12. No Place Better to Be than with the Hope of the Mirror World
12. NO PLACE BETTER TO BE THAN WITH THE HOPE OF THE MIRROR WORLD
RUSH
My mate was the most incredible woman I’d ever known. That the queen should believe herself Elowyn’s superior served only as additional evidence that the darkness the twisted bitch clung to had consumed her so completely that she viewed the world in a wholly different light than everyone else. Elowyn was every bit the leader the queen should have been.
Elowyn had managed to save all of us, transporting us with her enchanted map that graced the most gorgeous body I’d ever touched. And then my mate had somehow wrangled the black dragon, terrifyingly fierce, into obedience—though it was undoubtedly disgruntled obedience if the frequency of the dragon’s annoyed chuffs were any indication. But he was stationary in the clearing, and no more trees threatened to crush us to death.
With care for his new scars, I dismounted from Bolt, absently rubbing his neck in appreciation. My horse was one of my most loyal companions. I trusted him as much as I did Hiro, Ry, or West. He deserved a closer inspection of the wounds he’d received while protecting my mate for me in the savage wilds of the Sorumbra. Yet I couldn’t steal my gaze from Elowyn.
After fearing for her survival practically every passing moment since I’d first fallen in love with her, and then recalling all at once how I’d forgotten her and abandoned her to the queen’s machinations, the need to join with her was a pulsing, physical demand, as loud as hunger or thirst.
I wouldn’t, however, allow Ivar out of my sight. If anyone might be knowledgeable of the queen’s plans, it was he. He was a slippery, conniving, merciless bastard of a fae—a good match to his darling monarch. Behind his constant disdainful sneer, he was almost certainly brewing plans for his escape.
I’d bound him with rope he himself had been carrying. Dragon Xeno had clamped a clawed hand around Ivar’s throat, I’d patted him down—and discovered a small box sized for a mere few pencils. When I touched it, nothing happened. But when I forced Ivar’s hand to rub along the unremarkable wooden case, it stretched into a trunk vast enough to fit him, expanding so swiftly that it smacked me along the shoulder and chin—hard. The chest contained sufficient weapons to outfit a small army, along with rope. Even confiscating the bespelled trunk, now once more pocket-sized, unease burrowed at the base of my spine. As clever as the queen was, I suspected Ivar was cleverer, and the cache of brutal weaponry was unlikely to be his only secret.
Gingerly, I placed the box atop a rock far beyond his reach and told Bolt, “I’ll find you water and food soon. In the meantime, stay on guard. If Ivar does anything suspicious, anything at all, drag him until it hurts so bad he screams, okay?”
I glared at Ivar, whose sneer deepened until it curled his upper lip, and then stared into one of Bolt’s big, dark eyes—damn, I’d missed him. The stallion tossed his head in affirmation. I ran a hand along his neck a few more times, ruffling his pelt and leaning closer. “Thanks, bud. You’re the best. I’ll be back soon. Stay on guard.”
He tossed his head again. The movement accentuated his new scars. Two long parallel lines slashed across his side, the end of one bisecting the jagged, silver streak of fur that had earned him his name, Lightning Bolt. The two new scars were red and shiny, starkly standing out from his black fur. His usually glossy pelt was dusty and clumped with grime.
“I’ll give you the care you deserve soon,” I assured him, swallowing the I promise I’d nearly added. In a world ruled by a wicked queen, I wouldn’t make any new oaths. After all, hadn’t I promised Elowyn I’d never forget her only to do exactly that?
“It’s useful to know how much you care about that horse,” Ivar said when my stare had already been flickering several feet away, where Elowyn and a goblin stood with Xeno, who remained in dragon form. Ivar’s voice was haughty as always.
I prowled toward him and lowered my face to his. “You won’t get out of here alive. So don’t bother making threats you won’t deliver on.”
A sneer curled his lip yet again, this time revealing teeth tinged pink with blood. Neither Xeno nor I had been gentle. “We’ll see about that,” he said.
My lips parted into a feral grin while I tapped the pommel of his cutlass, which hung from his weapons belt wrapped around my hips. It felt foreign and nowhere near as comfortable as my own, but in the absence of mine, which was back at the palace, I was grateful for his. There was a spot for my dagger and two throwing knives as well.
My voice came out like a blade scraping against a grinding wheel, my breath hot against his face. “You’ve stood at the queen’s side while she tortured, maimed, and killed the very subjects she’s sworn to defend. You’ve been her champion while she destroyed this kingdom, turning it into a nightmare world it was never intended to be. You dove in front of Gadiel’s arrow to save her when all you had to do was stay out of the way.”
He snorted, turned his face away from mine. “She wouldn’t have died anyway. She only would have killed me for not defending her when she knew I could have.”
With a rough hand, I squeezed his cheeks and jerked his stare back to me. “I believe you.” I frowned. “Regrettably. ”
His eyes were frigid as they held mine.
“I never could figure out why you do it,” I said.
