Linton
“WAKE UP! You chaotic bastard!” Warden roars in my ear.
I open my eyes and pain spears through my body.
“Kaitlyn!”
“Tam Lin took her. You’ve been out for hours,” Warden growls as I look around me.
Still in the throne room.
He paces, his hooves coming dangerously close to my face. With an effort, I sit up. An arrow pokes out of my chest.
“You could have taken it out,” I grumble.
“I wasn’t sure if it hit your good heart or your bad one.”
“Both of my hearts are good,” I snarl. “One is not so good now, as it has an arrow in it.”
“I thought your regeneration powers were at their peak with the hunter’s moon.” Warden finally stops clattering around.
“I haven’t been able to regenerate in a year. Give me a chance.”
“Yeah, well it means Tam Lin has your mate and a head start,” Warden says.
I tug at the arrow. It doesn’t want to come out.
“You could have gone after her,” I snap.
“What, and risk you thinking I was somehow involved in all of this?” Warden slams a hoof on the floor, making the stone ring. “Anyway, I was dealing with the Redcaps before I saw he had gone.”
I stare at the pile of bodies Warden has neatly piled in one corner. They almost reach the ceiling.
“You might want to think about moving home,” he says with a hint of apology.
“I’ll just send them to the Shadow Keep,” I growl, struggling to my feet.
Warden catches my arm as I stumble off to one side. My wings are not keen on working to keep me up.
“Steady,” he says as I shake him free and grasp the arrow shaft with both hands. “Wait, Linton…”
Before he can complete the sentence, I pull the thing free and slam my fist against the resulting open wound.
My second heart jumps in my chest, restarting the second the arrow is removed. I cough up some blood and spit it onto the floor in front of Warden.
“Has anyone ever told you how disgusting you are?” Warden backs up.
“Plenty of times. But then the Bluecap mating cycle has been a mystery to most of the Yeavering,” I respond as I rip down a wall hanging and shred it into a bandage which I wrap around my chest.
“You have a mating cycle? It is a real thing?” Warden is looking at me as I strap myself back together.
“At what point did you even inquire?” I respond.
“I never thought you’d mate,” he grumbles. “In fact it’s an image I’d rather not have in my head.”
“I can say without a doubt, putting my spicket into my sweet female has been one of the best times of my life.”
“Seriously, Linton. Stop it now. I think I’m going to be sick.”
“Have you ever put your spicket in a female? Or a male?” I ask, as Warden dances away from me, sparks rising from his hooves.
“If you don’t shut up, I will leave you here with the Redcaps,” he growls.
“You should. Filling up your mate with your seed is…” I involuntarily circle my hips. “Good.”
“Please stop, Linton.” Warden barrels close to me but stops short of actually hitting me. “Stop now.”
I shrug. It hurts.
“I am going to get my mate. If you wish to come with me, I will not stop you.”
“You’re going to take on Tam Lin again?”
“He thinks I am dead, or he would not have taken my mate,” I reply. “That gives me the advantage, along with knowing his motives and his plans.”
“You can’t have worked all that out from being speared by a Redcap.”
“On the contrary, he has shown all he will ever show.”
“There’s one thing I didn’t tell you about the Night Lands.” Warden snaps into his biped form and dusts himself down.
I growl at the mention of the place. Warden holds up his hands, his tail, still apparent, whisking behind him in agitation.
“Yes, it contains the portal which, if correctly opened, the soul used will sustain it forever.”
“Kaitlyn will be trapped?”
Warden nods gravely. “She will be lost to the Yeavering.”
“That will not happen,” I growl. “You need to take me to…” I grit my teeth and concentrate on the pain in my chest… “the Night Lands.”
Warden puts his hand on my shoulder.
“You’re going to need more than a few daggers, Bluecap. This is going to be your biggest battle yet.”
“Why would I need more weapons when I have you?” I grin at the Brag. He preens a little. “I’ve got the perfect shield when you’re around.”
Warden glares at me. “You got hit in the chest with an arrow.”
“You weren’t in the air.”
“I will stomp on you when I get the chance.”
“Try it,” I respond. “And see what happens to your hooves.”
He shakes his head. “You’ll never change.”
“I don’t want to change. I want to kill Tam Lin and any other Faerie who threatens my mate. They started this, and I am going to finish it.”
A smile spreads over Warden’s face.
“Fyr-baeth - Here-Wulf - Wuldres Thegn - Gast-Bona - Sund-Hengest,” he whispers.
“This is not isern-scur.” I retrieve the remainder of my daggers scattered across the floor. “I have had my fill of war, like the Wyrm and like the Barghest, even if you’re still hankering for it.”
“I was made for war,” Warden growls. “Which is why I took the Shadow Keep. If I am not fighting, I will be ensuring those who fight against us cannot do so.”
“And because you can’t die.” I slide the last dagger into the belt on my pants. “Anyone can enjoy a war if they don’t have anything to lose.”
Warden curls up his fists and closes his eyes briefly. When they open again, there’s a flame dancing within his pupils I’m not sure I’ve seen before.
“War is coming, Bluecap, have no doubt of it,” he rasps. “And one day I will be mortal again.”
“Good, because I’ll probably kill you for fun.” I make my way past the pile of Redcaps and out of my lair into the daylight.
My heart will heal, or rather the physical wound will. The emptiness from losing Kaitlyn will not. There is only one cure for that.
I will find her, and if I start a war in doing so, I will ensure it is finished with no Faerie left unscathed.
Because if I lose my Kaitlyn, what I will unleash on the Yeavering will be nothing short of the hell it deserves.