Thoughts of a father:
Pixies can go fuck themselves.
But I imagine their dicks are so small they can’t even find them to accomplish the task.
Useless wastes of shit.
The whole lot of them can rot—and their awful dust.
“Wake the Fae fuck up!” A slitheringhisspunctuated the shout above me, followed by a hard shake of my shoulders. “Dammit, IwishI could kill you right now. It would be so easy.”
I groaned quietly and opened my eyes as I pressed my forehead against cold, hard tiling.
I moaned deeply from my throat, “What…”
The unkind awakening continued with a definite swat to the back of my head, jarring my face further into the floor. Then King Elon’s voice hissed brutally, “Get your senses about you, King Traevon. We have a problem.”
My blink was slow as I gradually put my hands flat on the floor, breathing hard to push myself up to a seated position. Wobbling slightly back and forth on my ass, I studied the room I was in, my vision blurry and unfocused.
It was High Pointe.
The main level.
Myriad colors rained down through the shaded glass, coating me in reds, blues, and yellows, where I sat in a state of confusion.
I turned my head slowly to the only other occupant of the room, a gorgon king who was a major pain in my ass—and an enemy I shouldn’t be this defenseless around. Cracking my mouth open, I mumbled almost drunkenly, “What in the realm did you do to me, asshole?”
With his knees bent, squatting directly next to me, his molten green reptilian eyes narrowed on mine. “I did nothing except watch over your reckless ass for the last hour. Don’t blame this problem on me.”
Huh.
The gorgon king actually appeared serious.
“All right. What has happened then?”
“The Fae happened.” King Elon snorted and rubbed at his chin. “I was saddling up my Fae-gift when a horde of Fae suddenly exited out the doors and into my kingdom.” His gaze turned wary—yet curious. “They were carrying two unconscious people.”
My mouth shut…as my mind started to clear. I touched my face and used one finger to wipe at the dusting on my skin. Blue tinged the pad of my finger—fucking pixie dust.
“Motherfucker,” I growled furiously and started scrubbing at my face quickly. “Mamue took King Athon and my daughter.”
The gorgon king’s eyebrows lifted. “A kidnapping?”
“Of a sort.” Getting my feet under me, I tried standing. I will never admit if the devious prick beside me had to aid my person to keep said feet under me until the room damned well stopped spinning. Taking a cautious—and finally steady—step back from him, I muttered, “Where are the Fae now?”
“I presume they were heading for the Blood Forest.” He shook his head. “I could not follow there, as you know.”
I arched a furious red brow. “And I imagine you did not try to stop them, either.”
“There were over a hundred Fae, King Traevon. It would have been unwise to attack them not knowing what they are exactly and what their power is.”
I sighed quietly and glared toward the Gorgon Kingdom, unable to fault him on his reasoning—and I really wished I could so I could punch his smug face. I mumbled absently, “They are woodland sprites from the dark forest.” I began pacing barefoot and agitatedly ran my fingers through my hair, still damp from the ocean. “I need to get to Fairy.”
King Elon tilted his head, trying to catch my eyes. “Whydid they take them? This will not look good for their side if we’re truly in a competition of sorts with the Fae. It does not make sense.”
“To use them as bait,” I snapped and glowered into his gaze. Then, keeping my words careful, I stated, “Two artifacts went missing from Fairy. They came looking for them right before our last challenge. I allowed them to stay in my own home while they searched. Apparently, they now know who stole the artifacts—but they believe taking King Athon and Princess Trixie will lead the thief to them.”
The gorgon king rolled that information around in his wily head, his eyes not even blinking once as the jackass held my gaze unwaveringly. “That…is interesting.” He hummed quietly inside his throat, sounding like a hissing snake. “And not entirely truthful, as it doesn’t make complete sense.”
