A Wish Upon the Stars (Tales From Verania 4)

“And if they’re villains?”

I grinned at him. “Then you’ll get to see what I’ve been up to all this time.”

“Ungh,” he said, eyes glazing over slightly.

“Yeah?” I asked, curling my lip a little. “You like that? You want to see me do magic?”

“So much,” he said hoarsely. “You gonna do a lot of it?”

“I’m gonna cover them in my magic,” I growled, turning toward him and bumping our chests together, my nose scraping his cheek. “They’re going to be stiff with it.”

“Oh my gods,” Gary moaned. “You’re covered in my rainbows and making Ryan sex stupid. This is the worst Horn Reunion Day I’ve ever had. And yes, that was capitalized, because I think that should be a yearly thing from this point on.”

“I sex stupid?”

“No, kitten. You don’t have Ryan’s weird magic kink.”

“Aw,” Tiggy said, pouting.

“We don’t have time for your capitalizations,” I said. “We’re trying to be serious. By the way, you look awesome, dude.”

“Thank you,” Gary said, preening. “And if you ever tell me we don’t have time for my capitalizations again, I will motherfucking stab you with my horn, you little bitch.”

“Whoa,” I breathed. “That was believable this time. Because of the horn.”

“Children, focus,” Randall snapped.

A shadow fell over us as Kevin descended. Ryan’s knights were gathering along the outer wall, Lady Tina barking orders at the Foxy Lady Brigade, each of them moving swiftly and with purpose as they spread out behind us. The gates groaned again as they closed.

Kevin landed in front of us, the ground shaking lightly. He winked at Gary, who swooned, before he looked down at me. “Darks,” he said.

“And the riders?”

“Mama. Moishe. Letnia.”

“What? I thought they were leading the Resistance from Old Clearing!”

“Something must have happened,” Ryan said, flourishing his sword, because he was incapable of not being that guy when he had a weapon in his hands.

“Shit. Okay. Here’s the plan. You guys stay here and watch me kick some ass. Kevin, we’re going to—”

“No,” Ryan said, grabbing my arm. “You can’t take them on your own. You’re gonna get hurt, or worse, captured and they’ll want to have sex with you.”

I pulled my arm free. “Actually, dude, things are a little different nowadays. Stay here. I promise it’s gonna be fine.”

And because I was the hero of the story, I kissed my beloved fiercely, pressing his lips back against his teeth. He grunted into my mouth, lips smacking as I pulled away.

“I’m about to be so badass, you don’t even know,” I said with a grin. “Kevin! Let’s rock!”

“Wait, Sam—”

But Kevin had already picked me up and tossed me over his shoulder. I fell toward his back, grabbing on to one of the sharp spines, sliding down until I landed on his back. His wings were spread and he was lifting off even before the others could stop us. I heard Gary say, “Holy shit, I want to get up on both of them,” before Kevin launched us into the air.

There was red and blue and white in my head, and I thought hold, hold, we’ve got this, I promise, and they agreed, though GW didn’t seem to be too pleased.

“He’s a pain in my ass,” I muttered.

“He’s just mad because he thinks you’re delaying the inevitable.”