No judging—I’d backed up to the grass, and as King of Summer it seemed like Birch took his landscaping seriously because the ground was practically a cushion. He didn’t even thump when he hit it, he bounced and rolled.
But I felt a little guilty anyway because the car door opened and out came Consort Flora.
“Oops,” I said.
Chapter Twenty
Leila
Birch groaned into the ground.
“Birch, stand. We should return to the house,” Consort Flora said.
To my surprise, Birch managed to sit up, and the judgy gate guard helped him into the passenger seat of the fancy car.
Consort Flora waited until he was safely strapped in, then she bowed to me—the redneck who’d brought her husband back in the icy bed of a truck. “Thank you for bringing him home, Queen Leila. I am certain he will be grateful for your assistance when he wakes tomorrow.”
“Oh, you don’t have to tell him I assisted him,” I said. “In fact, I think I’d prefer if you didn’t.”
Consort Flora smiled serenely and got back into her car.
I scrambled into my truck and waited for Rigel before I stepped on the gas, purposely gunning it for a few spaces so Fell crashed around in the back and smacked into the side of my truck.
“Whoopsies,” I said. “Sorry about that, Fell,” I called, even though he couldn’t hear me.
Solis laughed.
“We’re dropping off Fell next?” I asked.
“Yes. Solis lives closest to the Night Court,” Rigel said.
“Great! I like having good neighbors. Oh, but won’t we need to double back to the library to pick up your car?” I asked.
Rigel shrugged. “We can use the night mares to go pick it up after we finish.”
I sighed deeply. “Good point. Okay, fine. How do I get to Fell’s place?”
Rigel gave me directions, and Solis seemed to come out of it a bit. He leaned forward between our seats and sighed.
“You know, Leila, you’re too good.” Solis braced himself on our seats. “We fae don’t deserve you.”
“Aww, that’s very sweet of you to say, Solis,” I said.
“It’s the truth!” Solis nodded emphatically.
Rigel twisted slightly to study the Day King. “All the monarchs appeared to be inebriated as you said on the phone. The Paragon fed them some of his charmed tea?”
“Yep!”
“And you didn’t drink any because you hate tea.”
“And I brought a latte with me, and I remembered Hazel complaining about the Paragon’s tea,” I said. “I’m really glad I didn’t try any. I can only imagine what sort of things I would have blurted out to everyone the way they were gushing.”
“You don’t have any secrets,” Rigel pointed out. “You’ve been very open and blunt.”
“Well, I don’t know if people know I’m having troubles with artifacts, but you have a point. Everyone already knows I can’t keep the ward up when I need to.” I sighed deeply.
The reminder of my failure made a sour taste in my mouth, so I was distracted and didn’t even mean to take the corner as fast as I did, sending Fell careening around the bed of my truck, sliding on the slick ice.
