“Timbago.” I motioned for him to come forward. “You’re in charge of making sure the palace is ready. You know what to do.”
“I will not fail you, Your Majesty.” The goblin nodded once and then turned on his heel to stalk away. He snapped his fingers and the house fairies that had been flitting about the room hurried after him.
“Right.” I turned to look first at Darinda, then at Aquella and Boreas. “While he’s preparing the palace and the others are getting the warriors ready we need to focus on finding these relics, and we need to do it now.”
“The relics are lost,” Boreas protested. “They’ve been lost for almost seventeen years. How are we supposed to find them in less than three days?”
“I have no idea.” I shook my head. “But we aren’t going to do it sitting around here yelling at each other. I know that.” I drank the last of my juice and then took a quick bite of the dry toast that the fairies had brought me. “So, as Mercedes said, our best bet is to hit the books. Let’s go to the library and get to work.”
The nymphs all stood as one and started toward the doors, already quietly talking among themselves.
I watched them go, fear causing my stomach to tie itself into knots. What if I was wrong? What if there was some way to negotiate with the Fate Maker? What if there was a better way than war? I couldn’t see another way, though. He was coming and he was bringing an army with him; he wasn’t going to want to talk it out. And even if he did, I didn’t think there was any way we were going to compromise.
I stood and smoothed my hands over the green linen tunic and brown trousers I’d changed into after the ball. I made my way out of the dining room and a strong hand shot out, grabbing my arm and dragging me into the shadows of the hallway.
Winston pulled me into a hug. We hadn’t had a moment alone since the ball, and even though I had a war to plan, I couldn’t resist the idea of leaning against his chest for a few seconds. Right now, I just wanted to hug my boyfriend and pretend that all of this was a very bad dream.
“How’s the planning going on your end?” I asked quietly. “Will the walls hold if he attacks?”
“Forget about that,” Winston said, his voice rough. His eyes were like deep, dark pools that I could lose myself in as he stared down at me. “He could have killed you last night.”
“He didn’t.”
“He could have,” Winston repeated. “We were all in the room, and there was nothing any of us could have done.”
“But he didn’t. He didn’t kill me.”
“He got to you,” Winston whispered, and I could see that his face was filled with fear, his dark eyes wide.
“It—”
He pressed his lips to mine, silencing me. “You’re not allowed to let him kill you,” Winston whispered as he pulled away from me.
“I won’t.” I rested my head against his broad chest for a moment longer.
“I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to you.”
“You’ll find a way to get you and Mercedes home. Rhys, too, if you can convince him to go.” I pressed forward on my tiptoes so that we were eye to eye. “If something happens to me, you make Darinda find you a portal, and you use it. That’s an order.”
“You can’t order me to leave you behind.”
“If I die, you have to find a way to get yourselves home. You get home and let the portal close off the gate between this world and the World That Is. Forget this place and me and everything else.”
“I can’t forget you,” he said and tugged me closer. “I won’t.”
“Yes, you can. Forget me, and go live a fabulous life.”
“How about you just promise not to die and we can work on finding a portal out of here together?”
“I’ll do my best,” I said, melting into his arms a bit.
“I know.” He smiled for a brief moment before dropping his cheek onto the crown of my head. “Just be careful. Please.”
“I will.”
“And I want you to keep Kitsuna with you from now on. Let her stay and have a sleepover with you and Mercedes in your room.”
“Why?” Not that I minded hanging out with the red-haired wryen. But why did Winston want her staying with me now? Was there some threat he wasn’t telling me about? “I know you can take care of yourself,” Winston said. “But I’d like to make sure that if you need it, you’ve got someone to guard your back. Someone else who can use a sword.”
“Someone besides the dryad archer,” Kitsuna said, her voice low. She came toward us, her feet silent against the stone floor. “In case a more stabby, iron-loving approach is needed.”
“I have a guard. A lot of guards, actually.” I turned to her. “Not that I don’t want to hang out with you, but—”
“The soldiers are needed on the line,” Kitsuna said. “Every member of your security detail is needed to fight.”
“And you’re not?” I asked.
“I’ve fought beside you before, Your Majesty.” Kitsuna raised her chin. “It would be my pleasure to do it again. Besides, it’s not as if I’ll be flying off to war with the rest of the red dragon clan.”
I tensed at the way she clenched her jaw as she said it. Kitsuna was a wryen—the child of two different types of dragons. Her father had been a lizard dragon from Bathune, and her mother was part of the red dragon clan. And because they were two different breeds Kitsuna was trapped in human form. The only way she could fly was riding on the back of another dragon, and most of them considered her a second-class citizen anyway—unworthy of fighting as a warrior. Not that she’d ever let that stop her.
“Keep her safe,” Winston said as he let go of me. “Keep each other safe.” After one last, lingering look, he hurried in the opposite direction, back toward the aerie where the rest of the dragons were busy preparing for war.
“I can keep myself safe,” I muttered as he left. “Thank you very much. Flaming snot for brains.”
“Your Majesty…” Kitsuna touched my shoulder, and I wrenched my gaze away from Winston to her.
“What?”
“Are you feeling okay? You’re usually not so tense when the prince consort suggests that I act as your bodyguard.”
“It’s not you. It’s just…” I sighed and ran a hand up into my hair, tugging at the roots. “I have an army to prepare and a relic to find, and I have no idea where to start.”
“My suggestion would be to start at the beginning.”
“And where is that?”
“Breakfast. According to the cooks you’ve had nothing more than a glass of juice and a few bites of bread since the Fate Maker’s appearance last night.”
“But the others—”
“Breakfast.” Kitsuna herded me toward the kitchens. “An army, and its queen, all fight on their stomachs. So first we eat and then we go to the library to help the nymphs.”
“Slight change of plans,” I said. “Instead of eating and then looking, let’s get breakfast for everyone and eat while we search.”
Chapter Eight
I stepped through the open double doors to the library and froze, sizing up the miles of bookshelves covering the walls for almost four floors. I had a sinking suspicion that the book we needed was going to be all the way at the end of the top shelf farthest away from us. It’d be just my luck.
“Are you okay?” Kitsuna asked.
“Your Majesty?” Boreas turned to stare at the tray I had loaded with food in my hands. “Why are you carrying a tray full of muffins?”
“I brought everyone breakfast,” I said and raised an eyebrow at him.
“I have tea and dragon’s blood,” Kitsuna said from behind me. “As well as some of the ember fruit juice that Her Majesty is so fond of.”