Page 75 of Fairies Don't Fall

I smiled at him. Wings made us at eye level no matter how short I was. “Knowing me as well as you do, surely you understand that it’s always a good time to terraform. There’s a threat of poisoning? Time to terraform a cavern. It’s who I am as much as my ability to do whatever is necessary to conquer the enemy.”

I touched his face, silky skin lined with those infernal runes, keeping his attention while the mayor got Ruin and the two of them disappeared. The fairy who’d brought my invisibility cloak appeared in their place.

Slaughter smiled in return, showing his fangs. “My queen is fearless, strong, capable of defeating any foe. With my forces united with yours, no one can stop us.” His eyes glowed bright and freaky.

“That’s true. Together we are unbeatable. But there’s no reason to go to war. I already told you that I’m not wearing the right shoes for war.”

“You decimated the wolves in nothing but your bare skin,” he murmured, smiling, like this was a flirtatious conversation. “But if you’d prefer, I will craft shoes out of the blood of our enemies.”

Mm hm. Super flirty. I nodded and marble slid out of the ground on the sides, growing over the hole in the floor while other soil softened and caved in while stairs formed leading to the terraformed cavern. It would be beautiful, because that’s the kind of terraformers I had. I felt a glow of pride for my people. We were good at being irrational, erratic, beautiful beasts.

I brought out my claws, so they were resting against his skin, the tip of one spiked, poisoned spear resting just beneath his glowing eye. “I don’t want to make enemies. There will be peace. The only question is whether I survive or not.”

For the first time, he recognized the threat of my claws, of my entire position. He pulled away, but I had his face in a vice grip while my skin was burrowing into his.

“If you challenge me, you will fall,” he growled, pride in his own awesomeness coming out to save him.

“That’s right. After I slaughter you, rip your heart from your chest, and devour it, I will fall, desolate without my love and mate. I have your strength, your affinity for death and darkness. There would be no death sickness, because you would carry that burden for me and my people. You choose. Do I live or die? I can’t live without you, but I can kill you.”

Could I? Really? My wingtips pulled back, revealing the blades. This set was glorious, perfect for chopping the head off a lupin Sorcerer like my consort-mate.

The wind rustled around me while the building came to life, growing elaborate mesh walls out of pale lilac marble and gold. Pictures were woven in the design, this moment, the two of us in our stand-off, that is, float-off, because neither of us was standing. Also images of that first meeting in the woods, the bird with its one red feather above us while I tended his wolf. Another wall showed the owl, the egg, and the bearded Max carrying me when I was so weak. Another wall grew in a pattern that showed his beast reading to me while I was tucked on his lap in the blanket.

The last picture formed, of this moment, the fairy queen with wings outstretched, and him with wings, gazing at each other, his claws around my wrist, my claws on his face.

“Will I live or die?” I whispered. “My beautiful beast, my rehabilitation, my poetry. You are my song, but will it be a song of death? There will be peace. The only question is whether it will be a peace sealed by our deaths.”

“We would die together?” he mused, squeezing my wrist like he was considering how he could shatter the slender bones. Fairy bones were much stronger than they looked.

I smiled into those terrifying eyes. “Well, you would die first. I’m something of an expert on killing Lupin Sorcerers.”

He narrowed his eyes while he considered. Slowly, he sank down until his feet were on my beautiful marble floor. Once there, he looked up at me. “You would slaughter Slaughter after you devoured the Devourer? You are too perfectly poetic to destroy. You hid the child along with the mayor. Clever and poetic.” He flashed a bright smile. “You have defeated me. I am your prisoner of war.” He cocked his head and his smile softened. “No, I suppose I’m your prisoner of love. Didn’t you say something about pizza?”

I blinked at him. “Did I?”

He looked around at the building with interest. “You can build more quickly than I can destroy. And so beautifully. You are more than my match in every way, my Queen.”

I narrowed my eyes at him as I slowly floated down to his eye level. “Now what diabolical scheme are you hatching?”

He pulled me into his arms and held me close. “How to keep a fairy’s heart without distracting her with external forces to contend with. If you don’t want me to feed you the blood of your enemies, I suppose pizza will have to do.”

He melted into his beast and then started licking me with all the drool the lupin sorcerer didn’t have. “After I wash your hair with my kisses,” he growled, massive maw startlingly dangerous, even if I wasn’t afraid of him exactly. So many teeth.

I held still and let him lick my hair while he cuddled me against his warm chest. Finally, he transformed into Max, warm eyes soft, worried about me.

“Are you all right?” he asked, holding me so carefully, like I might shatter if he touched me wrong.

I kissed his nose. “So cute. One thing’s for certain,” I said, taking his hand and swinging it before I tugged him towards the nearest archway leading out into the garden of the Queen’s court. “We won’t have a boring life together.”

He kissed my fingers. “That’s one way to put it. Channeling all those dark powers brought out my dark side. I’m sorry for that.”

I gave him a look. “I’m the one who asked for your Lupin Sorcerer. And he did save the mayor, so it’s all good. Where is he?”

I stepped out into the court where my people and the wolves were holding very still, like they weren’t sure if they were going to kill each other at any second, or turn on the gathering forces of Singsong City.

“Pizza. We’re having an enormous pizza party,” I informed them. It took two seconds to grow fifty stone pizza ovens, and then it was sifting through minds to find out who could cook pizza. Interestingly, I could read wolf minds of anyone who considered Max their alpha. It seemed like any potential challengers had withdrawn their claim on the pack once they saw his Lupin Sorcerer. Also me.

What can I say? We were a couple of terrifying monsters. But that didn’t mean we couldn’t throw a mad pizza party for our dual court.

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