Chapter 13
Ihad nothing to reference to say how long we zoomed through field and forest on the back of a unicorn to the border with Summer, but it felt insanely fast and Ottokar was nowhere to be seen behind us.
We startled the hell out of the soldiers who saw us first as Silver Sparkle came to a screeching halt in their midst.
Immediately, Hydris hollered, “Where is General Albion?”
Fingers pointed mostly in the same direction.
“Fetch him,” Hydris said like that should’ve been obvious.
I grinned at the bossiness that seemed to come naturally to my little prince now as I gripped his hips and lifted him up over my head.
His wings fluttered and he flew around to pick me up and set me on the ground as Silver Sparkle shrank back to her normal—maybe preferred—pony size.
While we waited for the general’s arrival, Hydris baby-talked to the unicorn about how fast and wonderful she was.
I almost joined in because she was all that and more, but I decided a respectful distance was better for both of us.
All around us were soldiers who looked a little too thin and awfully nervous.
Only some of them had any armor at all, like maybe they’d run out by the time they got to these guys.
I couldn’t believe that the presence of their prince was making them that twitchy—he was still cooing at a unicorn—so what was it?
Oh. Did they think he was here to start the war?
“It’s not happening,” I told them. “He’s here to stop all of this.”
“What?” several voices asked.
Hope lit a lot of their faces, and I knew then that I was right. None of them wanted to fight, but they were terrified they would have to.
“We’re here to tell the general to retreat. There will be no war.”
One kid made a sound like he was trying to keep a sob inside as everyone around us looked to Hydris. Thankfully, he was finally done praising his unicorn and had started paying attention.
“That’s right,” he said before pausing to clear his throat. “No more fighting. You’ll all be going home now.”
That kid started loudly crying, several more being quiet about it, and all of them visibly relieved.
I’d never served, so I had no idea what it might be like, but this entire scene had me feeling like these people had been living through hell.
Because of past wars? Because of the threats used to get them here for this one?
It honestly felt like Hydris had just liberated them.
“What’s going on here?” a big bass voice barked as a large man in shining silver armor stomped into view. He shoved out of his way those who didn’t move fast enough and frowned with full judgement at those who were crying. “Explain yourselves!”
I could see Hydris shrink a little, and I didn’t blame him. That had to be General Albion and he was an intimidating guy who no doubt used that to his advantage. Him and Mannix had probably gotten along like a house on fire.
“General Albion,” Hydris said with his shoulders back and head held high.
“What? Ah. Finally,” the general said as he seemed to notice Hydris and recognize who he was. But then he looked to someone else and said, “Tell the front to start the attack.”
“No! I am not here to start,” Hydris said forcefully. “I’m here to end this. You will remove all personnel from the border and return them to their normal duties.”
“Normal duties?” the general scoffed. “These are farmhands and useless layabouts recruited on the march here to fight for their way of life against our enemies.”
Well, that explained the crying. They were only dressed like soldiers.
“General, I will not say this again, so hear me now. There will be no war today or any day.”
A shiver went through me at the rock solid tone of Hydris’s voice. He was tapping into his princely side and it was incredible to watch.
“No war?” The general seemed genuinely confused. “I have several communications from you detailing exactly what you want from this conflict.” He waved his hand at someone who might be an aide, and they promptly started fishing around in a satchel.
Hydris shook his head. “You have been communicating with Lord Mannix, who was acting without my consent.”
“I don’t believe it.” He grabbed a handful of papers from the aide and waved them at Hydris. “Every single one of these has your seal on them.”
“Something easily forged.”
They stared at each other from some ten feet apart, and damn but it was hot to see Hydris holding his ground like that.
“I unmade Mannix for his crimes this morning, General. I would hate to have to do the same to you for disobeying me now.”
I bit my lip to keep from smiling too much as I fell even more in love with my vicious little prince.
The general shoved the papers back at his aide and frowned so hard that his eyes nearly disappeared beneath his brows. “Sound the retreat. Have them moving within the hour.”
As the general stalked across the open area between them, obviously heading toward an opulent tent, it occurred to me that maybe, under normal circumstances, a general wouldn’t be so dismissive of his leader.
“General?”
He paused and swept his gaze over me.
“Is His Highness not your prince?”
