Page 65 of Prince of Ruin

“What about jokes?” Evergreen’s silky voice breaks through the silence. She’s hardly spoken at all.Her voice is light and smooth, like snow falling on a quiet forest. “Aden mentioned you are quite the comedian.”

Oh. Oh, gods. “Oh, um, yeah I don’t have any great jokes,” I snort and cast a silent glare at Aden, but he only grins at me.

“Go on, Clav,” he says. “Tell the one about the cow.”

I stare at the hog meat. All eyes are on me now, and any attempt to divert the conversation will only go over awkwardly. Best to get it over with.

“What do you call a cow without any legs?”

Kunak, the Minotaur hums in thought, and I flinch. Maybe this wasn’t the best joke to tell at a table with a half-bull. But the joke’s already out, and they all look stumped, waiting for my answer.

“Ground beef.” I pause, expecting anger, embarrassment on their behalf. But to my utter astonishment, laughs explode across the table, Kunak laughing the hardest, his lowing rumbling through the room. That joke wasn’t even that funny. Maybe jokes are another one of those creativity things that fae and folk lack.

“Another one,” Hemlock orders, eyes shining.

Crap. “Um, what do you call a fish with no eyes?”

“What?” Shiloh asks impatiently as she pops a raw minnow into her fanged mouth.

“Fssh.”

This one takes a moment, but then they all erupt into laughter. These are, like, the corniest jokes, but you would think by the way they were rolling that I was America’s Top Comedian.

“Okay,” Wolfsbane says, and this is the first time a genuine smile crosses their features. “I’m sold. There is not a hint of Sovereign Clavicle in this young boy’s character.”

Young boy.While they all look the same age as me, I forget that, besides Aden, these folk are over a century old.

“What?” Tarsus seethes, looking around the table. “Two jokes, and you’re all falling for his act? Am I the only one who remembers what Clavicle did?”

Hemlock immediately stops laughing. “We remember, Tarsus. But we’re not convinced this is that same Clavicle. Perhaps once he was, but…” the Solar Prince jerks his chin at me. “Look at him. He’s all awkward human innocence and cringe jokes.”

My mouth drops open in mock offense. “You all are the ones laughing at thiscringejoke.”

“I’m not fully convinced,” Shiloh says.

“I don’t think any of us arefullyconvinced,” Hemlock adds, studying me with those gold-flecked amber eyes. “But there is a certain innocent charm about you, Clav.” He looks at Tarsus. “Have youshown your guest his own city? Maybe that will help jog his memory.”

“You think it would be wise to release him in the wild?” Tarsus asks.

“I’d put a solid copper collar around his throat,” Shiloh mutters. “But maybe seeing his own city will help him remember why it’s worth saving from Mother Terra.”

Aden nods. “It’s not a bad idea, Tarsus.”

Tarsus stares at me with cool silver eyes as they take a sip of their wine. “I’ll have to think about it.”

The evening continues on, the group urging me to tell a few more jokes, each worse than the last, and finishing up with the talking biscuit joke, but they eat the jokes up as if they’d never heard a proper joke before.

“What do you call a dog with no legs?” I ask. Silence fills the table as they all think of an answer, coming up with none. “Nothing. It won’t come anyway.”

More laughter, and now I’m thinking they’re all just drunk at this point.

“Oh my gods, Clav,” Aden is saying, beaming now. “You are killing it with the incurable dad jokes.” His green eyes are shining, and the smile on his face warms my heart. I take another sip of my wine, finishing it off, and scan the table. I can see now, what Aden sees in these fae and folk. Now that they’re notall assessing me, judging me, I can see why Aden would rather live in this world than the one we were born into.

There’s no judgment here among the friends. Just raw acceptance, the sort you should find among your own family. And I realize that’s what these folks are to Aden: his family. Especially since his own family kicked him to the curb.

Tarsus, however, is the only one not laughing. They stare at me from the head of the table, cool silver eyes holding enough hate to poison. I almost feel bad for them. They invited everyone over to back them up. Instead, I’ve slowly won them over.

As the laughter dies down, Tarsus says, “It appears I did you a favor in sending you off to the mortal realms.” They tilt their head, the decorative chains on their antlers gleaming in the light. “While your people have been picking up the pieces of your terrible rule, and while humans slaves from your cruel reign have had to learn to live as equal citizens, you’ve been off in your own world, learning idiotic jokes and watching movies about prehistoric beasts.”

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