it was a wise choice to grab my leg. I called out over the chaos, “This is bloody absurd, Father! Where are Queen Mikko’s guards?”
“I would guess the majority of them are guarding their queen right now,” King Athon shouted from the air above me. “She is still at the pyre.”
I jerked in my seat and looked up. “Where in the Fairy did you come from?”
“Let us take a guess…” he rumbled dryly. “Mayhap, from the direction of my kingdom?” He shook his head down at me. “You should take better care to watch your surroundings, Princess.”
He landed his enormous Fae-gift, Axel, directly next to me. Right on top of the imbecile that kept trying to touch me, the caster’s bones crunching under his Fae-gift’s hooves. The castor’s screams were barely heard over the disorder around us.
I blinked at the downed caster. “That is one way to take care of the issue.”
Father snorted. “It is a little much, but it worked.” He narrowed his eyes on my soul mate. “Make sure no one else touches her. I will try to lead the way.” He turned back around on his saddle and started shooting tiny flames in front of us, making casters scatter like cockroaches.
Quietly, I chuckled. “I don’t believe I will tell my mother about that.”
King Athon maneuvered his Fae-gift even closer to mine, so that Axel’s and Penelope’s wings were brushing. “I don’t know, elf. Your mother always struck me as a very capable woman. She might surprise you.”
The memory of her deftly twirling the dagger came to mind.
“You may be right, shifter.” I flicked my eyes to him.
But…that one look wasn’t enough.
So I stared under my lashes.
