Chapter 8

Chapter

Eight

SILAS

What the fuck am I doing here?

As soon as I'd handed off the bloom wisp, I'd slipped out into the crowd, hoping to disappear, but the prince's eyes always seem to be able to pick me out. There were a few looks from others as well, mostly irritation that I'd brought such delight to the prince when none of the other gifts seemed to bring anything more than polite thanks.

As soon as the prince is crowned, we are ushered into a grand ballroom where the people spread out and the prince is immediately surrounded by rich men trying to pass off their daughters.

Not overly familiar with anyone, I wander and question what I'm even doing. Curiosity led me here, but now that I'm here, I'm not quite sure what I was hoping to learn or find out. I'm on edge, watching every person who surrounds me, each of them laughing and drinking and having absolutely no idea that a monster hides in their midst.

Suddenly, I feel someone behind me, and I turn quickly, only to come face to face with the prince who is all smiles as he holds out the bloom wisp.

"I would like you to meet… Titus," he announces.

I stare at him in disbelief. "You named your murder mount Dandelion but the actual dandelion you name… Titus ? You sure you don't want to switch their names?"

"No, no, no. How does this not look like a Titus to you?" he asks as the little creature bounces off his hand to hover around his head. It settles down on top of the gorgeous crown that pulls back his wavy white hair.

"You want my honest opinion?" I ask.

He just laughs before sliding in close to me. "Help me escape."

"I'm pretty sure if I whisked the prince away from his very own ceremony, I would likely be shot down. I'd prefer to stay alive, thank you."

"That's no fun. Where's the thrill of the risk?" he asks, looking delighted.

"Yeah, because no one's going to hurt you," I say.

"It'd probably be like karma for all the people you've killed with your stew."

"My stew isn't that bad."

"I asked my uncle if you could be the chef. I thought that way I could leave early if everyone else has keeled over."

"I'm positive I haven't been paid enough to be here," I grumble as I notice a couple of women heading the prince's way. It's like the prince has eyes in the back of his head as his entire body tenses before he literally throws himself at me.

"Oh. MY. You are so funny!" he says, doing some weird pat thing on my chest while basically leaning against me.

The look the king is giving me tells me my execution is near.

The two young women appear rather confused as Callisto—or wait… isn't it Eli?—laughs and laughs.

"So Eli is your real name, right?" I ask.

"Oh, yeah. But you can call me Callisto. It can be our secret name."

"I'm just surprised your secret name is semi-normal after watching you name your pets."

"I am fabulous at naming things, thank you very much. Don't be jealous. What about Banks? How did you name Banks?"

"When he was a colt, he was stuck in some mud on a riverbank," I answer.

"Wow, I suddenly feel significantly better about my naming skills," he says as the king starts toward him. "The king is coming, isn't he?"

"Very quickly, too."

"I've never seen him move quickly," Callisto says as he catches sight of him.

"He's practically trotting now."

"Do you think I could play dead? Like… oh no… my heart…" He grabs it and staggers before glancing up at me. "This is where you whisk me into your arms and carry me away."

"Such lovely ladies, I bet you'd love to dance," King Samuel says as he ushers the hesitant women over to us. "Prince Eli would love to dance with both of you."

Callisto plasters a smile on his face before rubbing his leg. "I would absolutely love to, but I fear I've hurt my leg."

King Samuel lifts an eyebrow. "Weirdly, I watched you skip and dash over here and your leg looked beyond fine."

"Yeah, I hurt it while skipping."

"Oh, how awful. I bet a good dance will work out all the kinks," the king says. "Now let's decide which lovely lady will go first."

Callisto smiles brightly. "You know what I would love even more is to watch them dance with each other."

"Such a jokester, this one," the king says. "Danielle, I've known you the longest, so how about you go for the first dance?"

"I would be honored," she says.

Callisto leans into me. "What do I do? I don't know these fancy dances."

"I guess you're going to have to smile your way through it," I tease.

"Ah. Splendid. Yes, yes. My smile will get me anything. Lovely ladies, would you like to meet my new mount instead? He's such a handsome steed."

