If we’re lucky, whatever just happened to me won’t come back again if the guide or anyone decides to fuck with me—because I don’t have a clue why or how it manifested.
The hikeinto the mountains is not for beginners, and I get why the guide was worried about whether I could handle it. Signs of civilization have gotten fewer and farther between as we ascend, and the flora and fauna increased exponentially with every degree of altitude. Each predator I see is a potentialshifter, but between the six of us, we’ve been able to silently communicate concerns as we make our way to the coordinates Rennie received. I found out the guide who almost died has a name—Marius—but I haven’t used it. Not speaking to the misogynistic dickwaffle is for the best; I’d rather not re-awaken that part of me unless I’m in a safe place.
Not because I give a damn if I kill a shithead like that, but because I can’t allow anyone to witness the blue, possibly Fae magic and live to tell the tale.
“Have more water,” Fitz grunts as he hands me a canteen. “You look a bit pale, Baby Girl.”
I snort, rolling my eyes. “Fitzy, we’ve been locked up for the winter in a French school where I barely get time to go outside.Of courseI’m pale; I’m always pale right now. That’s why I put on a bunch of sunscreen before we left. I should get a nice base color by the end of the day.”
He wrinkles his nose, looking at me critically. “This is the first summer I get to be around you twenty-four-seven, so I guess I didn’t notice. I’m surprised you don’t burn to a crisp now that you mention it. You are pretty light-skinned, my sexy little bunny rabbit.”
Rolling my eyes, I reach over to sock him in the arm. “We can’t all be that gorgeously bronze color you three kitty cats from the jungle are year round, babe. Rennie is paler than me, you know.”
The tiger looks up to the sky where the two giant mythicals are scouting ahead a bit as they stretch their wings. “Ah, but the big man is from the same continent. He gets a lovely shade of bronze when we can bait him out of his stacks into the light. I supposethat means, as usual, you fall right in the middle of our divide, hmm?”
“Almost like it was Fate to stick me right in the middle of you miscreants,” I reply with a grin. Putting my hand up to my forehead, I look up at my two flying mates, wishing I could soar for a bit with Aubrey, but they aren’t fully shifted. He could definitely hold my weight, but that would be a bigger draw on his reserves and we still have a half day’s walk to go before we find our destination.
Fitz chuckles as he meets my gaze. “I know. I’d love to be up there, too, but that’s reserved for extreme needs. Felix says Aubrey can’t waste the energy unless someone is really hurt or struggling. He’s probably right—big bro often is about that shit—so I’m reserving my complaints for later on.”
“How very kind of you,” I reply drolly and my crazy tiger shrugs. “I guess it makes sense that we keep anything that sucks up a lot of energy and stamina for emergencies, so we don’t end up having to stop too often. Since we didn’t fly, we lost a decent amount of time on the land journey and we have no idea how stubborn these stupid gargoyles will be. We could be here for weeks trying to pry shit out of them.”
“I always thought that even though the Spicy Salamander and EmoBatman got exiled, their parents did it because of… like, traditions they couldn’t fight, you know? Somehow, I made that less shitty than our father and his blood-soaked bullshit because neither of them talked about it. But… now that they are talking a little?”
I tilt my head, interested in where he’s going with this philosophical conversation. “Now that they’re not quiet, what’s changed?”
Chess huffs as he catches up, looking between us with a frown. “You look very serious. What’s the topic?”
“The winged weenies,” Fitz says, then turns back to me. “I was searching for the words, but all I can come up with is that it’s bullshit. Like, the Raj is a fucking sociopath and a sadist—of course he did the shit he did so Felix couldn’t gain the throne and make shit better. Someone probably ratted on us and figuring out who told our asshole cousins is pretty high on my ‘there will be blood’ lists. But their parents hadchoicesbecause, as far as I know, they aren’t like him. They could have left with him, they could have changed laws, they could have told the world to go fuck itself… but they chose the cowardly way out.”
“It’s disappointing, for sure.” I look up again, frowning with the sadness at the young royals they were. “Aubrey was especially young and left to figure out the entire world on his own. I dislike his clash more than Rennie’s, I think.”
“Yeah, I’m not eager to visit wherever they’re living now,” Chessie says with a sigh. “Dragons are notorious for being in hard to reach places, meaner than rabid animals with intruders, and they hold grudges worse than any other species. Even if they don’t tell Aubrey to fuck off, it will bemuchworse than this trek.”
Wiping my brow with the bandana from my pocket, I groan. “That’s the second reason I want to avoid them at all costs, I suppose.”
“What’s the first?” Fitz grins at me, looking smug. “Afraid of giant piles of dragon shit? ‘Cause I sort of am.”
Nope—I’m afraid I might get myself arrested when I get my goddamn hands on the people who sent an underage mythical off to die on his own for a childish mistake.
But I just wink at my mate playfully. “That’s for me to know and you guys to find out later. Come on, guys. Let’s catch up to Felix and that asshole before someone makes a comment I can’t ignore.”
Hit Me With Your Best Shot
Aubrey
As we inch closerto sunset, I keep my eyes on the terrain below. Rennie and I are in the sky again, as we have been every few hours to allow us to have time to rest while we check out the path ahead for those below. A loud beeping comes from my mate’s pocket and I bank right to get closer as he fumbles for the device to check it.
“We’re less than a mile from the spot where we are supposed to meet the emissary,” he says gravely.
Renard has always been gloomy about his past, and because that was the theme we have shared for so long, I didn’t worry about it. However, now that we are about to face the people who broke his heart and cast him aside, he’s more introverted than normal. I understand his trepidation—fear, shame, anger, and hurt carried for as long as we have been burdened with it is hard to manage. But he’s put on a mostly brave face about the trip, hoping that it won’t cause an international incident when the family he’s chosen has to meet the one who did not choose him. We are not calm preds, and our mate is volatile as fuck right now.
I can’t blame him for fretting about what will happen when the past and the future collide.
“I don’t see anyone. Are you sure?” I ask as my eyes scan the outcroppings and the land carefully. “How will they know when we have arrived?”
No one asked that question earlier, and I curse under my breath for not thinking of it until now. I suppose I assumed there would be a gargoyle standing there, waiting, until we trudged up this damn mountain path. Given the heat, that probably was a dumb thing to assume, and I roll my eyes at my naïveté inwardly. I’m smarter than that, but I’ve been so distracted by worrying about attacks or stupid, vapid bints on some internet website that I missed a key part of the planning. I can only hope his answer isn’t ‘they’ll show up at some point’.
“They will know the moment I step foot over the boundary of their territory.”
