“While the doctor’s busy admiring his reflection in the blade, the queen steals the scalpel.Plucks it right out of the ruby slippers.The doctor laughs, saying, ‘You wouldn’t dare.’Oh, she dares.She chops him into kibble-sized bits and feeds them to the wolves waiting in the dark.”
“He’s dead.”I release a shuddering breath.
“Deader than dead.And now the queen is free.She goes out into the world, looking for her Magic Kingdom, wandering, wandering, sequins dulled, eyeliner running.And she’s…” His voice goes achingly soft.“She’s lost.Because what’s a kingdom without a princess?Who wants a throne when there’s no one to share it with?”
Oh, Wolf.
A kingdom, a worthy princess, and a happily ever after.He deserves nothing less.Goddammit, I want to be the one beside him, holding his hand as he climbs his throne.
But I’m no princess.I’m an orphan mechanic with grease under my fingernails and too many facial piercings.Jag and I are a curse.Whoever we touch, ruin follows.
“I’ll tell you the next part, but you already know it.”He hooks an arm around my waist and tugs my body flush against his.“A princess bride materializes out of the fog.She isn’t in a tower.She isn’t locked in chains.She’s running down the street, running from something, always running.She doesn’t know that she doesn’t need to run anymore.The queen will save her, and she’ll save the queen right back.”He narrows his eyes.“To be continued…”
He waits for me to say something, but I can only lie there and chew on the words.
That queen is him.Sequins, eyeliner, fuck-me boots, he dresses in pieces of feminine flair, like camouflage, like maybe he’s trying to outrun himself.Like if he layers enough glitter and lace over the scars, no one will see the boy still bleeding underneath.
“Aren’t you going to ask me the point of the story?”He gives me a crooked grin, the one that dares me to misunderstand him.
“Nope.I get it.”
The point of the story ishim.I think about the eyeliner, rain boots, and feather boas.He isn’t mocking women.He isn’t mocking himself.He’s testing something.Or maybe confessing something without using plain words.
Does he want to be a drag queen in real life?Is his identity unraveling and rethreading?Or is it just Wolf being Wolf, eccentric, theatrical, and hiding the crisis in his chest behind eyeliner and satire?
I don’t know.
But I know this.The way he told that story, he wasn’t laughing at the drag queen.He was mourning her.My chest aches with the weight of it, because maybe Wolf doesn’t know who the hell he is, but for tonight, in his fairy tale, he wants to be the one worth saving.
“You would make a beautiful drag queen, Wolf.”
“That’s not the point.”
“You’ll build your own magic kingdom, and princesses will line up to share it with you.”
“Also, not the point, Buttercup.Were you even listening?”
“I heard every word.”
“Then you know there’s only one princess bride.Theone.And I already found her.”
“What if she hurts you?”
“What if she doesn’t?”
I’m no princess, and if I stay, there will be only tragedy and death in his ever after.
“Thank you for sharing your story with me.”I tentatively trace a finger along the sculpted line of his jaw.“You didn’t have to, and I promise to keep it safe.”
“It’s just a story.”
I wish that were true.But I don’t say that.“Will you tell me more fairy tales about the drag queen?”
“I’ll tell you my favorite.”He burrows in closer, the effervescent wildness returning to his eyes.“The drag queen wants to go to Disney World, but she can’t travel to the Magic Kingdom without her pets—the lion and the bear.When she tells them to take her, the lion is all doom and gloom, crying, ‘We’re going to die.’And the bear’s like, ‘Is there vodka?I love vodka.Grunt.Grunt.’To which the queen says, ‘Yes, you small-minded beast.Of course, there’s vodka…’”
I listen, breathless, captivated, and devastated as he shares glimpses into his imprisoned childhood with Leo and Kody.The harrowing helplessness they must have felt, trapped and motherless, with only their captor to raise them.
But they escaped.They learned how to fly, left the horrors behind, and built a happy life on this paradise island.
