“You as well.” He patted my shoulder, stole one of the waiting goblets off the table, took a large drink himself, and stalked off to tend to business.
My emerald gaze roved the crowd while I decided who I needed to speak with next, but before I could even pick, the choice was stolen from me.
“King Traevon.” Copper stopped before me, his voice rolling over my shoulders like a hiss. “I wanted to offer my congratulations before you were too busy again.”
I studied King Elon’s favored brother before me, looking closely into his reptilian eyes, more than slightly surprised when I saw the man was sober. His gaze was steady, his speech didn’t slur, and he wasn’t wobbling back and forth as usual at festivities.
Although, he still didn’t bow as he should. The gorgon never had—a bit of a self-worth issue with him—but I let it slide tonight, not wanting to battle on this grand evening.
“Thank you, Copper. That is very kind of you. I wish my heir was feeling better, but she and Minnie are currently indisposed—a teething issue.” When he eyed the goblets on the bar behind me—barely listening to what I was saying—I sighed and stepped to the side, motioning to them. “They are free, no coin needed. You may have one.”
Hehisseddeeply in his throat. “I am attempting to quit. I haven’t had a drink in one hundred and forty-four days.”
“Good on you.” I grinned—and meant it. “Well done.”
Copper sighed and cracked his neck side to side. “It is not as easy as it should be.” He chuckled, but there was no humor in it. “I remember taking my first drink in my teen years, sneaking brew from my father.” The gorgon shook his head. “My brother, who obviously wasn’t the king yet, would always cover for me.”
“Did he now?” I asked, utterly surprised at this insider’s information. But…this may have been the first conversation I’d had with Copper when he wasn’t intoxicated. “That was kind of him.”
“He always covered for us…” Copper stared at the goblets again, lost in his own thoughts, and then, as if jerked by a tether, he sprang forward. He grabbed one of the goblets, mumbling hastily, “It is a special occasion. One won’t hurt.”
I almost took the Fae fucking drink from his hand, unsure if I should. “Mayhap it would be best—”
“No, it’s fine,” Copper hissed hurriedly, cutting me off. He lifted his goblet in the air for a cheer and said, “To your heir, King Traevon.”
I still hesitated, not entirely comfortable—something didn’t sit quite right in my stomach with this. But, eventually, I lifted my goblet to my enemy and touched it against his, saying, “To my heir.”
“To your heir,” he repeated and took a large gulp—that ended up draining half the large cup, with his eyes closed in bliss. Finally, he breathed heavily, opened his reptilian gaze, and smiled the smile of a man sated. “Do you know, I haven’t even heard what you named your heir? I don’t even know if it’s a boy or a girl.”
Still unsettled, I took a small sip of my shifter wine, looking for the next person to speak with. “‘Tis a girl.” There! In the corner was a merchant I needed to speak with about exports. “Her name is Princess Trixie Isabella Towers.”
Copper cocked his head, staring down at the floor. His brows puckered like he had unexpectedly thought of something. “You named your daughter after your soothsayer mother?”
“Yes… Why?” I started inching away from him, toward the man I’d like to speak with—to spend more time with the elves I knew around me. “It’s typical to name children after kin.”
“No, it reminds me of something.” He took a large swig of his shifter wine. “I cannot remember what it is, though. Very curious.”
“Perhaps, you will remember it in the morning with a clear head.” I smiled politely and used my goblet to point to the side. “I hope you have a wonderful evening, Copper. I will take my leave now.”
The gorgon king’s brother nodded distractedly, staring down into his goblet. “And you as well, King Traevon.” But his head snapped up abruptly, and he looked me directly in the eyes. “By the by, try to chill the area where your daughter is teething. Gently, of course. Nothing too extreme. But it should soothe the ache.”
“That’s very helpful,” I stated absently and waved farewell with my free hand as I walked away without a backward glance.
Judgments of a father:
When I find my heir, I will make sure she knows subtlety.
For if one does not know how to be subtle…
Then one might as well scream.
Relatively out of breath, my fingers bit into the bark of the tree I hid behind. That ‘hill’ had been a small damnable mountain—fucking gnome. More Fae scattered about before us, our group of four all secreted behind trees and watching the woodland sprite guardians patrolling the last remaining distance to our destination.
We could see the Ancient Archive clearly.
It was a large wooden structure, built oddly in shape deeply in the valley. There were rounded sections with too many patch-worked windows that made no sense for a horizontal flooring layout, while other areas were box-like with utterly no windows or doors for entry but raised high into the air like a watchtower. Yet, bizarrely enough, the building actually blended into the scenery, as if it were truly one with the dark forest that it was made out of.
I narrowed my eyes as a guardian marched in our direction but quickly relaxed my shoulders when another called her back. Then, after another ten minutes of studying their routine and patrolling system, I went down to my belly and crawled back through the dirt to the higher dead brush for shelter, waiting on the others to join me. I used one of my daggers to clean the most recent dirt from under my nails, giving my mind something to do, restless and impatient knowing my daughter was so close—but unable to reach her.
