A Queen of Ruin (Deliciously Dark Fairytales 4)

“Listen, I’ve known about Dessia for months now and didn’t bring it up. Why? Because I believe you’re right and she just wants to stay in the shadows. She doesn’t mean anyone harm. But the thing about phoenixes is, there always has to be someone who can kill them. It balances the power. The same is true of a basilisk. The two are mortal enemies. The savior? It’s Finley, of course. She has two wolf parents but turned into a dragon, the true mate of the most powerful, fearsome fucking bastard in the whole magical world. In history, I’d wager. Together, they’re his protection. Against Dessia.”

“First of all, you don’t even know if any of this is true. You’re getting this information from stories written by men and women who have a flair for the dramatic. You aren’t reading the ledgers of a taxman; you’re reading the fantastical versions of cowards who should’ve been there, weren’t, and decided to write about it instead. Mortal enemy? Give me a break. That’s preposterous.”

“No one being can have too much power. Nature makes sure of it.”

“Oh good, a dragon who thinks he knows it all is talking out of his ass.” I gnashed my teeth. Finley was going to freak. She was already hypersensitive about harm coming to her brother, and after his death-turned-rebirth, she’d be a headcase about it. She wouldn’t take this information lightly.

“We have to say something,” Vemar pushed as Calia and Dessia drew closer.

It occurred to me that they were walking even slower now. Calia was playing it very cool, but Dessia had always been shit at hiding her nervousness.

“Ah fuck. Well, fine, I guess this is happening.”

I strutted out to the middle of the path, braced my hands on my hips, and prepared for a chat. Before they even reached me, I laid it all on the line…in a way no one else would be able to decipher.

“This eavesdropping fuckstain knows all about the things, and he thinks we need to blab to Finley and Nyfain.”

“Let’s go back to when you called me handsome,” Vemar murmured.

Calia and Dessia pulled up short, and then Calia strutted forward, pulling Dessia behind her. She pulled out a little vial from some hidden pocket and held it up threateningly.

I stuck out my finger. “Do not fucking magic me, faerie.”

Calia rolled her eyes before throwing it onto the ground between us. Purple fizz bubbled up before it hissed. Smoke wafted around us and then turned into a sort of bubble, closing us in.

“That is a soundproof bubble,” Calia said. “It lasts for fifteen minutes. You can leave at any time.”

I crossed my arms over my chest, trying not to feel foolish. “Fine. Well? What are we going to do about this?”

“How much does he know?” Calia looked pointedly at Vemar.

“He knew the worst bit, and then I tried to fill him in on the background to soften him up, and then he started on about phoenixes and mortal enemies and—”

Calia sighed. “Just our luck, we found an educated dragon who obviously knows his folklore.”

“I do not like this continued misinterpretation that I am uneducated—”

Calia interrupted me. “We’ve known that a phoenix would emerge. Basilisks and phoenixes tend to come in pairs. They balance each other.”

“See?” Vemar nudged me.

I narrowed my eyes but tried to ignore him as Calia went on.

“When Dessia first felt Hannon, she wondered. Her…animal felt a strange sort of energy from him. Not long afterward, he crossed the bridge in the demon castle without feeling its affects. The Bridge of Doom, you all called it. She was highly suspicious then. She didn’t feel anything from the bridge either, even though it made the rest of us feel like jumping into the lava. She didn’t need me to make the crossing, she just pretended she did. After that, we stayed close. We watched. We waited. We hoped we were mistaken.”

“You suspected the truth this whole time?” I asked. “And you didn’t say anything?”

She ignored me. “When he died last night, we held our breath, wondering if the coming of the dawn would bring the phoenix. For Finley’s sake, of course we hoped he would live. But for Dessia’s sake…”

“Never finish that sentence,” I murmured.

“You obviously know that if you try to kill him, I will kill you first,” Vemar said without even a hint of rage or aggression. He was just stating the facts. He wouldn’t even kill in a dragon’s rage—he’d kill in cold blood.

I shivered.

“Yes, dragon, I know that,” Calia spat. “What would be the point in her trying to kill him? How would that keep her hidden? Don’t you see that she can be used just as readily as him? He can be used for healing and health. For ageless—”

“Yes, yes, we know,” Vemar interrupted, though I didn’t really know. I needed to read up on this stuff.