Page 39 of The Shadow Fae Rhapsody
My brows shoot up to my hairline with surprise when he draws a blanket from his bag. The same man who admitted to killing one of the Aeonians yesterday is now spreading a rug on the grass for me to sit on.
He sets it in the open space so our view is unhindered by trees. I settle on the cloth comfortably beside Ken. The sight of the big sandwich with its rich fillings in my mealbox has me smiling to my ears.
I’m about to dig in when Svenn suddenly winces.
“What’s wrong?”
He says nothing for a long moment, but I sense his deep annoyance. “One of the beasts in me, Cyntefin, wants you to know that he helped raise the baby wyvern. They can only eat roasted meat.”
Svenn shows me a fallen leaf. I can’t name the exact plant, but it looks like a dwarf blue gum or some kind of eucalyptus. “The leaves here are easily combustible. Wyverns that are abandoned will try to survive on this crest by starting a fire to fry the critters they catch.”
I remember the bones on the hills earlier. They belong to the other baby wyverns in the past who didn’t make it. A flash of sadness eclipses my heart. “Thank you, Cyntefin.”
“They all fancy you,” Svenn mutters quietly. “These creatures inside me…”
“I like them too,” I say easily.
Shadows swirl around us in response to Ken’s delight and he weaves a wildflower into my hair.
I meant what I said this morning. I accept his monsters and demons. I think I even love them. Svenn seems to have more to say on that, but he remains quiet.
I notice he forgot to pack a sandwich for himself.
“You can have some of mine,” I say, giving him the bigger half. Blaire and I fight for food all the time. I hope he understands what this means for someone who was almost starved to death. I love watching the polite way Svenn eats. He makes sure to chew his food a hundred times before swallowing. Lady Deirdre would have been proud of his court manners.
Ken pulls the wyvern’s horn to stop her from chewing on our rug. I touch his shadowy hand softly. “Don’t be so rough on my wyvern. Coral’s just a baby.”
The wyvern tilts her head curiously at me.
My wyvern?
I’m surprised over my own words too. But I don’t want to take them back. If her mother didn’t want this one, then I claim her.
“That’s right, you’re mine,” I tell the wyvern. I stroke the spinal spikes on her neck and she purrs again. “You’re mine, Coral.”
Svenn arches a brow. “Coral?”
The fae usually gave fearsome names and titles to their beast, Felkor the Echo of Damnation, Allayna Lady of the Cadavers, Luisyn the Dread Lord.
I feel my cheeks turning to tomatoes. “Coral. That’s her name.”
I place some of Ken’s wildflowers on the wyvern’s head while she munches her roasted chicken. “Eat, Coral. You’ll grow up big and strong.”
She sprints into the field just as soon as she finishes eating.
Svenn and I sit together in comfortable silence as we watch Ken and Coral play fetch in the field. I can’t remember the last time I was around someone without talking for so long. A response is always expected from me, whether in the temple or in court.
I take a deep breath and glance at the heavens above. Fluffy clouds drift by against the stunning blue sky, blown away by the soft wind. I silently thank Svenn in my heart for bringing me here. It doesn’t banish the coiling dread in my stomach completely, but it gives me the air to breathe.
I marvel at the way the sunlight dance on Svenn’s dark hair. Instead of burning the vampire, it does nothing but enhance his beauty. I want to scoot closer and plop my head on his shoulder. But Svenn’s sharp eyes are trained on something.
“What are you looking at?” I ask, following his gaze to the other wyverns on the lower peaks.
“There’s an accumulation of methane in that chamber,” he mutters, pointing at one range. “If I can start a fire there, it will cause a big enough explosion to destroy at least three or four pockets of the caverns below.”
Silence blankets the air around us for several beats.
“We can dismantle at least one third of the fae airborne infantry,” he continues.