"Did you finally ride your new horse?" King Samuel asks, which is clearly not the steed that Callisto is speaking about.

"I don't have to have ridden him to show them. They will be in love either way."

"After you dance," the king says, and off Callisto goes, whisked away by the two women. The king slowly turns to me as I think about how easy it would be to kill him.

Okay, probably not the best thing to come to mind at a time like this.

"What was your name?" he asks.

"Silas," I respond as I stand uncomfortably close to him.

"Silas… you know, you look vaguely familiar."

"Have you ever eaten at my tavern?"

"According to Eli, anyone who does wouldn't live long enough to admit it," the king says.

I give him a forced grin. "Ah, he's such a jokester. I'm aware my skills are… lacking, but I promise it's not poison."

"I'm quickly finding out that he has a love for the dramatics," he says. "Now… about this little issue. I have no problem with you warming his bed at night, but until he takes a woman for marriage, I'd prefer for you to back off. I will pay you handsomely, of course."

"I think you are mistaken. There is nothing intimate between us. The prince is merely a source of entertainment as he forces me to drag him off to sales and other things. I like to believe I'm simply a plaything. He'll get bored of me soon enough. He pays me to be a guide."

"I see. Then why would you be here?"

"I think I might be here to annoy you," I admit.

"Understandable. Thank you for dealing with my concerns."

"The least I can do."

It really is the least I can do.

I wish the king would move on. Like really, anywhere else would be best. But what is this strange feeling I'm getting from him? It's the same feeling I'd gotten from Callisto when I touched him yesterday outside my tavern.

"The way you're fixated on me makes me want to remind you that I'm happily married to multiple women," he says.

"Oh, sorry. Just thinking."

He laughs and smacks my back, and I can just feel that strange magic bubbling up. What the fuck is that? And why do both he and Callisto have it?

"How long have you lived here?" he asks.

"About five years."

"What did you do before?"

"I was a farmhand, a trader, a wanderer—I did a little of everything, never settling on anything."

"Oh, do I understand that! When I was younger than Eli, I talked my father into letting me explore the world. Then the war came and ever since, I've been boxed in this town. Not that I don't love it. I just loved the sea."

"Makes sense," I say as I watch Callisto face the woman. They're in a line, doing a traditional dance that even I know and I'm not upper class. He's staring at the men around him, clearly unsure what to do, and so uncertain that when everyone else starts moving he turns and immediately bumps into the woman.

"Were you a soldier in the war?"

"I actually broke horses for the soldiers. The number of horses that died in the war left many soldiers without stock to ride. So we were breaking anything we could get our hands on. The turnaround time from pulling them out of the wild and throwing them into the war was… atrocious."

"Sorry, I don't know why I brought up something so distasteful."

"Nothing is as distasteful as the prince's skill in dancing," I say as I watch Callisto fumble with a passion.

"It's a good thing he's extremely intelligent. I swear my brother wasted all his time teaching him strategy and books and no time teaching him any social skills."

We both watch in horror as he trips the poor woman, sending her careening into another woman. And when he tries to catch the first one, he ends up in the path of another man who nearly knocks him down before looking horrified that he'd bumped into the prince. It's apparent he thinks his days are numbered after that blunder.

The king sighs. "I think I'm going to go try for another heir or at the very least call up my other brother's son," he decides as he wanders off.

Callisto, seeing that the king isn't currently scrutinizing him, quickly escapes to find me. "Hurry, run."

"Where are we running to?" I ask.

"Anywhere else."

"P-Prince, maybe we could go see your new mount?" the woman asks. She looks a bit disheveled from the dance, but still eager to go.

That perks up Callisto and she looks pleased by it as two other women come to join in. "Of course! His name is Dandelion," he says.

"What a cute name."

"Right? See, Silas, others find it fitting."

"Quite fitting," I agree dryly as I follow him outside with his entourage of women.

"Maybe we could go riding together sometime," the one who'd danced with him suggests.

"That would be significantly better than dancing," he says as he hurries outside, but instead of going to the stable, he rushes out to the very back where the crate stands with the atrocity inside.

The thing named "Dandelion" perks up the moment it sees us, but it remains stone still like a predator not wanting its prey to know it's there.

