The Witch King

by H. E. Edgmon

  I shoot him a look, some petulant part of me wanting to tell him I do not need him to defend me, I do not find anything heroic or charming about the simple act of not being a transphobic asshole. The bar is not set that low! I refuse to be tricked into having gay thoughts about him just because he isn’t as terrible as he could be!

  But he isn’t looking at me. He’s looking at Tessa.

  She takes a deep breath. To my continued surprise, she simply says, “Yes. My parents loved him the best they knew how. They were not perfect. But they did not deserve to die.”

  “And Wyatt did not intend to kill them,” Emyr says flatly. I wonder if he believes that, or if he just needs it to be true.

  “When someone is pushed into a corner, bad things happen.” Briar swallows, shaking her head. “You could have stepped in long before that night. You could have given him an ally.”

  “So, this is my fault?” The knife of my sister’s voice edges closer to Briar’s throat.

  “I can’t answer that for you,” is all the comfort Briar offers her. “Besides, you are not the only one who saw abuse happening and did nothing.”

  Her words hang heavy in the air around us. Too heavy. I go back to focusing on my bread.

  Leonidas gives another uncomfortable cough. “Yes, well, all things being equal, the Guard has made their ruling. Wyatt is not guilty. Hopefully, moving forward with this wedding will allow us all a chance to heal. To focus on the future, instead of continuing to dwell on the unfortunate circumstances of the past.”

  “Sounds like a fairy tale,” I say, and I don’t know if Leonidas can’t hear the acid in my mouth or if he’s choosing to ignore it, because he smiles and nods.

  “There is, of course, the issue of Derek Pierce.”

  My spine goes tight at Kadri’s words.

  Leonidas sighs. “Yes. As you may or may not be aware, Wyatt, Derek has gotten it into his head that he should be king of Asalin.”

  “Derek has always believed he would be king of Asalin.” Tessa sounds almost bored. She’s slumped back in her seat again, body relaxed, holding her wine with loose fingers and a blank expression on her uncanny face. “After all, that’s what you told him.”

  “A very, very long time ago,” Leonidas chuffs. “Before we knew we would be gifted with a son of our own.”

  Had Kadri and Leonidas not adopted Emyr, Derek would have been the next in line. He would’ve been nearly a teenager by the time they brought Emyr here, with an entire childhood spent believing he would one day rule. No wonder he’s such a dick.

  “Derek does not see eye to eye with Emyr’s decision-making,” Kadri says, swirling her wine, watching the red liquid spin. “He believes Emyr has rejected the ways of Faery.”

  “Of course Emyr respects the old ways.” Leonidas shakes his head. “It’s only that...we must adapt. In some ways, we all must adapt to the world we live in. Derek will come to realize that eventually. Surely, in time, he and Emyr will find a middle ground between remaining rooted in the past and throwing away all we hold near and dear.”

  Throwing away all we hold near and dear? Leonidas doesn’t sound nearly as progressive as his wife and son.

  “Perhaps,” Kadri answers, in a way that indicates she in no way believes Derek will come to realize anything eventually. “But his fear of being discovered is what holds him back from wanting to evolve. It is not a fear without basis.”

  “Being discovered?” Tessa’s voice contains not even the barest hint at emotion. She raises one eyebrow, the only crack in her heavy armor. “You can’t mean by the humans.”

  Leonidas sighs, waving one hand dismissively. “It is always a possibility, and one we must be prepared for. Ultimately, I believe it is unlikely. But should the time come, we will do what must be done. Perhaps a peace could be found. And if not, Emyr will lead us into war. I have all the faith in the world in him.”

  “There are other ways,” Emyr adds quietly.

  When I turn my head to look at him, he isn’t looking up anymore. His gaze has fallen to his hands, studying the curve of his own claws.

  “Other ways than what?” Leonidas asks the question slowly.

  Briar and I exchange another what is happening this time glance.

  “Beyond going to war.” Finally, Emyr looks up. His expression is hesitant, as if he’d rather not say whatever it is he intends to.

