Though their pitches were flat, I didn’t miss either’s barely-veiled glee that the Cauldron has matchedme—the Ice King—to a girl that embodies fire.
No, not fire…
The very sun.
Isla tilts her chin higher.Woman, not girl.
I bow my head lower.Did I say girl?I circle her waist.I meant, wife.
58
ISLA
While Konstantin and his family buried their dead—some in the earth, some in the ocean—we, Crows, ripped the bone trench off its tracks and flew it far out to sea.
Ksenia was imprisoned deep inside a mountain, her cell warded with a blood-key that only my mate possesses. Konstantin wanted Taytah and Mádhi to give me access, but I refused, worried I may someday be tempted to pay Ksenia a visit and grant her asylum in the underworld.
For a fortnight after the funerals and incarceration, as the kingdom and its king mourned, time slowed. But then schools, restaurants, and shops reopened. Troops of thespians returned to their stages, while other sorts of troops were trained and dispatched to every corner of the empire to preserve the fragile peace with equanimity instead of brute force.
Ilya, Imogen, and Borat spearheaded the creation of a centralized intelligence bureau. Their first order was locating the revolutionaries that partook in Bohdan and Ksenia’s attack. Their second order was unearthing and confiscating all air-propelled weapons. The task was monumental.
Vance trained Mestyla and introduced her to the orcas. He introduced many Serpents to the orcas, including Naeva and the others—by others, I mean Antoni who was back in Glace. They’d disembarked from the same ship that had carried my mother and grandmothers to Glace.
Aodhan became Commander of Glace, which predictably induced discontent amongst the population. The position of general has yet to be filled.
And me… I’ve spent the last two moon cycles with Sofiya, Elio, Lachlano, Izolda, and Naeva touring cities and towns, not to spellcast but to introduce ourselves. Progressively, people’s displeasure softened into wary reluctance. The younglings were the swiftest to accept us,oohing andahhing when we’d visit their classrooms to teach them about ourselves, our customs, and our magic.
What truly won them over were the sky rides. It didn’t win their parents over, though. Most were terrified, but day by day, ride by ride, city by city, village by village, their terror waned into something akin to wonder.
What did help was Sofiya and Elio’s presence—Sofiya because she was a reformed antimorph and extremely vocal, and Elio, because he was sweetness personified and had round ears. We were an odd little troop, made even odder by our newest member, Mr. Jingles, ourreindeer.
Yes, we’ve domesticated a reindeer. The creature follows useverywhere. He trots beside us when we stroll through city and village streets, sups wherever we sup—be it at the castle or in restaurants—and flies whenever we fly. Each time he leaps into the air and flits his stubby, furred wings, I’m filled with admiration. He cannot stay airborne for long and refuses to be ridden, though Sofiya hasn’t given up hope on that front.
How she basks in the attention that domesticating a wild creature has won her. While Elio basks in her loudness andconfidence. We don’t tease him about his crush. We don’t even mention it. We watch, though. Mostly to make sure he doesn’t get hurt since Sofiya is still engaged to the Nebban half-blood, who’s yet to journey to Glace like she’s yet to journey to Nebba. I expect the betrothal to be called off at any minute.
Did I mention her leg was growing back? The relief I’d felt when she announced needing to shorten her peg leg had been so heady that I’d walked straight into a door. Unfortunately—or rather fortunately—Lachlano had been present at the time of the incident. How he’d hooted… It had been his first true laugh since the failed coup.
Zia Syb, who visited with Mattia and Phoeppa last month, took an instant loathing to Milana’s sister, which only magnified when Mádhi mentioned how alike they were. If only I could’ve bottled the startled-owl look on Zia Syb’s face… Unsurprisingly, from that moment on, Phoeppa has teased her relentlessly about their twin characters. Unsurprisingly, Zia Syb has not appreciated it one bit.
The castle that rang and smelled of carnage two moon cycles ago now rings with laughter and smells—most days—of damp reindeer fur. Mr. Jingles has even become an honorary member of Izolda’s book club, which Sofiya joined before Izolda even finished voicing her invitation.
Lachlano and Elio aren’t official members, even though they read all the books—chiefly for my benefit, since my mate has so little time for storytelling these days.
What little time we do have with only each other, we spend discussing our days, our qualms, and our little successes, and, of course, getting better acquainted with every inch of the other’s body.
As I wait in the Great Hall for Konstantin and our patchwork family to gather, I stare up at the bright and unique ceilingcandelabrum that Izolda and Mestyla designed together using a misprinted romance novel the Countess had wanted to toss out.
They blew life back into it, cutting out all the pages and adding bold strokes of paint onto them—landscapes, flowers, Crows, Serpents, snowflakes—before stringing them beside hand-blown glass orbs like rigid garlands. The project had taken them weeks and created such a strong bond that one would think Mestyla had known her aunt for her entire life.
Lachlano, Elio, and Sofiya are the first to join me, Mr. Jingles in tow, of course.
“I just have to ask, Sofe…” Lachlano pulls his dreadlocks free from the collar of his leather jacket. “Can you hear Jingle’s thoughts?”
His comment doesn’t only win him a glower from the Faerie; it earns him a mouthful of earth-magic, which Elio liberally sprinkles with some water-magic. Lachlano gags, then hacks. Each time he manages to cleanse his tongue, the two Faeries fill his mouth anew.
I laugh so hard that I get a side stitch and tears trundle down my cheeks, surely messing up the stripes I matched to my outfit tonight—violet. Konstantin’s favorite color.
Speaking of my mate… As he emerges from the Throne Room stairwell, his brow arches at the scene before him.
