A Throne of Ruin (Deliciously Dark Fairytales 2)

I blew out a breath and looked around the garden. I supposed that was true, in a way. For now.

I smoothed my hair back over my head, tightening my ponytail. “Regardless, I can undo the damage if he doesn’t know how. It’ll just take time. It’ll take working the soil. I’ll start the day after tomorrow.”

“Do you have the magic?” Jawson asked, and I braced my hands to my hips.

“No. I have run-of-the-mill gardening gifts.” I headed back to the wall. “I can get the same results—it just takes a lot of hard work and determination.”

“Those gifts are still magical, Miss Finley,” Jawson said, and all three guys turned toward me, keeping their shoulders squared with me. “Some gemstones are created from the crush of time. Buried deep in the bedrock, they grow stronger to resist the temptation to turn to dust under the weight. When they finally emerge, they are as strong as they are beautiful. You are such a gem, I should think. Your best magic isn’t going to be in the books, Miss Finley. Your magic will write the books to come.”

His words punched me right in the feels. I gave him a sappy smile. “Thanks for saying that, Jawson. It’s nice of you.”

I turned and jumped up and grabbed the top of the wall.

“What are your plans for this evening, Miss Finley?” Hadriel called.

I paused in swinging my legs over. “Did you just call me Miss Finley?”

He rolled his eyes. “I apologize. What came over me?”

“Sense,” Jawson drawled.

Hadriel shot him a scowl. “I was going to say I got swept up with these nitwits, but sense left them years ago.”

“Keep talking, shitstain, and we’ll get to that wrestling match,” Gyril muttered.

“Suck a rock, Gyril.” Hadriel gave me a grin, a twinkle in his eye. “Forgive me, my love. I lost the color in my personality for a moment. What a boring butler I would be then. What are you doing this evening?”

I laughed, much preferring this Hadriel to the stodgy butler variety. “I’m going to go clean up, and then I’m going to visit the library until curtain call.” I didn’t mention harvesting the everlass. He’d just tell Nyfain, and Nyfain would either forbid me or follow me around in brooding silence, grating on my nerves. I had my dagger, and I had a few new moves. I’d be fine.

“The library.” Gyril nodded. “That is the best place for a young woman such as yourself. Read all you can, Miss Finley. Improve that mind to match your courage and strength of personality. You’ll be unstoppable.”

Hadriel put his finger in the air and tilted his head. “Gyril, did you just call her dumb?”

“What?” Gyril’s eyes widened. “No! That’s not what I meant. I meant—”

“You just called the prince’s captive dumb, Gyril,” Hadriel taunted. “What would the prince say? You know that he isn’t in his right mind when it concerns her. He might pull your arms off for that.”

“No, no! That’s not what I meant, Miss Finley. You must know that. I just meant that any young woman should improve her mind through vast reading, and there is that big library now—”

“Maybe stop talking,” Jawson murmured.

I laughed. “I know what you meant, Gyril, and I intend to. Wait…should I call you Mr. Gyril?”

“Well, actually, you should call us by our last names,” Hadriel said. He spread his fingers across his chest. “But I will gladly be on a first-name basis with you, since we are becoming the best of friends.”

Gyril rolled his eyes.

“You’re in limbo right now, Miss Finley,” Jawson said, rubbing his arm across his forehead to wipe away the sweat. “Once you find your place, you will know what is right.”

I doubted that somehow. I nodded anyway and smiled at them as I hopped off the wall and onto the brittle ground. It would be nice to get some grass in here, and to take down that wall. I wasn’t sure why the plant life could grow and age but the people couldn’t—probably the specifics of the curse—but the beauty of this place should be shared. The queen had had her reasons for keeping it private, but now it seemed like a shame to keep the garden closed off.

All in due time.

Right now, I had to practice my new fighting moves in case I needed them later on. The question wasn’t whether I would run into demons—it was which ones, and how they’d react when I didn’t have a surly dragon escort.

Fourteen

The hush of the library greeted me, carrying that sweet must of books yet unread and journeys yet untaken. I’d brought two books back, the one I’d just finished and the one Nyfain had left in my room before his freak-out about the tea.

I climbed the ladder in the fantasy-adventure section and slipped the book Nyfain had given me into its home, organized alphabetically by the author’s last name. Once there, I looked down the rail and wondered if I could move the ladder while on it. That would be handy.