“I don’twantyou to die,” I ground out.
“Really?” She stood taller and glared at me with puffy eyes. “You killed my mother. Tried to kill my brother. And almost killed me.” She rubbed her chest. “Bound me as a death option. But you don’twantme to die?”
I clenched my hands and ground my teeth, burying a growl that tried to escape. I wouldn’t be able to convince her. No matter what the truth was, the evidence against me was too condemning. I crouched and leaped into the air.
She jumped out of her little crevice. “Wait! Where are you going?”
I flapped my wings to hover. “To tell Mylo to find a way to get you home before you die out here.”
Her brows pursed together. “Can he fly?”
“No. He will have to descend the pillar and cross the lake.” The thought of Mylo attempting to fly was ridiculous… though, perhaps I could fly him to the shoreline. That would make it a little easier—
“Will you take me?” She placed a hand on the tree as if thanking it, and then stepped closer to me. She raised her chin. “Will you, Your Majesty?”
I swallowed through a tight throat. She had spoken in a polite and respectful tone, but my title felt like a curse on her lips. Or an accusation. I was the king. I should have protected the people in my borders better—even if they were fae.
I stretched my arms toward her, and she lifted hers. Once I held her firmly in my grip, I took to the sky.
Chapter 13: Callista
Rapid knocking interrupted my mindless staring at the snow out my window. I tightened the blanket around my shoulders. It was a smooth, soft blanket that felt like a hug. I’d wrapped it around me days ago and hadn’t let go since.
It had been a full week since I’d left my room.
A week since the disaster on the bridge.
A week since I’d learned the truth of my mother’s death.
Food kept coming to my room, but I hadn’t invited Koan or Jolter in to join me. I needed space for myself.
I hadn’t done much besides let my mind spin in circles and my sobs cry into a blanket, but I’d needed the space for those things as much as for any other productive things that I might have done.
The knocking continued.
Nobody but Koan would be so persistent, but even he had left me alone until now. Maybe the king told him why I didn’t wantto talk to anyone, or maybe he just heard about the disaster I’d made with the karkins and figured I was traumatized.
He didn’t stop knocking.
I sighed and stood up. He was the closest thing I had to a friend here. Perhaps I should give him a proper explanation.
Before I reached the door, he called out. “Callista! This is an intervention! We’re coming in whether you want us to or not. You have one minute.”
The knocking stopped, and I heard Jolter hiss at him. “Koan! We won’t go in there if she doesn’t want us to.”
“Shh!” hewhisperedback. He started to say something else, but a large crash interrupted him.
“You will do nothing that she does not want you to,” a terrifyingly familiar voice ordered. The king’s gravelly drekkan spoke as soft as I’d ever heard him, but… drekkans were not designed for whispers.
I pressed my ear against the door. Koan sighed dramatically. “Of course we won’t. But she doesn’t know that. She’ll let us in.” Then, as if he hadn’t just been growled at by a giant flying lizard king, he called out cheerily, “Half a minute!”
A small chuckle rose up my throat. For the first time in a week, I nearly laughed. I thought the king usually left the castle when he was in his drekkan form, but apparently he was in his room today, keeping an eye—or ear—on Koan and Jolter.
I swung the door wide open. I wouldn’t keep them in the hall if the king was staring at them.
Koan slipped around me, closed the door, and then turned to face me with Jolter at his side. “Here’s the thing,” Koan started. “Karkins are scary. Someone should have warned you before you went out there. But you can’t hide from everything inthe elven world because of that. There are a lot of really great things too.”
So he didn’t know about Motab.
