“This journey will take twice as long if you insist on eating every turn,” he mumbles, his eyes dropping to my lips.
“I’m a newborn,” I point out. “They need feeding more regularly than normal folk.” Not that I’ve ever looked after a babe. They are tiny and terrifying for a maiden who breaks more than she makes.
“How do you figure?” Hart asks. The forest has widened enough to accommodate some side-by-side riding, while Malachi is behind us with the judgy sword of doom at his side.
“I was literally born yesterday.”
That joke is only good for this diurnal, and I’m going to milk it given that other newborns can’t even speak. When you think about it, I am advanced for my age. Others don’t know the wonders of the realm that I have memories of, but they also don’t have the worries. Wait...
“Am I a virgin?” I whisper.
Nash stiffens behind me. Now it’s like leaning against a stone instead of a warm support pillow.
“What was that about a virgin?” Malachi calls out. “I hate to point it out, Daphne, but Nash has experience. You didn’t usher any of us into manhood.”
I screw my face up and laser him with a look I reserve for Prince Poopfloof. “Do not speak of prior conquests unless you want a detailed account of how Hansel?—”
He slaps his hands over his ears. “La, la, la.”
That’s what I thought. Although it would take all of half a tempo to describe my deflowering, and that would be twice as long as the event itself, given he came quicker than my words.
“You are not a virgin,” Hart says with a wink.
I roll my eyes. “Not in my mind, but when my body was reformed from the stars, did it return to its previous state, or did I maintain my internals?”
“Um, I have no idea,” Malachi answers.
Nash’s arms squeeze against my sides. “We can have fun finding out though.” Darkness crawls close to his skin. Did I not notice before, or is it new?
“So, sausage,” I say, changing the subject. Because unless we’re dismounting right now to find out, I don’t want a pulsating floof with no hope of reprieve.
“Did she say sausage and pulsating floof?” Hart drawls with a slow smile. “Are you trying to flirt, Calamity?”
I snort. “Not a chance. They were inside thoughts. Ignore them. Focus on the lack of sausage situation.”
“It’s a realm emergency for sure,” Malachi calls out.
They’re teasing me about sausage while forgetting the importance of its absence. “A sausage a day keeps the ogres away.”
“Idols above, not the ogres,” Malachi answers.
“Have you ever tangled with one?”
“Well, no.”
“Then don’t disparage the system of protection.”
“She’s making nonsense make sense again,” Hart rumbles. “Make it stop.”
“Is it too much to wish for?—”
Genie pops into the air before us. “You called?”
My brows lower, and I cock my head to the side. There’s something different about him. “Why are you green? And where did your eyebrows go?”
He glares at me for a tempo. “Wish or no wish?”
“Answer the question, and I’ll decide.”
