“How about your mothers?” I ask, unable to pull my eyes away from Nash as he licks his lips.Tease.
“What about them?” Hart snaps.
“Well, wouldn’t they have insight into your father’s worthiness? Didn’t he have to save them as damsels in distress?”
Nash snorts. “My mother was his original saved damsel. But she was not in distress. In fact, she was busy trying to marry a cobbler, who she fell in love with as a child, when my father plucked her from the town. He declared he had saved her, and therefore, she was his queen.”
“He didn’t slay the dragon? Isn’t that a must for any Arthurian king?”
“It is. An armoured knight did slay a dragon in my father’s era, but it was rumored that he kept his face shielded by his helmet, and the dragon wasn’t a typical one,” Theo says.
“How so?” Gwyneth asks.
“He scared the dragon away, and it was never heard from again. Nobody questioned the will of the Idols, given that this meant their damsels could stop being sacrificed for another generation.”
“This is not in the records,” Gwyneth mutters as she frowns at the book like it deceived her.
“Of course not,” Malachi adds. “My father banned the deviation from ever being documented. All you will find is an adherence to the legend of Arthur.”
“Are you sure he is your father?” I have to ask it, to put it out into the realm. “Because if he isn’t the chosen one, then he shouldn’t have been able to birth a generation with a dragon, right? That’s unique to him and him alone? Unless there are more dragon mommas I don’t know about.”
“She makes an excellent point,” Hart says.
Is that an almost compliment?
“Our mothers all report the same thing,” Theo says. “A one night drunken fumble in the dark they can hardly remember.”
“Clearly, they weren’t getting orgasms,” I grumble. Because if they had, no amount of berry wine would make them forget.
“I think we should visit our father and question him,” Nash declares.
I shrink into Malachi’s side. “On horseback?”
“Still not a fan, huh?” Gwyneth says with a grin. “Ever since that incident when he bit your?—”
“Face,” I snap, shutting her up. “My face. They all want to eat my face.”
“She who steals Idol weapons, cuts down princes with words, and steals hearts, still fears horses?” Malachi asks.
“But they aren’t horses,” I whisper. “They aren’t terrifying.”
“I vote we leave her here,” Hart says.
“Because that worked out so well last time,” Theo grumbles.
I’m not being left behind while they face their deadbeat daddy. “Nope, I’ll come. I’ll face my fear or fear my face. Whatever works for it remaining attached to my head.”
Hart shakes his head and rolls his eyes up to the ceiling. “Idols help us.”
I smirk and jump to my feet. “Don’t be a mellow. What could go wrong?”
Hey universe, it’s just me, Daphne Stone, nothing to see here. Just a maiden, damsel, Lady, queen, going about her diurnal, not challenging you in any way, shape, or form.My smile stretches when the realm doesn’t fight back.
I spin in a circle, hear the crack of a shell beneath my bare foot, and slip backward, my arms flailing in the air. Theo catches me, and I boop him on the nose. “Thanks, big guy.”
“Fine, bring Calamity,” Hart snaps. “But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
He’s such a mellow. A handsome, capable, strong mellow who witnessed me fall apart under his brother like it was a revelation. Hart may act like he doesn’t care, but deep, deep down, he likes me. He knows life without me would be a monotonous drivel where he was just surviving and waiting for death to claim him. I make him embrace every breath he takes like a gift. I am basically a blessing.