  Here, now, in this moment, staring at his mother and father, he looks very much like an eighteen-year-old boy. Not the imposing prince he’s been since our reunion. This Emyr is so much more familiar. So much more similar to my Emyr.

  I cut that thought off before it gets carried away.

  “And what does that mean?” Leonidas demands.

  Emyr exchanges a look with his mother. I think I see Kadri give the slightest inclination of her head.

  “I know Faery was a brutal place when you returned. I understand people died. But you lived. Others lived. And you’ve said yourself, if you’d gone better prepared—”

  Leonidas does not let him finish. “No. Out of the question.”

  “But with the proper Healing magic—”

  “Faery was destroyed a long time ago. There will be no attempts to return. I will not let you take the same risk I did.” Leonidas gnashes his teeth. “End any fantasy of this now, because it will not happen. Not under your rule. Not ever. Do you understand me?”

  Emyr falls quiet, his shoulders slumping, his body seeming to sink in on itself. “Yes, Father.”

  The sound of breathing and cutlery tapping expensive golden bowls is too loud.

  After a long moment of silence, Kadri clears her throat. “Yes, well. Be that as it may, it does not help matters that this wedding is the source of much ire from Derek’s followers.” The words are said calmly and factually, but they still manage to sting.

  “Why?” Briar demands. “Because of the fire?”

  “Because they don’t want one of his kind on the Throne,” Tessa responds. She isn’t looking at us. She’s staring at the tabletop, though the glazed look in her eyes leads me to believe she’s somewhere else entirely. “You would be hard-pressed to find a fae in the kingdom who supports this wedding.”

  “For now,” Leonidas amends, sounding more certain than he has any right to be. “I have all the faith in the world that Wyatt will be able to win them over.”

  Whoops. I hope you aren’t a gambling man, Leo.

  When Emyr taps his talons on the table and clips out, “Right, with his charming personality,” what I think he means is, We’ll be lucky if this little shit doesn’t burn the village down again.

  I’m pleased to see the softness he’d displayed only moments earlier seems to have evaporated. Good. I prefer playing with this version.

  When I lean forward and smile, stage whispering, “Oh, darling. You know I reserve my best charms for you,” what I mean is, You wanted me, now you got me, fucko.

  He sneers. The sight of his long fangs pressed against his plush lower lip is enough to have me curling my nails into the palms of my hands. “Lucky. Me.”

  “Splendid!” Leonidas is beaming as if his son and I aren’t throwing invisible daggers across the dining room table.

  Kadri sighs, pressing her thumb to the bridge of her nose and closing her eyes. “This is why I tried to have the contract annulled.”

  “What?” Immediately, the vibe in the room shifts, like we’ve gone and doused ourselves in cold water. I glance from the queen to Leonidas, who’s looking uncomfortable, to Emyr, who won’t meet my eyes. “What are you talking about?”

  “Emyr didn’t tell you?” Kadri lowers her hand. “The animosity from Derek’s faction has become so vile I thought this union would only serve to fuel them. I called upon the Court to dissolve your blood oath. We couldn’t come to a unanimous vote, and so it remains.”

  “No. Emyr d
idn’t tell me.” But I think she already knew that.

  Why wouldn’t the Court throw out our contract? What possible benefit could it have for them, the royals I’ve never met, from fae kingdoms I’ll likely never step foot in? And why did Emyr not tell me this, when I pleaded with him to go before the Court himself?

  When I finally manage to drag my gaze away from the queen’s face, I catch Tessa staring at me. Hard.

  The same way I wondered what Emyr saw that night in Texas, the first time he’d laid eyes on me in years, I wonder what Tessa sees when she looks at me. Does she feel the same uncomfortable communion between us, this strange and unshakable sameness? Does she look at me and see who she might’ve been had she been put together the wrong way?

  Does she really wish I was dead, or did she just say that to hurt me?

  I’m going to leave this dinner with way more questions than answers.