His nostrils flared, but he eventually asked, “Do what?”
“Stand by her. Protect her. Kiss her ass at every turn.”
He flinched, but it was so fleeting, I wondered if it had been a twitch instead.
“I don’t kiss her ass,” he protested, but didn’t put much energy into it.
I laughed bitterly. “Why, Ivar, why ? You’re smart. Everyone can see that. Surely you see she took a kingdom that was always intended to reflect the glory of Faerie and turned it into an Igneuslands. Why would you support her when she’s doing that?”
His jaw clenched, his throat worked. His eyes lost their coldness until they reflected nothing at all. “Is this your plan? To bore me into confessing?”
“Sure, why not? What do you wanna confess?”
He scowled. “Nothing. Of course, nothing. You won’t get anything out of me. My allegiance is to the queen, in life and in death.” He tipped his chin up. “Kill me if you must, but I won’t betray her.”
I studied him for long enough that I decided he meant what he said. “Stupid move. She doesn’t deserve your loyalty.”
Gesturing with my chin, I indicated the horse limping at the edge of the clearing. His scales were a scarlet so deep they were almost the color of rust. His mane and tail were hair of the same hue. “Is he your horse?” I asked.
Ivar blinked languidly, then shrugged. “I ride him. If that makes him mine, then sure.”
His affectation was too heavy handed. Damn, he actually cared for the creature—and fully expected me to use that affection as a weapon against him.
I grunted. “I’m not like her. I’d never hurt an innocent creature to get you to talk.”
The earlier cold of his eyes burned away in a sudden flash of heat. “Yet you sliced him open. He can barely walk.”
“And I regret that.” I glanced at the animal, who whined as he tried to lean all his weight into one side of his body. “Deeply. But you were guiding him to trample Elowyn, and I couldn’t allow that. You must have known that.”
When he didn’t say anything, I asked, “What are you even doing here? Why’d you follow us?”
He pressed his lips together.
“To gather info the queen can use against us and then report back to her?”
His smile was close-lipped and fake. “Yeah. Whatever you think.”
With a final scowl for him, I stalked toward Elowyn. Without turning, she reached a hand out to me. I all but ran to curl myself around her. My arm slid around her waist and tugged her close as she and a goblin examined Xeno’s wings .
Without moving her focus from Xeno, she said, “Rush, this is Edsel. Edsel, Rush.” Finally, she looked up at me, her face softening into a smile. “Edsel is Pru’s granddoody. He’s the healer who helped me after I got out of the queen’s doorway.” She shuddered at the intensity of the memory.
I vowed to murder the queen all over again. No death would be sufficient for her. No end equal to all the pain she’d caused.
“Pru?” I asked distractedly, before remembering. Of course: Elowyn’s goblin attendant.
Edsel was already glowering at me.
“Where is she?” I asked in what I hoped was a smooth attempt to fix my lapse. It wasn’t as if nobles were in the habit of asking their goblins their names…
Elowyn leaned into my side and … did she sniff me? I lowered my head for her lips. But she turned hers in the direction where Pru was, presumably.
“She’s over there. Helping with the fae who were in the cabin when it caved in. She’s watching Saff for me too. I needed a little break.”
My entire body stiffened. “The cabin caved in? Why?”
Elowyn craned her neck upward until the black dragon was in her sights. “Guess.”
I sighed, my shoulders tightening. “Is everyone alright?”
“Workin’ on it,” Edsel muttered, then told Xeno, “Spread ’em a bit wider. ”
Xeno opened his wings to their fullest extent. El’s breath hitched; I immediately understood why. The membranes of Xeno’s wings were as much scar as they were wing.
“What happened to him?” I asked in shock, wondering how I could be surprised anymore at the torment this world dished out at every turn.
“Umbracs,” Elowyn hissed bitterly. “The fuckers tried to kill him. But he’s way too strong to take down. Isn’t that right, X?”
The mate bond inside me reared possessively at her obvious affection for another male, even though I could take no objection to how good he’d been to her. For his part, Xeno only grunted a dragonly grumble and pulled his wings tight to his body.
When he turned to face us, Elowyn asked Edsel, “So? Can you help him?”
The goblin frowned ferociously, rubbing both hands along his stubby, short hair that stood straight up. He scrunched his face in consideration, accentuating a deep scar denting the bride of his nose. “He’s already had healing done, and fine work of it too.”
“That would be Finnian,” Elowyn said.
“Where is Finnian?” I asked. “I haven’t seen him.”
Dragon-Xeno might have … whimpered?
Elowyn glanced at him before answering gently. “He’s dead, Rush. Died in the Sorumbra.”
“Motherfucker.” I breathed in, out. Tightened my hand on the grip of Ivar’s cutlass. “Damn.” And I still owed him a debt for finding Elowyn when the queen had locked her up in the human dungeon. I’m so sorry, Finn. May your memory live forever. May your essence voyage to the Etherlands.
She sighed, laden with lament. “The green dragon didn’t make it either. We left him behind in the dungeon. We’ll have to free him when we go back.”
