Page 29 of The Fae King's Labyrinth

Turning to Legioda, I bowed. “Would you deliver a message to Mindy on the southern edge of the village? Let her know that her sister is safe and well. Tell her I will come to her as soon as I am able.”

Legioda nodded her great head. “So agreed.” Then, with the same slow grace she had demonstrated before, she turned and walked away into the darkness.

“Now to return to the castle,” the pooka announced.

“Shall I carry you and the woman, sire?” Ghost asked.

“A dragon ride?” The pooka grinned.

“I don’t carry pookas.”

Azulin’s eyebrows rose, and I almost laughed aloud. However, the effort of suppressing the laugh made me cough.

The pooka straightened and stuck his nose in the air. “That is just as well. I wanted to go home, anyway. I have a crop to harvest.”

The dragon shifter snorted, and smoke came out of his nose.

Azulin nodded. “Come and visit us at my castle when you have completed your task. I am sure Callie will enjoy seeing a familiar face.”

The pooka executed a precise bow to the fae king before taking my free hand and bowing over it. “A pleasure, my lady.” Then, without a word to Ghost, he took his horse form and galloped away into the darkness.

“Finally,” Ghost muttered before stalking away in the other direction.

“This way.” Azulin gently tugged my hand. “Ghost needs space to shift, and I need to speak with you before we fly.”

After a short walk that brought us closer to the trees, Azulin drew me closer, claiming my second hand. “When we reach the castle, I need you to remain completely silent until we are alone. Don’t speak to anyone until after I have recovered enough to set a protection spell on you.”

“Being among the fae is that dangerous? They can’t be worse than the traps in the labyrinth.”

“Far worse.” The sudden hardening of Azulin’s jaw and the iciness of his expression told me far more than his simple answer. He squeezed my hands. “Promise me you will not speak until we are alone, not until I can protect you.”

I nodded.

“Keep a hold of my hand then. I have no idea how this curse is going to react.”

“I thought we had broken it. At least in part.”

Azulin frowned up at the moon. “Even now, the curse is clawing at me, but keeping in contact with you is helping. I dare not release contact completely until the moon sets and we can consult my resident expert and my advisor. For your own safety, keep your markings hidden if you can.”

I opened my mouth to ask why, but I was interrupted by a roar. Azulin turned, letting me glimpse Ghost in his dragon form for the first time.

I gasped in awe. Standing on his back feet, the silvery-white dragon arched his back, unfurled his great leathery wings, and threw back his head in a second roar that made the ground tremble beneath my feet. I edged closer to Azulin, mind crowded with panicked memories of our recent draconic encounter.

“Enough. You’ve sufficiently warned off the locals,” Azulin called up at the dragon.

Ghost swung his majestic head around and eyed us with a fiery amber eye. Then with a slow blink, he drew his expansive wings against his sides and lowered his head to in one smooth movement.

His head was the size of my sister’s garden shed and his body as large as her husband’s barn. With his scales gleaming and glinting white in the moonlight, Ghost appeared gilded in silver.

“As you wish, my king,” Ghost said in a voice so low it rumbled in my bones.

“How do you speak?” The words slipped from my mouth before I thought to catch them. “I meant no offense.”

“Later.” Azulin tugged on my hand and drew me toward Ghost’s front leg. “Now we ride.”

∞∞∞

Azulin

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