  Briar’s hand finds my thigh beneath the table. Through my jeans, I can feel the warmth and softness of her palm. All around me, I watch the way her yellow sunlight drapes across my skin. Before I met Briar, I never really understood the term sun-kissed.

  It’s the only thing that keeps me from going aflame when Leonidas says, “So, let’s set a date, shall we?”

  CHAPTER NINE

  I AM AN ANT

  The date we set is the last day of October. A Halloween wedding, though that means nothing to the fae. Five months away, the furthest out I could get Emyr—and Leonidas, who was somehow even more annoying—to agree to.

  I am not spending my Halloween getting married. I’m dressing up and going trick-or-treating, one of my most beloved human traditions in the world, before I start looking too adult to get away with it. There is no way I’m letting a wedding interfere with that.

  Which is how I’ve ended up here.

  “You know, normally I would try to discourage this kind of self-destructive behavior.” Briar tosses her braid over her shoulder and flashes me a dimpled grin. The afternoon sun beats down hard as we trudge up the hill, making her dark eyes glint. “But this sounds like fun for me, so.”

  Today, I’ve decided to steal a dragon.

  Specifically, I’ve decided to steal the king’s dragon. I remember the beast well enough from all the time Emyr and I spent riding him with Leonidas once upon a time. I think there is a favorable chance he isn’t going to take one look at me, open up his jaws, and swallow me whole. And if I’m very wrong, well, at least I’ll die for a worthy cause.

  Anyway, if anything might turn the people here totally against me, I think yeehawing with the fifty-thousand-pound, hundred-year-old flying monster who’s belonged to the royal family since he was a hatchling...will probably do the trick. Proximity to the dragons has always served as something of a status symbol for the fae. Not just anyone can show up and hop on one of these bad boys—at least, not just anyone is supposed to. Especially the one reserved for the king. It’d be like hijacking Air Force One to go joyriding.

  But Briar did say she wanted to meet the dragons, after all. Who have I ever been to deny Briar anything when I have the ability to give it to her?

  “I am not being self-destructive,” I huff, struggling to suck in enough air, struggling to keep my legs pushing my body upward instead of collapsing into a heap in the grass. Were I less weighed down with emotional baggage, I might’ve considered leaving my hoodie behind on this abysmally hot day. Every inch of me under the heavy black fabric is covered in sweat, and we’ve barely even gotten started. “I am...pursuing the greater good.”

  Briar, when I finally gave in and explained Derek’s scheming to her, was less than impressed. Between the two of them, I’m fairly certain she prefers the idea of King Emyr over King Derek, though that’s probably because Emyr isn’t the one who tried to have me executed when I first arrived. But, like, bygones and all that.

  Still, despite her general disapproval, she hasn’t tried talking me out of it. Not really, though I can see the cogs turning in her head when she scrunches up her nose and makes a face at my words. As if our ideas of the greater good are at odds, for the first time.

  Whatever she might be considering saying to me, though, it doesn’t matter. Because when we finally crest the hill, both of us panting and leaning forward to press our hands to our knees, the dragons come fully into view. Up close and personal this time. And all thought of anything else goes directly out the window.

  From the balcony of our bedroom, it’s hard to tell how big these creatures are. Here, standing in the grass not fifty feet away from where they’re clustered together and bathing in the sun, it’s clear they’re the size of houses. They come in varying colors, no shade quite the same, much like the energies we carry around. Their scales catch the rays of the sun and reflect it into the air, creating soft little prisms of light all around them, making it hard to see without squinting. A few raise their heads, twisting their long necks to glance in our direction when they sense they’re no longer alone, but none seem all that interested. They’re used to dealing with people. We are probably as exciting to them as ants are to us.

  “Wyatt,” Briar breathes quietly at my side. Yellow buzzes around her shoulders, twists down her arms to knot around her fingers.

  “I know.” I reach out to give her wrist a gentle squeeze. “Wait here until I say otherwise. If shit looks like it’s going to hit the fan, you turn around and roll down the hill if you have to.”

