A Kingdom of Ruin (Deliciously Dark Fairytales 3)

“Yes. I rationed, so it’s okay. I’ve been cold-steeping it ever since I told the officer I lost my other cup and got beaten for it, remember? Everlass prefers hot baths to cold, so it’s not at peak strength, but it should help.”

“No wonder you know how to work that plant so well, Strange Lady,” Vemar said, following Micah into the cell. “It’s as temperamental as you are.”

Hannon wheezed out a laugh and then started coughing, shuddering, and wincing. Everything in me tensed.

“Here we go,” Micah said, exchanging a look with Vemar. The two of them pulled Hannon to sitting and then held him so that he didn’t have to use his own strength.

My heart swelled so much it felt like there wasn’t enough room within my ribs.

“Thank you,” I whispered, my hands shaking as I lifted the cup toward Hannon’s mouth.

“Here, let me.” Tamara hastened into the now-crowded cell, putting her hand on my shoulder and taking the cup. “I don’t have as much invested in his wellness. I won’t shake as much.”

She smiled to let me know she was kidding as Lucille pulled me out of the way.

“She was never very good at the bedside part of things,” Hannon said softly. “That should be my job.”

“Instead you jumped right into the fire with us.” Vemar nodded. “No harm in that.”

No one pointed out the obviously great harm in that.

“He doesn’t have scales on his back,” Lucille said softly as we watched the others nurse Hannon. “Which makes sense, since he hasn’t shifted. But…did you notice that he doesn’t even have the start of everlass in his cell?”

I blinked a few times because no, I hadn’t noticed. I did now, though, looking at the creases in the stone and the patches where everlass might find its way into the world. All bare.

“My parents weren’t dragons.” I watched Tamara tilt the cup and then Hannon’s throat as he drank the liquid down. “It’s odd that I am.”

“Not that odd,” Hannon said after he finished. He breathed heavily as the guys set him back onto his stomach. Micah exited, brushing by me gently for such a big guy, and Vemar sat down on the other side of Hannon, back against the wall, and pulled up his knees and rested his arms around his legs. “I’ve meant to tell you this a million times, but the timing never felt right. Either I didn’t feel up to talking or you wouldn’t have felt like hearing it.”

“Yeah, you two aren’t settling in like normal,” Vemar said. “Or…” He paused and thought a moment. “Maybe you are but it’s been so long since someone was new that we’ve forgotten.”

“The prince has nearly everyone out of suppression, and the people in the villages are shifting,” Hannon continued. “There are a lot of first shifts happening, and there’s an incredible number of dragons. Incredible, given they are coming from non-dragon parents. They say this happens when the people are in peril. The goddess, or the old gods, or nature—no one agrees on who or what—calls dragons into existence to defend their people and set things right in the natural order. Or the kingdom. Or something—again, there are a lot of views on this. Regardless, there are a lot of dragons who need flight instruction now, but the prince doesn’t have wings.”

Micah frowned. “Why doesn’t he have wings?”

“He refused to let the curse and the suppression take his dragon from him,” Tamara said softly, in the way of someone who’d repeated it often. “So he forced the change as the suppression was trying to take hold. It reduced his power and sheared off his wings, but he kept his dragon when everyone else lost theirs.”

“If a lot of people are doing their first shifts, why didn’t you, brother?” Vemar asked Hannon.

“I tried. Wouldn’t happen. Everyone else in the village did. I felt the swell of power and all the other things I was supposed to, but it just wouldn’t happen. My animal didn’t seem frustrated by it. It felt like whatever needed to happen in order for him to come out hadn’t yet, and he is content to wait. Neither of us knows what we’re waiting for, though.”

“Unlucky.” Micah’s voice was soothing. “That happens sometimes. We used to call that a late shifter.”

“But at least you aren’t suppressed anymore,” Lucille said. “There’s that. You know you have an animal, and you get most of its rewards, so that’s good enough until we get out of this toilet.”

“Speaking of. Strange Lady, when are we getting out of this toilet?” Vemar asked with a crooked smile.

I took my cup from Tamara and went to stow it under one of the loose stones in my cell. I had three cubbyholes now, which I’d dug out myself. They mostly held leaves, except for the one that held the cup and Nyfain’s notes.