“Uh, eleven months, but yes.”
I let that slide since at least there was a baby instead of a manifestation. “So you literally made Mannix and the rest of your council. But you made Mannix too strong and he took over.”
“Right. I think Valborg and Anezka are trying to take over from Mannix. Not together. Independently but with the same goals.”
He’d manifested his own daytime drama. “Okay, well, regardless of how they came to be or their strengths or who’s fighting who, if you stand up and remind them of their places—their reasons for even existing—then I think you could have a great council thatyourule.”
Hydris clasped his hands behind his back and toed at a little stone in the grass. “I thought about making someone strong enough to take over from Mannix, but then I thought it would be the same problem, just with a different face.”
I poked him in the chest to get him to look at me. “Youare the one who can take over from Mannix. You brought him into this world, and you can take him out again.”
His eyes got very wide.
“I don’t mean kill him,” I hastened to add now that I’d heard myself. “I just mean, you made him for a reason, and if he’s not going to do the thing, then he leaves. Period.”
He gulped. “Maybe you could tell him?”
“Sure. Then I can be the prince of the Spring Court. Bet I’ll be the first human prince, huh? And I’ll keep you in a box on my bedside table so I can have pretty flowers every morning.”
He squinted at me like he wanted to curse me out for that, but he didn’t say a thing.
“Oh, come on! I can’t put you in a cage. Use you for flowers. Tell me to fuck off.”
He glared some more and a blush bloomed on his pretty face, but he said, “Fuck off, Bridge.”
I clapped him on the shoulder. “There you go!”
Of course, it wouldn’t be that easy with Mannix, but baby steps.
Chapter 6
Around the time they told me the grass was in the cart and ready to go, I watched as Milo and Hydris’s brother left the tent over in Winter. While some of the guards glared at me as I waved and hollered, not one of them told anyone that they’d seen me. Milo walked off, never looking back, and climbed into a carriage. Everyone else was breaking down the tent as he rode away.
At least Milo was okay. I hated that he didn’t know I was here, but that he was healthy was good enough for now.
“I’m sorry he didn’t see you,” Hydris said as I stood away from the boulder I’d been leaning against while I’d waited.
“Yeah, me too.”
“Are you going back now?” he asked with a gesture to the cart.
“I am. Do you want to ride with me this time?”
He smiled and nodded. “Yes, please.”
The grass was in large bundles tied with rope that were also then tied down to the cart with a tarp over them. I shook hands with a few people, thanking them, and then climbed aboard withMason the horse all ready to go. Once Hydris was sitting beside me, I flicked the reins and off we went.
On the way out there, I’d thought about my future and what I might do with it if I couldn’t go home again. While part of me was curious and eager to know whether I’d ever be able to reconnect with Milo—and if Wally and Zalman were anywhere near—I couldn’t ignore the fact that Hydris was sitting next to me.
His thigh pressed to mine on the little bench seat, the heat of him seeping into me. He was still letting his natural flowery self be free, so he smelled like the blooms ringing his head. Hydris was the personification of Spring, and I’d never realized how much I liked fresh and dewy and sweet.
But I couldn’t do anything about my attraction. How could I? My friends teased me about how I wanted to find someone who’d let me move in, not someone who’d hook-up for the night. I was a serial monogamist with aspirations of wedding bells and picket fences. None of that sounded compatible with a prince whose castle I wasn’t technically allowed to even enter. I didn’t think I’d be able to stand sneaking around with him—and I didn’t trust that he was the type to stand by me if we got caught.
Suddenly, Mason the horse came to a halt, giving a snort and tossing his head. I looked up and saw a literal wall of rain coming toward us. For a half-second, that was pretty damn cool. Rain there, no rain here—what were the odds of seeing such a thing?
And then the wall arrived, and it wasn’t cool anymore.
“Holy shit!” I hollered over the volume of rain slamming us. I was soaked to the skin in an instant. “We’ve gotta get out of this!”
