Dy goggled.“Wow,” she breathed.“You look insanely hot.You are going to melt the marble floors, Bandit.”
Azul had uncoiled to his feet, his wings mantling with clear interest, though his cool expression revealed little as he gave her the once-over, and then twice and thrice.Meeting her gaze, he smiled, just a twitch of the lips.“Do you approve?”
She nearly flipped the question back at him but a) it was obvious that he did, and b) what mattered was her own self and how she felt.“It’ll do,” she allowed, mirroring his smirk.
“Good.”He wasn’t fooled by her either.Gliding close, he lifted her hand and pressed a kiss to the back of it, then turned it over to kiss the inside of her wrist, and then her palm.
Oh my.That gave her shivers and sparkles of the best kind.
“Ready to meet the King and Queen of Citrine?”he asked, as if inviting her to a ball.
“First, shouldn’t you explain what’s going on here?”she countered.
He grimaced, raking back his hair.Though it had been elegantly styled and the gesture should have ruined that, his blue-black locks fell back into glossy perfection.“I can’t,” he confessed, sounding sorry.
“Oh, no, sparky,” she burst out, stabbing him in the chest with a fingernail that the pixies had painted deep purple.“We’re not playing that game anymore.You’re going to—”
“Bandit,” Dy said, interrupting what could have been a glorious tirade.“He’s telling the truth.”
Well, obviously.He had to.“‘Can’t’ has a number of interpretations,” she snapped.
“I mean that he tried,” Dy persisted.“While you were getting ready.We attempted several ways around the geas with no success.”
So they hadn’t been talking about her after all.She felt extra stupid now.
“Well, fuck.”She met Azul’s expectant gaze.“Yes, yes, I apologize.But how are we supposed to know what’s going on around here and how to get you clear of it if you can’t explain?”
He offered her an arm and a wicked, close-lipped smile.“In the words of the infamous smuggler, the Bandit: We’re going to wing it.”
~22~
…And No Place to Go
One of thepixies fluttered up to hand her a jeweled leash affixed to a collar of amethyst jewels around Katu’s neck.Much as he didn’t love being collared, this one seemed to please him.The amethysts looked good against his glossy fur, and he pranced happily, showing them off.
Azul escorted them through the palace, Cha on his right arm with Katu beside her, Dy on his left.This time they proceeded through ever grander hallways that focused into one corridor that spiraled up in lazy circles around the central atrium, an echo of the spiraling ley line outside.Except this was festooned with art of various kinds.Azul kept up a polite courtier’s patter, pointing out exquisite pieces and other notable sights, for all the world as if they were human envoys of note.Cha supposed she could take a clue from that.Except that she had no idea how a human envoy of note would behave.
Most of the humans who hobbed and nobbed with the fae were grasping and greedy pigs who’d as soon sell out their own race to fae oppression for the opportunity to line their pockets with a few more copper coins.They also notably mimicked fae appearances in the most annoying-to-the-point of nauseating ways: dyeing their skin and hair, and even going so far as to have extraordinarily invasive surgeries to modify their faces to look more fae.And no, it didn’t actually work.Outside of their insular, self-congratulatory circles, they just looked bizarre, neither human nor fae.Just messed up.
Cha supposed she should be glad that Azul hadn’t wanted her—or Dy—to follow that mold.Maybe he didn’t think much of the practice either.Although he had looked convincingly like a human fop with fae aspirations, the way he’d glamoured down to pass more or less unnoticed in human realms.At least, as much as a staggeringly gorgeous fae prince could.
The fae that they encountered on their progression seemed to eye them with curiosity tempered with deference.They inclined their heads graciously, then fell into quiet conversation, as if speculating about their identity and the purpose of their visit.A few of the most richly dressed even fell in behind them, after a discreet interval, clearly intending to follow them to court and have in-person seats for the coming show.
Cha appreciated now why Azul had insisted upon them dressing to the hilt for this occasion.Whatever he had planned, it certainly would help for them to seem important.She caught Dy sneaking a glance at her and they shared a bemused smile.Yeah, not bad for a couple of smugglers.
Hopefully they’d live to tell the tale.
The throne room turned out to be at the pinnacle of the palace, after a prodigious amount of circling uphill.Apparently the Citrine royalty didn’t want anyone claiming an audience with them unless they were able enough to make the climb.Not that the fae seemed to be concerned with fairness or egalitarianism in any sense.They lived on the lethal edge of predation on anything or one weaker than they.Not that humans were much better.To be fair, it could be said that the fae were simply more accomplished.They tricked, thieved, murdered, and oppressed at a whim.Because they could, they did.Present company excepted.
She hoped.
Catching her sliding him a speculative look, Azul raised one brow in elegant query and tilted closer to her.“What?”he asked in a quiet murmur.
“Just wondering how many humans you’ve personally slaughtered,” she answered lightly, trying to make it more of a joke than it was.
“I’m a Prince of Amethyst,” he returned very seriously.“I outsource slaughtering of mortals to servants.So unsavory to bloody one’s own hands with such lowly tasks.”
“Ha ha.”