Only the somber tone of her voice suggested what I already suspected: there was no saving the green dragon. The queen had broken him in ways that could never be repaired.
“Is that it, girly?” Edsel interjected. “I gotta get back to the others. It’s not lookin’ good.”
Elowyn glanced at me, seeming to notice the blood matting the hair at my temples, layering on top of the blood that had already been crusted there. “Do you need looking at?”
“Nah. I’m fine. But what about you? You have cuts all over you.” A snarl ripped through me before I could stop it.
“I’m okay,” she said, around a smile that suggested I was exaggerating.
If anything, I was underplaying the situation. Slices, scabs, and healing scars slashed along the small bits of bare skin I could make out around her fighting leathers. The flesh at her nape that wrapped around to her collarbone was a mottled black, blue, and yellow.
I dipped my eyes to catch the goblin’s. “Thank you, Edsel. For all you’ve done to help here, and especially for helping Elowyn. I owe you a debt for your care. ”
Surprise flashed in the goblin’s eyes before he concealed it, nodding sharply.
“Yeah,” Elowyn said. “Thanks, Edsel. I appreciate anything you can do to help Xeno. He’s very important to me.”
My heart squeezed in jealousy I hoped I’d never have to admit to … until I noticed Xeno’s stare upon my mate. His dragon eyes were shiny and morose, as if he wanted her as badly as I did and he understood he’d never have her. The spike of rivalry waned, replaced by compassion. I didn’t want to imagine how it would feel not to be able to have her beside me. I needed her so intensely—so savagely—I might break if I didn’t get to have her.
I’m sorry, Xeno , I projected to the changeling, knowing I’d never say it aloud.
I wanted to run away from all our problems and spend the next century at least making non-stop love to Elowyn. But since I was a boy I’d been learning that my responsibilities as a drake meant that the needs of my subjects came before my own. Now I needed to give priority to the needs of every person and creature of the Mirror World. Even so, I wanted to at least feel her lips upon mine. To taste her while I pulled her body against me.
But Xeno’s eyes were too sad, too defeated, even though I suspected he didn’t realize how much of his emotions he revealed. I pressed a kiss to her crown instead, then nodded to the male in his dragon form .
“I’ll go with Edsel to check on the others,” I announced.
And though it pained me to leave my mate with a pining male, after a wary glance at the black dragon who occupied most of the sizable clearing in front of the cabin, I trotted after the goblin, noticing his gait was odd. I considered pretending I hadn’t noticed his legs were different, but the goblin seemed to appreciate straightforwardness.
Drawing up beside him and shortening my step to match his, I gestured to his wooden-like feet. “The queen?”
He stared at me for a long moment before a blunt, “The queen.”
“We’re gonna kill her,” I vowed, uncertain why I continued to feel so certain. How I could still have faith when our greatest victories so far had been merely to escape her?
A single look back at El, who was talking in soft tones to Dragon-Xeno, and I understood why.
Edsel’s gruff voice cut into my thoughts. “She’s remarkable.”
Brows arched, I glanced down at him. “She is.”
“I’d lost hope of seein’ a better world ‘fore I leave it. I only thought to survive, ye know. Make it through enough days to take care o’ my gran’gobbler—that’s Pru—try to give ‘er some kind of future. But after meetin’ your mate?—”
My brows jumped again. “How do you know? ”
He tsked and scowled. “I been ‘round a good while. I know things.”
I chuckled despite myself. “Noted.”
We’d reached the others. Edsel hovered on the edge of the group of friends and the queen’s captives laid in rows among them. They obviously needed him more than I did. Even so, I hesitated to let the goblin go.
I lowered my voice so only he would hear. “I really think Elowyn can take her down.”
“I know,” Edsel replied again. “‘Tis why I’m here. Got no place better to be than with the hope of the Mirror World.” He started toward the others, Pru tilting her face expectantly toward him.
“Edsel,” I called.
The stocky goblin stopped, turned. “Aye?”
“Are you the only healer here?”
He shrugged. “Ain’t met everyone proper like yet. But I think so.”
I nodded. I hadn’t met everyone either. “When you have the chance, I’d really appreciate it if you’d see to Ivar’s horse. He’s really hurt.” I hesitated. “And I’m the one who hurt him.” I’d raced Bolt out into the clearing in a blur, my attention fully affixed on Elowyn and the immediate threat to her. I didn’t know who’d witnessed my attack on the horse.
Edsel cocked his head to one side and craned it back to take me in. “Ye want me to heal the horse ye sliced?”
“Aye. Please.”
He hummed mysteriously. “I’ll see what I can do. Ye gonna squeeze every drop of intel outta that slippery advisor ye got captive there?”
My mouth hardened into a firm line. “Most definitely.”
“See that ye do.” Edsel straightened his shoulders and surveyed those who needed him before settling on a fae at the edge of the group who was so thin and so motionless I could scarcely believe he was still alive.