I got a narrow-eyed stare, probably made an enemy, but then the general bowed to Hydris. “Your Highness,” he said and there was only a little bit of a growl to the words.
Hydris gave a little grunt and waved his hand very dismissively.
My god, he was going to get the fucking of his life as soon as I could find a place for us to be alone. I very nearly told the general to sulk somewhere else because we needed his tent. Woo!
I was only peripherally aware of soldiers hopping on horses and racing away in different directions—presumably to relay the order to retreat and pack up or whatever—because Hydris started walking over to me.
Flowers bloomed as soon as he lifted his foot to take another step. He was leaving a trail of flowers behind him, just like he said he used to do.
Hydris giggled as he gazed up at me. “You look like trouble.”
I nodded because yeah. “After that incredible display of power, would it be a bad idea to kiss you?”
He smiled. “That’s never a bad idea.”
I looped an arm around him to pull him up onto his tip-toes, cupped his jaw, and gave in to ravishing him.
I could feel his wings fluttering as he slipped his arms around my shoulders and held on.
When he felt how I was getting hard, he pressed his thigh more firmly against me, and had us both moaning into our kiss.
Only when a few whoops and laughter registered did I remember that we had a huge audience at the moment. We chuckled at each other before I set him down again.
“Let’s go look at the barrier,” he suggested and took my hand.
Everyone else seemed to have something to do now as they got ready to leave, so we wove our way through them all toward the border.
I could see the barrier easily now because, though it was still stretching toward the clouds and the horizon, it had cracks and whole sections that were broken out of it. Big chunks of what looked like glass were stabbed into the ground as though they’d fallen.
“Maybe we shouldn’t get too close,” I suggested.
“Yes, this is quite dangerous.”
Hydris put his hand on a piece of barrier that was about the size of a house. Instantly, it turned to water and splashed down all around us!
“Hydris!”
“I didn’t meant to!”
I laughed even though I was soaked to the skin. “No, do it some more.”
“Oh!”
He flew away from me, touching all of the fallen chunks and reducing them to puddles. On his flight back, he ran his hand along the barrier that still stood. It came down like a giant waterfall and turned itself into a river, the ground clearly too saturated to absorb it all.
Laughing like pure joy, Hydris scooped me up for a brief flight that ended with me spinning us around and kissing him.
“You’re amazing, Hydris.”
“I don’t even know why that worked,” he said as he leaned against me. “Do you think the whole thing came down?”
“Maybe? I’m guessing Silver Sparkle could have us ride the length of the entire border in a couple hours to check. If she wanted to,” I amended when I saw that she’d followed us out here.
“Bridge! We need to get to the Winter border.” He shook me a little and stared off in the other direction. “We need to organize a food delivery for them at the very least, but we’ll have to find out what else they need.”
“We can absolutely do that.”
It occurred to me that there wasn’t a single soul on the Summer side of the former barrier. That was probably a very good thing. If there had been, both sides might’ve fought each other regardless of what their leaders told them. As it was, though, our Spring forces were already walking away.
“Do you feel that?” Hydris said as he closed his eyes and spread his arms open in the sun. “It’s warmer here.”
“Summer merging with Spring?” I suggested before I looked down and realized there was a garden of flowers around Hydris’s feet. “Look.”
He looked and let out a startled laugh. Then he was running around, looking over his shoulder at all the flowers growing in his wake. Very soon there were so many flowers of all kinds just waving in the breeze coming from Summer.
“They’re staying,” Hydris said breathlessly when he stood in front of me again.
I remembered back to how they’d withered the second he wasn’t touching them anymore. Not this time.
“You’re you again.”
“I’m a better me.”
“Yes.”
“Because of you.” He fluttered up so he could wrap his arms around my neck.
“Oh, I might’ve played a part, but you did the changing.” I hugged him close and started walking back the way we’d come. “You’re strong and brave and willing to ask for help when you need it.”
He blushed, but I knew he believed me.
“I love you,” he said.
“I love you, too.”
Hydris startled a laugh out of me when he picked me up and set me down on Silver Sparkle, the massive version. He was facing me and, though my thoughts immediately went in a very wicked direction, I had to say, “We are not doing anything naughty on the back of this unicorn.”
He giggled and blushed, but I had a feeling he wasn’t going to listen to me.
I didn’t really mind.