The hydra’s heads looked down at Whiskers and Kevin. Whiskers screeched at it—which sounded like a goblin getting run over by a golf cart—then purred deep in his chest.
The hydra’s stretched out head gently nudged my cheek, then as fast as it arrived, it marched off, heading into the gardens.
I dusted my hands off on my thighs. “Do creatures just meander around the castle? Or was that a tame hydra?”
“There is no such thing as a tame hydra,” Skye said. “And no. The creatures of the Night Realm typically do not wander around the castle grounds. They have been wild for decades, and most of them are extremely dangerous.”
Oh. Well. Would have been nice to know that before I greeted it. But I suppose everyone freaks out about the night mares all the time, and they’re as sweet as ponies. Maybe the hydra just offends the fae’s obsession with beauty and power?
“It’s fine,” I said.
“You most often say ‘it’s fine’ when it, in fact, isnotfine,” Skye said.
“Yeah, but I’m pretty sure it was just greeting me. I don’t think it’s going to go on a murder spree. It was actually a lot smaller than I thought it would be.”
“That was a juvenile,” Skye said.
“A what?”
“It’s not full grown.” Indigo used her artifact—a ring slipped on her thumb—to create a second orb of light—one for each hand. “Although it’s still dangerous—especially because that was the one Queen Nyte used an enslavement spell on and forced to fight when she faced off with the Drake Family vampires and the House Medeis wizards. Wasn’t it, Skye?”
“I believe so.” Skye tapped her tablet screen. “There are only a few hydra that technically belong to the Night Court. Most of them live in the Night Realm and are rarely seen.”
“Wow, poor thing. I should have seen if it wanted to stay in the stables with the night mares,” I said.
“Hydra prefer a landscape with access to large bodies of water,” Skye informed me.
“Oh. Then it would have had to stay down by the mansion’s lake, and I’m guessing the mermaids and naiads wouldn’t have liked that,” I said.
“A possibly dangerous creature that will continue to grow for most of its life? Yes, they would not like that,” Skye confirmed.
I absently patted Kevin’s head. “It seemed like it accomplished whatever it was that it wanted. Shall we get going?”
Indigo pushed her cat eye glasses farther up her nose. “You’re willingly going to see the first king’s artifacts?”
“The sooner I get it over with the sooner I get back to work—and I really need to meet with the chef. I’m a bit concerned we won’t have enough food for the party-banquet-thing,” I said.
Skye extended her arm and pointed to the shabby castle before she led the way up to it. “I doubt it will be a problem,” she said. “You already have enough food to cover all the guests on the list I made for you.”
“Yes, but I invited some other people, too,” I reminded her. “And they RSVP-ed with me.”
“Perhaps.” Skye tried to yank open a wooden door, but it didn’t move. “However, it saddens me to say this, Queen Leila, but I highly doubt any of the other Court monarchs will come, even though it’s tradition and you sent them invitations.”
Although I’d been officially crowned—andmarriedbecause of those annoying laws from that stinking first king—almost two weeks ago, my official first royal banquet was in three days.
Technically I’d been made queen and bound to the Court months ago—the Night Court monarch was picked out by magical horses called night mares. Usually they just found the next monarch, but six of the night mares had decided they liked me enough to use their magic on me, inescapably binding me to the Court and making me queen long before I usually would have been crowned.
It was complicated.
The important thing was the other Courts wouldn’t recognize me until I was officially crowned—and to be officially crowned I had to be married, hence my unusual ceremony with my assassin-husband. On the bright side, said assassin-husband seemed to be tolerating my presence well enough these days that I didn’t think he was going to kill me in my sleep—and now I was crowned.
But, as I said earlier, fae were all about power plays.
I’d learned since being made queen that, to the fae, everything was a game for power.
They would cheat, kill, and betray one another to obtain more power—both in their own Court, and among the others.
I’d fought to subdue my Court enough that I could reasonably say they’d follow me and wouldn’t betray me—especially not when mydearhusband, Lord Rigel, the famed assassin known as the Wraith, would inherit the throne if I died. But my power place among the other Courts?
