Chapter 22

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

ORION

" W ho are you?" Anya demanded.

The prince straightened, his focus on the spider.

"I mean no harm," he answered, his voice much deeper than his twin brother's. "I'm Prince Dorian."

Rather than long hair, the prince sported a shorter haircut, eloquently coiffed. While his brother favored burgundy suits, Dorian wore them in either emerald green or sapphire blue, a silver rose brooch always pinned to his left lapel.

"Another member of the royal family come to manipulate our precious queen?" the spider accused, venom dripping from her fangs.

He shook his head, his eyes finding me. "I'm here to stop my brother."

King Damien seemed to regain some of his confidence in the presence of his twin. "Stop me?" he got to his feet. "Why would you stop me?"

"Because, quite frankly, you're an idiot."

Wow. Just look at those angry fists the king made. He didn't like being talked back to one little bit.

"I am your king," he returned, pouring vitriol into his response. "How dare you speak to me in such a tone? You are as bad as him." He pointed an angry finger at me.

Dorian folded his arms. "You're a king who's lost his way. You can't replicate this realm; you have to defend it. We've been expecting a turn in the tide. We've always known we've been delaying the inevitable, that Dawn will come to us one day. And now it's here."

"All the more reason to make a new Faery," Damien countered.

The prince shook his head. "I swear you live in denial, brother. Did you not see what was happening here on the watching orbs? Or were you too blinded by greed? I'm thinking the latter. Nevertheless, we have to prepare for war."

King Damien chuffed. "I see. You advocate war and bloodshed while I seek the peaceful solution. Understood. This is exactly why mother chose me over you."

Wonderful. My final hours got to be spent listening to the bickering of royal twins.

"She chose you because you're her favorite," Dorian returned. "But I don't care. I'm here to stop you, to make you understand that we have to fight for our realm." He pulled an orb from his pocket. "I had an encounter with something outside the city walls. I recorded it to show you, but you'd already left the palace."

Dorian handed his brother the orb.

The king clicked a button on the sphere and a projected video appeared above it, the rectangle big enough for us all to see.

Shaky video revealed the beach below the monolithic Majestic City. A skeleton stood on the sand with pink fires blazing in its eye sockets, bones rattling as it hopped from foot to foot.

"I am coming for you all," it said. "An ocean of me devours." Dawn howled with laughter, the skeleton collapsing into a pile of bones.

The video ended there.

King Damien paled. "What is this?"

"I think Dawn is building an army with a variety of the dead."

"Which makes sense," Wendy cut in. "It can't withstand the blood of the fae, but it can have the undying ones, the dead, and soon it will get a firm grip on the other creatures of this realm."

"By the stars," I added weakly.

Dorian offered me a sympathetic smile. "I'm so sorry my brother did this to you. I will fix it, don't worry."

Damien moved to cut off the prince as he came towards me. "Go home. Now. This does not concern you. None of this does. You are nothing more than my subject with the luck of royal blood in your veins. You have no power here. Now go home before I beat you to a pulp."

At that moment, Anya scurried at the king. She reared and drove her fangs into his left shoulder. He immediately collapsed into a twitching heap, then went as still as his guards.

I yelped in surprise. A spiteful agony gnawed at my insides, the pain making my eyes water. The effects of the moat diminished, drawing several desperate cries from my throat.

"I had enough of his tongue," Anya said.

"Understandable," Dorian replied.

Wendy buzzed on my cheek. "Hold on, Orion. Please hold on." She took off, flying up to the first cell she'd filled. "The deal is broken. The moment the honey is ready, we are out of here."

"I'll heal you." Dorian's deep voice drifted into my ears, full of softness. "Everything will be okay." He cleared his throat and pulled the most ridiculous face I'd ever seen. It wasn't particularly funny, but the ridiculousness of it got me laughing like a child.

The last thing I expected was a prince to be a clown.

He held that face, moving closer toward me. My laughter increased, coming up from my core, rolling through my body, bursting out of my mouth in a wild frenzy.

I couldn't stop. I fully lost myself to the giggles, eyes streaming with tears, unable to breathe, the pain in my belly dissipating by the second.

My wounds knitted back together, painless threads of something undoing Damien's damage. They kicked the fatal injury into the abyss.

The laughter stopped with a jolt, like a painful hiccup. I shot up, clutching my chest, gulping on the blessed air, my head full of worm fluff.

Dorian bent to pat my back. "You're okay now." He sat down, shoulders slumped as he recovered from the healing act. It would take him five or ten minutes to recover if he was anything like me after I'd used my gift.

