“Now I need ear bleach! But, on a serious note, I think you’re protesting a little too much. Maybe you have a slight Demon type crush on the poor little mouse?” I joked with a knowing grin.
“She could be in league with the Mages! Who knows anymore? I can’t abide betrayers and I have had more than enough of them lately.” He grimaced as he expelled a shallow breath.
“I doubt it, but anything is possible,” I conceded.
“She’s a fucking she-demon in pretty pink heels,” he grumbled.
“Oh, here now, Demon, maybe you just want her to play with your Lego parts, and tinker with your big blue balls? Just once?” I said.
He laughed outright, which made me smile so big it actually hurt. His snort afterwards brought us back to the problem at hand. “My balls are not blue, and I will even volunteer to show them to you for proof; can’t let you go around thinking my boys are from a toy store and shit.”
“Ristan,” Ryder growled as he materialized behind us. “You have somewhere else you need to be?”
“Not really,” Ristan said absently as he stood up and began working the buttons of his pants.
I covered my eyes as I squealed with laughter. “Don’t do it!” I said between giggles that felt good, even if they did hurt my middle.
“You show her, and I will promise to make them blue for real, brother,” Ryder growled.
“She accused my boys of being blue! I only offered to let her inspect them to assure her I suffered no such disorder,” Ristan said between a snort and a laugh.
“Enough, children,” Ryder said as his glittering golden eyes took in the size of my midsection. “You’re too exposed out here, and I’d like to feed you, Pet.”
Chapter Two
Ryder spent the next few days checking our defenses, knowing that sooner or later, they’d bring the fight to us. Somehow I didn’t see them coming here, or being the whole charge kind of army that Ryder thought them to be. I was looking beyond that to treachery from within.
Claire was an obvious one for me, but she’d been submissive to the point of grotesque since the Mages attacked us during the coronation and Ryder called off the engagement to her sister. I wasn’t sure why she’d stayed, but she had. Every once in a while I’d catch her staring openly at my massive midsection, but today there was something else there—I just couldn’t figure out what it was.
I pretended to not see it as I headed to the library with the guards, trailing close behind me until I was safely behind the doors.
“So, what do we get to learn today?” I asked softly as all eyes turned to me. I had been in the Horde Kingdom for several months now, and even though I had learned a lot, there was still so much more to take in and Dristan had just been giving me the highlights of it all. I had also been getting daily rations of the language that the Horde used, which had to be learned. Evidently, it couldn’t just be magically understood as I had understood most of the other dialects so far. No, this one had to actually be taught, and I wasn’t making very much progress. I’d agreed to it for the sake of the twins, since I wanted to be a part of this world with them. I also wanted to be the one who taught them when they were old enough to learn.
Dristan scooted a stack of books my way and Ristan pulled my chair out for me. He was rarely in on these sessions since he had been spending much of his time at the Guild, so this was a nice change. Darynda sifted in quietly, as not to disturb the lesson, and smiled as she handed me a mug which was filled with chamomile tea and sugar cubes. I’d decided to reduce my caffeine intake to almost none, mostly because I was under the impression that it was somehow missing my system and going directly to the babes who then used it to kick the crap out of me.
I got engrossed in Ristan and Dristan’s lessons and it was about two hours and five trips to the bathroom later that I found myself exploding with laughter. We were on to the history portion of my day, or as I liked to call it, crash course of Fae 101. The lessons were extensive, but then, considering how ancient the race was, I had a lot to catch up on.
“He did not!” I smiled, tears in my eyes from laughing too hard. Ristan was telling me about their distant cousin who had gotten into Ambrosia right before one of the Horde’s skirmishes with my people; the Blood Fae and had made quite a mess of things from the rear.
“Okay, Demon. I have a question for you,” I giggled mischievously. “I thought that Demons had horns and tails, or like wings and stuff—so how come you and Alannah don’t?” I watched as my question put a guarded look in his eyes and his face fell. He actually looked at a loss of words for the first since I had met him. I lowered my eyes to watch his throat as it bobbed, before he finally spoke.
“Uh, Ryder is calling for me,” he whispered as his chair screeched as he abruptly stood and sifted out of the room. I looked to Dristan for the answer. The look in Dristan’s emerald eyes made my heart lurch. What the hell had I said?