  “I’m not going to leave you.”

  “You sure as fuck are.” I squeeze again, brushing my thumb against the back of her hand. “What would you do to save me, anyway?”

  She bites her lip, and I can see the acceptance finally settling on her face, even as she huffs out, “I’m very charming. I might be able to talk him out of eating you.”

  “Mmm-hmm.” I let go of her wrist and start walking deeper into the clearing.

  It isn’t hard to find the beast I’m looking for.

  Summanus is not colorful like many of the others. His scales are black as pitch, every inch of him so dark it’s like staring into a void. He’s stretched out near the center of the field, probably a hundred feet long from the tip of his snout to the end of his tail, which is spiked and rounded at the tip like a morning star.

  I swallow any lingering fear and throw back my shoulders, and then trek right through the cluster of dragons sunbathing around him. One of them, obviously young because she’s hardly bigger than a hatchling, with baby-pink scales and bright red eyes, rolls from her back to her belly to consider me. I worry she’s going to rise to her feet and come romping over to investigate, but she seems content with watching.

  The rest of them don’t even bat an eye. I am an ant. I am fine with that.

  Finally, I come face to nose with Summanus. He lets out a snore that sends a wave of hot air blowing against my legs, and I am reminded in the most gentle way possible that he could, with very little effort, turn me into a toasted marshmallow. And what would I do if he did?

  Not shit, that’s what.

  Even though it’s been a few years and I’m probably definitely rusty, I remember enough of this little ritual to know what I’m supposed to do. I take a deep breath and rub my sweaty palms against my thighs before crouching down. My knees settle into the grass in front of him. My hands slip into the front pocket of my hoodie, fingers twisting together uncomfortably.

  A beat passes and he doesn’t move.

  I clear my throat.

  One eye pops open and stares right at me so quickly and with such sharp intent that I stop breathing. Summanus’s eyes are as black as the rest of him, two starless skies in the center of his long, keenly angled face. He stares at me. I stare back. Neither of us moves for what might be a very long time or might be only seconds.

  And then, as if it takes an enormous amount of effort for him to lift the great weight of his own skull, he begins raising his nec
k. He bobs slowly closer until he can press the warm, wet weight of his nose to my neck.

  I swallow. He takes a deep inhale that threatens to drag me like a speck of dirt right into his lungs. And then he pulls back again.

  Summanus’s mouth splits open, revealing row after row after row of metallic teeth, as long and sharp as swords. His forked tongue flicks out and whispers across my cheek, smoke billowing around us as he does. My heart threatens to give up its post.

  And then he lowers his head again, the moment gone. Only this time, those endless black eyes remain open, fixed on my face. Waiting. And I have my answer.

  I deflate like a water balloon exploding on impact. Maybe I’m not going to die today.

  Well, Summanus isn’t going to eat me today. But the day is still young. I’ve plenty of time to annoy someone else into doing it for him.

  Raising my hand toward the hillside, I crook two fingers, motioning for Briar to come over to us. She gives a too-bright grin and books it across the field, scurrying her way past the other sleeping bodies, only nearly tripping three times in her combined haste and awe. When she finally stumbles up against my side, gasping for breath and beaming at the massive creature in front of us, I grip the spot just below her elbow to steady her.

  God forbid she trip and land on this dude’s head.

  Summanus doesn’t seem phased by Briar, though. He blinks at her in an assessing sort of way, then goes back to looking at me.

  Oh, I see. I needed to pass the sniff test, but one look at her and she’s in the clear.

  Well, actually, that’s not all that surprising, I guess.

  A blush settles on Briar’s cheeks and she flashes me a gap-toothed smile. We’re good to go?

  I give her a nod. As good as we’ll ever be.

  Still holding her arm, I move her to the base of Summanus’s neck. “You wanna sit down in the space right between these spikes. Like a built-in saddle.”

  “Reminds me more of the bars on the roller coaster bucket seats,” she amends with a thoughtful hum, but does as I say, stepping up and over him to straddle his neck.