Page 48 of Fae Reckoning

“Thanks, Bertram,” I said, since, why not? He was wonderfully affable in a world full of jerkwads—well, principally the one. “You know I’m not going to hurt you, right, Azariah? I would never, ever hurt you.”

His entire backside quivered, causing his tail and the fine strands of short, fluffy hair around his hooves to shiver with a rainbow iridescence that was still mutedfrom its usual. His translucent wings were tucked tightly against his sides as if he were clutching himself.

I shuffled closer. “Azariah?” My tone was like a caress.

He whinnied and snorted softly, and this time I was positioned to observe a puff of rainbow colors waft from his nose.

“Az? Are you … alright?” Obviously, he was far from it. “Did the queen … hurt you?”

He only whimpered again.

By a dragon’s breath, it seemed the queen had devastated him—a creature who had more regal bearing in the tip of one of his hooves than she did in her entire body.

After aligning myself so Azariah could watch me, I slowly reached a hand toward his neck. When he didn’t pull away, those large glossy eyes on me, I touched him. He flinched but I kept my hand where it was. When he eventually leaned into my palm, I ran it tenderly down his neck, over and again.

“What can I do to help you?” I asked as if we had all the time in the world and there was no chance the queen would reach us here.

He sniffed loudly, leaned further into my caresses. His shivering tempered. Then he lifted his head, his horn skimming the outline of Bertram's body but not scratching him.

Azariah faced me so that he could study me through both eyes. “You already have helped me.” Hehiccupped. “You stole me away fromher. You brought me here.”

“And by sunshine, am I ever glad you’re here.”

“Me too.” He hiccupped again. “Me too.” He sniffled another time, but his shaking had stopped entirely. He leaned his neck heavily into my hand, his body against the ranucu, allowing us to share in his burdens.

“Waaawaaa,” croaked the ranucu in encouragement. I was growing to like him more by the second.

“What did she do to you?” I asked Azariah. “You know what, never mind. I shouldn’t have…”

Azariah’s head was already held higher. His white beard regained its former fluff and volume, suggesting everything about the unisus was magical. “It’s okay, Elowyn.” He nodded slowly as if to himself, careful not to dislodge my hand. “She believed she broke me.Ibelieved she broke me. Only now am I realizing she didn’t.”

My hand continued to run along his pelt, which seemed to be growing softer and thicker with each passing stroke.

“She…” His voice cracked. “She showed me what she did to my…” Rainbows brimmed in liquid beads that then dripped from both his eyes, smearing the fur of his cheeks until it transformed from the pure white of his coat into a dash of all the colors.

Tears. The magnificentpodrala, whom the dragons called thetruthsayer, was crying. As if I needed another reason to punish the queen, I added this one to my list.She’d made such a magnificent, good creature fuckingcry.

I wrapped both arms around his neck and held him as the tears drenched his face.

“She…” he tried again. His throat bobbed. “…she showed me her memories. Showed me what she did to my … mother.” His voice hitched on a thick sob.

“Oh, Azariah…” Tears streaked along my own cheeks, rolled from my chin.

His voice trembled. “She made my father … my father … watch. Then she did the same to him.”

My heart stuttered before I eked out, “Are they … by sunshine, Az, are they dead?”

He stilled entirely before nodding savagely. His fat tears rolled down his neck, where they mixed with mine, my face pressed against him.

“She…” He sniffed. “She was trying to take their power. She caa-aarved them up for it.” I gripped him even tighter. “In the end they took it with them to the Etherlands. Her Majesty didn’t get it. Not from any of my kind she hurt.”

“Did she try to hurt you that way too?”

“No. She needs me. Besides, as far as she knows, I’m the only one left now that she killed so many of us. She wouldn’t dare hurt me.”

“Not like that. But in other ways, yes.”

“In other ways, yes…”

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