Richelle Mead - THORN QUEEN

“Well, then,” he said briskly, “that is that.” The grim set to his face was gone, and I found myself grateful to see the return of his usual mien. “I noticed you were about to leave. Off to free humans from your subjects?”

“Off to free my subjects from me.”

I explained my task, and his features lit up with interest. “How convenient that I’ll be traveling in the same direction. Unless you’d like me to wait here until you return?”

No, the last thing I wanted was to encourage Dorian to make himself at home in my castle. So, I grudgingly conceded that he could go with me, partly because I still felt guilty and grateful over his intervention in the Ysabel incident. One bright side to him being with me was that Rurik decided I didn’t need an entire retinue for the trip. He alone accompanied us, and I wondered idly how Dorian managed to go wherever he wanted without an entourage. I didn’t like to think he was a more authoritative ruler than me.

“Don’t give me a hard time about this air thing,” I warned. “I don’t want any spiels about how I’m embracing my heritage and approaching my destiny.”

Dorian smiled, eyes on the road ahead of us. “I don’t need to tell you things you already know.”

“Of course…I suppose if I did get a better grip on my magic, I might be able to get rid of those fucking fire demons.”

“You see? I told you I don’t need to say anything. You’re finding ways to rationalize your use of magic all on your own.”

“Hey, this is a serious threat. You can’t tell me you’d be all casual if you had demons running loose in your kingdom.” I frowned. “Or would you? I got the impression a lot of rulers don’t bother themselves with that kind of thing.”

Dorian’s eyes took on that serious glint again, despite the small smile on his face. “Aeson didn’t bother. Don’t generalize to all of us. You know better. If I had demons in my land, I’d lead a group out myself to obliterate them.”

I wondered if Dorian could. My potential power might be greater than his, but at the moment, his control and skill made him a more dangerous force than me. A ruler in the Otherworld had to be powerful, or else the land wouldn’t accept them. It was a wonder I’d been found worthy.

“Do you want me to help you?” he asked when I remained silent. “I’ll go with you the next time you strike.”

“What would that cost me?” I asked with an eye roll.

“Why do you assume everything I do has an ulterior motive? Isn’t it enough I’d want to help you?”

“I don’t know,” I said, not liking how his words made me feel bad. Was I attributing more insidious motives to him than he deserved? “I don’t trust anyone around here.” Westoria was looming in the distance. “I don’t even trust Leith’s engineering generosity. He’s not doing this for the sake of trade.”

Dorian’s eyes lifted to the approaching village. “That,” he said, “we can both agree on. No matter how much you beat yourself up over those demons, you have more than enough strength to bind the land to you.” I hated his uncanny ability to guess my thoughts. “When Katrice dies, the Rowan Land will either pass in entirety to someone with the power to control it, or it will divide itself and be subsumed into other kingdoms.”

“Shaya said the same thing-and that Leith thinks being hooked up with me would help keep it in the family.” I shook my head. “One land’s bad enough. I don’t have the power to control two.”

“You’d be surprised,” he said ominously.

Our arrival was greeted with the same wonder and awe I’d had before the demon incident. Apparently, yesterday’s food shipments and Leith’s presence today had reestablished my awesome reputation. Dorian seemed to have an effect as well. As we dismounted and walked through the village, the residents’ eyes followed both of us, filled with admiration and wonder. Glancing at Dorian, I could understand their feelings. He strode through the dusty town just as he had my castle, confident and majestic, even after a hot and wearying ride. He looked like, well, a king, and even I couldn’t help but admire his good looks. Beside him, I felt frumpy and insignificant.

Then, I tried to pull back out of my glum thoughts and imagine what we must look like to these people, both of us tall and red-haired. We looked good together, I knew. I was in jeans, but I’d cleaned up this morning, and my hair was down. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see where the sun lit it up, giving the red a golden hue that complemented Dorian’s truer red. My tank top was blue, a good color for me, and I had on my usual gemstone jewelry. Perhaps most importantly, we carried our titles as king and queen, and to these people, I realized we were probably the equivalent of a Hollywood couple on the red carpet.

“Your majesty! I’m so glad you could-” Leith had come running up to us and came to a total standstill when he saw Dorian. After a few stunned moments, he made a polite bow to the Oak King. “Your majesty. Also a pleasure.”

I could tell Dorian was delighted to have ruined Leith’s plans for a romantic interlude. “Well, I hated to part from Eugenie this morning, so I thought I’d come along and see what’s new.”

I had to restrain myself from elbowing him. His wording implied that we’d woken up together. Our former relationship was no secret, and Dorian had pitched his words loudly, so that some of the gathered villagers would hear. No doubt this would be all over the Otherworld by tonight. Leith looked even more dismayed than before, and I tried to smooth things over.

“Why don’t you show us the project?” I asked him. “I don’t think I can thank you enough for what you’ve done.”

Leith brightened and eagerly led us forward. As we walked, Dorian murmured in my ear, “Believe me, he’s more than sure you could thank him enough.”

“How come you can allegedly do things for me without ulterior motives but no one else can?” I hissed back.

Dorian only grinned as Leith headed toward the village’s edge and showed us his handiwork. There was little to see of his irrigation system at this point. Mostly people were digging and laying out the foundation. Leith did his best to explain what it would develop into and even showed us blueprints-quaintly written on parchment. I followed them a little but could tell they were gibberish to Dorian, despite his polite and confident smile.

Zealous or not, a prince of the Rowan Land was not about to do manual labor, and once the tour was done, he sat down with Dorian and me at the mayor’s house. Davros seemed only too happy to keep offering his home as my hangout and eagerly served us wine before leaving his esteemed guests to discuss whatever it was royalty talked about.

“This is only the beginning of what we can do,” Leith said, positioning himself so that Dorian wasn’t in his line of sight. “I’d love to come visit and discuss more ways to work through this. I’ve got some ideas on how to construct buildings that will reflect light better. Have you ever considered redesigning your castle?”

“Yikes,” I said. “No. That’d be a big feat.”

“Not as big as you think. Not with the right help.”

I shook my head with a smile. “Let’s just focus on the people first.”

Leith smiled back. “Sure. But I will come by some day to show you some palace ideas-just in case you change your mind. Or, better yet, you should come visit us. Mother would love to show you the hospitality of the Rowan Land.”

“Or, better yet, you should throw the Thorn Queen a party,” said Dorian, deadpan. “I’m sure she would love it.”

This time, I did elbow Dorian. Leith didn’t notice. Dorian knew perfectly well I dreaded Otherworldly social events-particularly when the focus was on me.