"He's… cute?" one woman offers even though she is blatantly lying.

"Ah yes… cute?" another tosses in.

Callisto seems pleased as he leads them up to where the beast is watching them like a creature zeroing in on them. It's obvious that it was waiting for them to get near before losing its fucking mind. It rocks the crate, thrashing and flailing as it sends terror coursing through all but Callisto (who just has love in his eyes) and me.

One of the women screams, another stumbles back and trips on her own dress—she'd have fallen if I hadn't caught her—and the third looks at the prince in confusion.

"I just got him. So I'm going to get some weight on him and let his wounds heal and then we can go for a ride."

"A ride with death. How fun," one says, which makes Callisto laugh.

"You wouldn't murder your papa, right?" He tries to scratch it through the bars. The creature misses tearing his finger off by mere seconds. "See how much he's already changing?" Callisto asks, like finger removal is "better."

"That's just because your finger was all it could reach," I say.

"Do you want to see my new friend?" Callisto asks the beast as he holds the puff ball out before Dandelion. Even that has the sense to stay away and slips into Callisto's sleeve.

Eventually the women get bored of looking at the creature—or perhaps questioning whether the prince is fit to be a spouse—and Callisto looks over at me after they wander off. "I have done it. I have successfully removed the pests."

"Is that what this is?" I ask.

"Good job, Dandelion!" he says as he tries to give the beast a pat. It simply tries to rip his hand off in the process. He just laughs.

"You know the king won't let you linger out here," I say as I nod at the door where someone is already coming to retrieve him.

"Fucking hell. I want to linger. How much do I need to pay you to kidnap me?"

"You don't have enough money," I inform him as I follow him back inside. He walks in like a dejected puppy but no one else seems to care. "Don't you have a personal guard or anything? You sure wander off alone quite frequently while the king is swarmed by guards."

"Oh, I do!" Callisto says as he points to a man sleeping on the table while cradling a spilled cup of alcohol.

"Do you ever get the impression that someone wants you dead?" I ask.

His smile falters a little as he studies the man dead to the world. "Oh no, he's really good. He… you know… does this so the enemies let down their guards. But if I were in real danger, he'd save me."

"Prince of Vermillion, I am going to kidnap you and torture you," I announce to prove my point.

We both startle as the man wakes.

"Oh shit," I say, kind of impressed… until he takes another swig of his alcohol and slams his head back down on the table.

"Maybe someone wants me dead," Callisto says before shrugging. "Ah well."

The king immediately drags him off, forcing him to leave me behind as people dance and drink and eat. The cacophony swells as they laugh and cheer, and a man with one arm bumps into me.

"Sorry, sir," he says as he tries to toast me even though I'm not carrying anything.

I twist away from the fae as the lights made of magic seem to shine too bright. Callisto is being dragged off by others and when he gives me a pleading look, I point to the door. The look of disappointment is clear on his face, but I ignore it and give him a wave then hurry for the door as a teenager bumps into me.

"Sorry," he says.

"No, it's okay," I respond as I push out and hurry to where Banks is waiting. Most people had arrived by carriage, so it's easy to find the mule, but of course he's not alone.

Madden is leaning against him and whispering something into his ear.

"Do not talk to my mule," I say.

"Did you kill them?" he asks. "You look like you killed something."

I grab him by the shirt and push him against Banks, who isn't at all disturbed by his owner preparing to threaten a man. "Don't bring it up again. And if you lay a finger on the prince, you will regret it."

"I'm not the one destined to kill the prince," he says until I tighten my grip. "Okay, okay. So feisty… I mean… I'm enjoying it a little, but I'd prefer we were naked."

I let go of him and push him out of the way so I can get up on Banks.

"You know we had to do it," he says. "You know we had no choice."

"Everyone has a choice."

"Yes, but if it wasn't for you, who knows what would have happened to the rest of us."

"Yeah, but now I'm done, and I wish the rest of you would understand that."

I turn Banks toward home and push him into a lope that will take me through the city. His hooves sound off the cobblestone streets, leading me away from a prince and a king and a collection of people who don't understand how dark life can get.