A Queen of Ruin (Deliciously Dark Fairytales 4)

“Hello,” I said cordially, if a bit frostily. My old training on the “proper” way to address those of lesser status was hard to unravel.

“I hear you’re joining the team. Fantastic!” He motioned me forward. “I have to say, I was a little worried. We all were, weren’t we? But this is great. Finley is absolute crap at a formal dinner. Like…literally the shits. I tried to help, but I only know the basics. You’re going to be a lifesaver when she has to meet other royals. She’ll need to show well to get their support…” He put a hand on my arm as we neared the rear door, slowing me. “Assuming the demon king doesn’t blow through sooner than expected and kill us all, right?”

He laughed as though he’d made a grand joke, and I suddenly didn’t know what to say. Or how to act. Or…where to look. He was at once disarming, confusing, and completely unexpected. I barely managed a closed-mouth smile, probably blinking too heavily within his easy profanity.

“I just wanted to introduce myself,” he went on, his gaze drifting down my front. “I’m Hadriel, the princess’s advisor and confidant, and you are wearing the wrong outfit, love. We can’t have you wearing that if she is to steal everyone’s focus. You look too…ordinary.”

My eyebrows drifted upward. I’d never been spoken to this informally in this castle. Ever.

“You know who I am, right?” I asked, suddenly unsure and even more confused because of it.

He laughed again. “Obviously I do. Who are you kidding? I am practically shitting myself with giddiness right now. But…” He tilted his head down a little. “In my job, I have to put my best moments ever aside so that Finley is taken care of. And you do not have the right look, lamb. We can’t have the former queen running around in pants and ordinary clothes. It’ll make you seem like you’re trying to be one of the people instead of royal, and that’ll make her look a little out of place, since she is somewhere in between. The woman is an odd duck. It’s why I love her, but it is a little challenging to create an image for her because she fits in no standard boxes. Not a single one. We’re calling her unique instead of weird, but…she is weird. Always has been. Now”—he held up a finger—“you can wear pants, but they have to be a finer version of pants, get me? You can fit with Finley, or you can be stuffier and fancier than Finley, but you can’t just…”

He quirked an eyebrow and ran his finger through the air in front of me. Then he smiled, slowly reached out, and lightly touched my shoulder. Before I knew it, I was being ushered back to my room, into my dressing quarters, and Finley’s lady’s maid was providing me with something “a little more suitable” that had been recently created for me without my knowledge. It didn’t even occur to me to tell them no. What they dressed me in was not even remotely my style, but I allowed it all the same and eventually found myself outside, blinking at the door Hadriel had just closed behind me with a smile and a wink.

When I walked into the everlass house, I realized I had a dazed smile on my face.

Dee looked up from a collection of assorted herbs and frowned, taking in my outfit.

“Did you lose a bet?” she asked.

“I think so,” I responded, my smile growing as I looked back the way I’d come. “Finley’s advisor is…”

“Odd.”

“Yes.”

“Crass.”

“Definitely yes.”

“Strangely likable.”

I laughed. “Yes! His strangeness is…”

“Disarming.”

I shook my head and walked in farther. “Yes, it is.”

“He used to be the stable hand. All the dragons used to pick on him, but they’d protect him against other shifter bullies.”

The memories came rushing back, helping me place him—he hadn’t had that silly mustache back then, and smears of dirt had usually marred his complexion.

“I thought he looked familiar.” I looked over the various items within the work area. Finley must’ve been here this morning. Everything was moved from where it had been yesterday afternoon when Dee and I snuck back to see what she was up to. We hadn’t dared confront her again. She could be as wild as Nyfain when she was in a mood. “I never understood that—they bullied him, but forbade anyone else from bullying him.”

“They didn’t bully so much as…retaliate, I think. From what I gather, he had a smart mouth that always got him into trouble.”

“I can see that. Yet they clearly liked him enough to keep him in their bubble of protection.”

She pointed at a mixture floating in murky water. “Look at this. She’s cold-seeping the everlass. It is starting to release its components. She’s added other herbs to the mixture, all raw except for sprinkles of…coriander, I think, which seems to have been…roasted—there’s a stray bit here—and then ground. She sprinkled it on top. It doesn’t seem like she has stirred it in.”