Page 65 of Conquering the King of Storms

Of course, that turned into a long story about my long-time one-sided conversations with Sirus’s magic. All of which I had to somehow make child appropriate.

It was awkward at first, but Ivy got distracted when we reached the marketplace, so it didn’t last too long.

I wasright about the marketplace being like a swap-meet. There was no organization whatsoever, with vendors set up randomly, selling everything under the sun.

We walked around for ages, running our fingers over foreign fabrics that made my human brain spin with their strange textures, and tasting foods that the other girls loved.

After watching Dove eat, I was almost positive she wasn’t a wind fae, because I was growing surer by the moment that Iwas.

It seemed to fit. I was laid back, like Storm, but stubborn too. Sure, I had different issues. Plenty of them. But our personalities did seem pretty similar to me.

And honestly, I liked the idea. The wind land was the only one I really liked, and if I was going to be connected to one of the elements, wind was the one I disliked the least. Storm’s magic often felt calming to me, and I couldn’t help but wonder if that was just because it was his, or if it was because the wind had chosen me when we stepped into the heart of the earth lands.

Speculating wasn’t really going to get me anywhere, but I couldn’t help it. I was just curious.

We didn’t buy anything with the money Tariq had somehow gotten for Ivy, until we found the fae version of backpacks. They were bigger, with thicker straps that tied instead of buckling, but a backpack was a backpack.

We got one for each of us who were hitting the road, and then proceeded to fill them. Each of us got two extra dresses (noneof which were very, uh,modest), a few toiletries (they had their own version of toothbrushes!), and a ton of food that was supposed to last at least a couple of weeks.

There were some strange types of bread that I didn’t recognize, something that smelled kind of like stinky cheese that made me want to gag, and some dried fruits, veggies, and meat. It wasn’t the best food I’d ever tasted, but it would be much better than living on whatever we could pick from the bushes we walked past.

Going back out on the road didn’t sound like fun, but having a few supplies with us as we went would make everything a little easier.

Ivy stopped and bought a bag of a certain type of dried fruit that was supposed to suppress fertility, explaining that Tariq had taken her to get some after she became a water fae and before they went on their little honeymoon. Margo refused to touch it, but when the woman running the booth quietly offered me a bag too, I took it with gratitude and a smile, sneaking it into my backpack when the other girls weren’t looking.

Storm and I hadn’t done the deed yet, but I was pretty sure that we would get there soon.

Hopefully very soon.

Then again, he’d made a big deal about waiting until it was special, so I didn’t really know when it was going to happen.

We headed back to the inn as the sun started to set. For the first time in as long as I could remember, I watched the colors in the sky change as we walked and thought to myself,

“Life is really beautiful.”

Nothing was perfect, but it didn’t need to be perfect to be good. Storm and I still had a ton of shit to figure out, but we had started.

And I liked where we were going… even if it meant hiking back across the lands we’d already made it through.

Chapter 15

Doveand I spent the evening hanging with Sirus. He made her take a shower, and then braided her hair in a gorgeous spiral. All of us were going to bed early, to get ready to spend more time walking out in the wilderness. We’d be leaving in the morning, so there wasn’t really any time to waste.

“You need to braid Harper’s hair too, so she doesn’t try to cut it off when we start walking again,” Dove warned Sirus, as he tied the end of her last braid and tucked it up into the intricate creation he’d made. It kind of reminded me of a cinnamon roll.

My lips curved upward.

It was sweet that she was thinking of me, even if both of them had taken my joke far too seriously.

“I’ll make sure she showers and gets her hair done too,” he assured her, shooting me a small grin.

My body warmed.

Hopefully he was thinking about the same kind of shower I was thinking about.

“Can we snuggle?” Dove asked him.

“Of course.” They climbed under the blankets, and she giggled at something he said. I was already sitting on the other edge of the bed, but I didn’t want to interrupt their daddy-daughter (or uncle-niece) time, so I slipped off and started toward the bathroom.

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