The prince had healed me. Wow. Now that was something to take in. That was something you didn't experience every day. And I loved that his healing method came from laughter. After all, wasn't it one of the best medicines?

Anya picked up a canteen of water with one of her legs, the leathery pouch sticking to it.

"Catch," she said, tossing it to me.

I caught it and gulped down the sugary liquid until there was nothing left.

"Th-Thank you…" The fuzziness in my skull began to clear, my breathing returning to normal.

"You are welcome, fae friend."

Wendy returned to tickle my cheek. "I'm so happy you're okay." Then she flew off again.

"Thank you, Your Highness," I said, getting to my feet.

"Think nothing of it." He sat up. "My brother is ridiculous. Ever since he encountered that starfish, he's been on this insane mission to replicate our realm while ignoring everything else."

I rubbed the back of my neck, a dull ache there. "I have to get back to Earth."

The prince nodded. "As soon as you're ready, I'll take you back in my carriage." He addressed the spider next. "May I ask how long it will take for my brother to recuperate?"

"A day," Anya answered.

"Thank you."

"There is something we must discuss," the spider added. "A life has been taken here. My poor Agatha is dead by the hand of a fae. This fae must pay in blood."

Oh. Crap.

"Such is the custom of the snow spiders," Wendy contributed. "But I cannot allow death in this hive."

"There is no need for death, Your Majesty. Only a blood price he can pay immediately."

"How will he pay?" Dorian asked.

"I will show you." Anya moved slow and spidery, positioning herself above the paralyzed guard. She lowered her head, every eye radiant jewels. I didn't see what happened next, only heard the slurping as if she were sucking down an iced coffee.

I surmised that she was draining his blood.

Yuck.

Once done, she crab-walked slowly back to her previous position, then curled her legs beneath her. "Delicious. He remains alive. The price is paid." With that, she fell asleep.

"It's an honor thing.," Wendy said from the heights. "I'm just glad there wasn't any murder. That fae is lucky. He could've been eaten alive, starting with his head."

I shivered, swallowing an acidic bubble. "Thank goodness he wasn't."

Prince Dorian sat up, asking ever so politely for some of the golden water. Wendy allowed it and he drank half a canteen's worth.

"That is glorious," he declared.

"Really is," I agreed. "Thank you again for saving my life."

"Not a problem. But I'm afraid we should be moving soon. Who knows when Dawn's next attack will come."

I watched the dark maw of the tunnel entrance, terrified of seeing movement. I chewed on my bottom lip, anxiety crawling over my skin.

"It shouldn't be much longer," Wendy said. "Keep praying."

I did. So, so hard until I saw stars swimming across my vision.

"Our blood might be able fight Dawn," I said, going into further detail. "Not sure how without draining everyone dry."

He nodded. "Strange, isn't it? What's in our blood?"

I shrugged, wondering if we could fill water pistols with it. Or at least add some drops to the water and fire away.

Hmmm.

What about asking the blood magi to help? There might be some out there who didn't want to?—

No. Forget them.

To alleviate the following silence, Wendy gave a brief history lesson on the snow spiders.

"They have a life span of two-thousand years. Some even live longer than that. They only have to feed once a century, and their numbers are always small."

"Until Agatha's death," Anya said, "there were eight of us. Now there are seven."

"Oh. You're awake?" Wendy asked.

Anya started snoring.

Maybe not.

"Miko? Can you hear me?"

No answer.

"I'm okay now," I added.

Still no answer.

About three minutes later, one of the cells brightened, the honey glowing beautifully.

"It's ready," Wendy said, buzzing jubilantly.

What a relief.

Wendy's little legs moved quickly, drawing the honey out of the cell. She formed tiny balls resembling the baubles for winter solstice. My mama owned some seriously gorgeous solstice baubles.

"Incredible," Dorian said.

Yes, it certainly was.

A yeti's roar ripped through the tunnel, stirring Anya back onto her spider legs. She returned a hiss, the hairs on her body twitching.

My stomach somersaulted. Not now. Not when we're this close.

"They cannot enter here," Anya said. "Too big." She twitched so rapidly it made my scalp itch. Friend to Wendy or not, she was still a spider, and I couldn't even handle a Faery penny spider invading my beach hut at the best of times.

"Wretched yetis. They are weak under the power of Dawn." Anya moved forward. "The undying are coming. Brace yourselves."

Moments after she gave the warning, pink eyes cut through the darkness.