Knowing Jacob like I do, I can appreciate the seriousness of his statement. After being shunned by his entire family and most friends when he came out, he didn’t love easily. Hell, he didn’t even ‘like’ that easily. He’s always been guarded, even on less intimate levels, so this is huge. The fact he’s admitting this to me so soon, tells me how special Andras is.
“I’m so happy for you. You deserve this. Slow will be good for you, I think. I’d like to say we’re doing the same, but…” I trail off with a smirk.
“Oh, the whole camp knows it’s not slow,” he huffed out a laugh. My jaw drops and I gasp, feet freezing in place at the horror of the entire fae population here hearing me fuck my knights.
Apparently he just finds that hilarious. My best friend is now bent over, clutching his stomach as he belly laughs at my expense. I’m mortified at the thought of it, but I can’t even be mad at Jacob, his loud laughter making me giggle alongside him until my sides hurt.
“I was just messing with you. I’m glad you’re finally getting in some extracurricular activity,” he jokes. I blow out a breath, relieved that he was just being a brat and our sex lives are a mystery to the greater population. I can just imagine the hate I’d be getting if they thought all I wanted was to seduce the men and play with the crown.
“You aren’t far off, though. My relationships with the four of them developed out of nowhere. It's fast and intense, but amazing. Just like coming here," I admit, laughing at the insanity of our new lives. “Remember when the biggest issues we had to deal with were entitled coffee drinkers and my awful study skills?”
He chokes out a laugh. “Yeah, I still have nightmares about your procrastination.” He gives a fake shudder. He tried so hard to make me into a model student, but I’m far too chaotic at heart for that.
“Oh come on, I wasn’t that bad!” I protest. “My grades were great!”
“Only because you mainlined caffeine like a psychopath,” Jacob says with a judging look.
“It’s college, isn’t that what I was supposed to do?”
He shakes his head. “No, the stereotype is to drink and party and ignore responsibilities.”
“Well, we did have Diamonds,” I remind him. Our karaoke nights were amazing and I could definitely use some of that stress relief right about now.
After a few beats of silence, his expression shifts to something more serious. “How are you dealing with it all? I know better than to question your feelings for them, you’re the most put-together person I know in that sense," he says.
The question stuns me for a second. In all the shit going on, I honestly haven’t taken a moment to think how I feel about it all. I’ve just been running on adrenaline and doing what I feel I ‘have’ to do.
“I don’t know, I’m just handling it,” I admit. “If I thought about all the pressure and responsibility I’d probably lose my mind.”
“Fake it until you make it, Queenie,” he grins. “But you’ve got a council now, four very capable men, our friends, and most importantly me. You’re not alone.”
“The hardest part of it all honestly has been not losing my confidence with them. They’re all so handsome and strong and capable… and I’m just me. It’s overwhelming sometimes, but mostly I’m afraid they’ll just say fuck it and leave me. How can I keep four men happy and run a realm?”
“Well first, it’s not just your job to keep them happy, you’re all a team. And second, I’ve seen the way they look at you. You guys are already so in sync that when you move, they move. It won’t be hard to find your own strength in all this. Hell, you’ve already gotten one entire court taken care of, you’re more capable than you give yourself credit for. You’ve blown their minds with how strong your magic is and how easily you wield it. Faerie chose right, and so did they.”
I blink back tears as I realize how right he is. I did manage to do all that in a matter of days. And the fact that I’m not even worried about what lies ahead speaks to just how much I believe in the group we have to handle it all.
“Thanks, Jacob,” I whisper.
“We got this, Queenie. That’s why I pulled you away, I felt like you needed a reminder of how perfect you are, by someone who knows you well. You’re intelligent, strong, and caring. Plus, you have more support than any ruler I’ve ever seen, it's incredible. It’s been a whirlwind ever since Silver Forest, but I know what you mean, it just feels right," he reassures me. He’s so passionate as he says it that I know he means every word. Pausing for a moment, I hug him tight as a silent thank you before we start walkin
g again.
“Uh, Jacob? What are we doing here?” He led us to the worktables that my council set up. We were so busy talking I hadn’t been paying attention to where we were going.
“We have an idea for this area,” he explains excitedly, his whole face lighting up. Pulling me over to the stack of blueprints, he spreads them out a bit so I can inspect them all. At first it just looks like chaos, a jumble of random building plans, but as he continues to straighten them out his vision comes to life. It looks reminiscent of a school or campus, along with various other buildings. They’d seemed to have plotted out the structure of the whole town. And Jacob clearly lent his artistic ability, because they’re unlike any of the traditional buildings I’ve seen and they’re so well detailed.
“I was talking to Andras and I think that with all of the new fae that will be coming here, as well as humans, we need some sort of school. The academy will give us a place to teach those who want to learn the history of Faerie and the language, as well as practicing their magical abilities. Hell, even those born here are out of touch at this point. We have more fae coming through the portal every day. Clearly more survived than the two hundred the humans originally thought.”
“Agreed. I think Em will definitely be on board with helping train for battle. And once the wildlife is released, we’ll need the expertise,” I agree. Each new picture I look at blows my mind. I’d asked the team to start working on them, and I’d wanted to help, but I can’t even be upset that I wasn’t included. It looks beyond amazing.
“We’ll start by building your manor. We also want to build a council hall, the academy building, barracks, housing, and a cafeteria of sorts. Eventually it will be all this, but for now we’ll start with the basics so we can all function and sleep in a real bed. I was thinking that we should build an outdoor marketplace too," he explains, pointing to the building sketches as he describes each one.
“You guys killed it. They look great and you’re right, I like starting small then working our way up. The garrison next to the portal was smart, too. And if we expand eventually, we can train soldiers here before they choose which court to venture to. I want it to be an open Faerie, unlike before.” I’m so excited I can’t help but do a small happy dance as I stack the sketches back up.
“We did, didn’t we?” Jacob grins. But he looks relieved that I approve. He’s always been his own worst critic. This was some of his best work, though.
Footsteps approach and I turn around to see Maddox sauntering toward us, a bemused expression on his face.