Chapter 22 Noth #2
As the chamber emptied out, Jax took a tray from the royal taste tester. I threw myself into a regular chair, sick of being on a throne. Jax plunked the tray onto the side table next to me.
“Eat. You didn’t eat breakfast and I’m sure you won’t be able to eat at your own coronation dinner.”
He was right. I wouldn’t risk it and everyone would want to get close and assess me, re-establish the pecking order of the court.
“I’m not hungry.” Hopefully, it didn't sound like a whine.
Jax sighed. He had become a pretty good bodyguard over these past few weeks. Yaya approved of him and his fighting skills. I paid him some ridiculous amount of talons. So I didn’t worry too much about a dagger in the back.
“Have you talked to her?” he asked, like there was anything else left to say.
“We’re taking a break. And I’m busy as the seven hells.”
I wasn’t. I was lost.
Jax looked unimpressed. “Act an ass if you want to, but you still have to eat.”
I knocked the tray clear across the chamber in a fit of shadows. I was right back where I started with the Elves, the Council, my life and I hated it.
“You eat it,” I said as I slammed out of the room. I needed out of all of this regalia.
Hours later, Yaya slipped into the training space where my Nightmare still caught the faintest whiff of poppy and earth.
I worked my muscles, my magic to the brink in the hope that I would calm down enough to face a dining room full of people there in my honor.
Yaya stilled my hands on the sandbag, turning over my bloody knuckles with a gentle grip.
I watched her search for the right words.
I wanted her wisdom like a plant yearned for water.
“Your hits are uneven if your front knuckle is taking most of the damage.”
I shook my head and scoffed, taking my hand away.
Working it out, my skin knit back together easily enough with my Nightmare constantly ready to fight and take more punishment.
She tossed me a blunted leaf-blade sword and I fell into the rhythm.
A leaf-blade required a graceful hand and a clear mind.
I had neither at the moment but Yaya wasn’t coddling me.
“Are you going to start looking for a bride?”
I tripped over my own feet and Yaya smacked my ass with the flat of the blade. Never once had she asked me this. I seethed.
“Going to suggest Maggie?”
She laughed as she swiped down and I blocked, recovering my equilibrium.
“Oh no, you fucked that to smithereens and not in the fun way. The crown waits for no heart. You have a territory to rule and eyes are already upon you.”
She was right but she usually didn't lecture.
“I felt all of them today. They don’t seem to have learned anything in my absence.
” I slashed in a three-stroke combination that Yaya easily deflected.
It was one of the first she taught me. “If anything, they’re more determined to go back to their old ways after seeing Brad bring them to the brink of a senseless war.
I should look like a guiding beacon of calm after that and Nemian is still up my ass. ”
Point, jab, she was just humoring me with something to occupy my hands while my brain tried to untangle this mess. “What does your Nightmare want to do?”
“Execute him. Maybe all of those that still look at me sideways.”
“Then you should try that.”
I started, shocked. Yaya’s wisdom didn’t usually run bloody. I couldn’t do that.
“You’re not just an Elf, my little Chubby Cheeks, but you’re still ruling like one. You have a proud legacy of terror to uphold from your mother's side. Let go a bit and show them what you’re made of. You have been a kind and judicious King for many years and they take you for granted.”
They had. They did.
Yaya telegraphed her next slash. “Change is not easy. And they will not progress if you’re not willing to do something about it. They don’t know how.”
The insinuation that I had work to do on my kingdom chafed, but only because that was the truth I knew all along.
“I don’t think I can without her. I’ve never been a leader who uses fear.”
Yaya considered this with due gravity. “A little fear can spur transformation and unblock obstacles.”
“What’s the point when she’s not here? None of it matters.”
Yaya raised an eyebrow and dug the point of her practice blade into the floor.
“Fine, you were right. She’s my mate and I destroyed it by holding her too close.”
Yaya laughed. “Noth. I love you, but everything literally isn’t about you. Maggie needed to find herself and you do too. What will she discover here when you win her back? A kingdom ready to assassinate both of you on the throne?”
“Most likely.”
“And whose fault will that be?”
Mine. She meant mine. I gritted my teeth in frustration.
“They should be grateful you returned at all. With the true Calix. Don’t let anyone know but Arel and Myrill are already pregnant. You did that. Only you. The True King.”
I nodded. I could do this. “Who needs a True Queen.”
“Make sure they are ready. That you are ready.”
I set down my blade, my Nightmare surfacing. He bubbled up into my skin, cracking bone, bending shadow to rest in my form. My many eyes blinked as I watched Yaya smile.
I gave her a grin that split my face open. “I will be.”