By Fairy Means or Foul: A Starfig Investigations Novel(62)

He laughed.

I ruined the effect by yawning, the long day of flight catching up with me. We’d made remarkable time, but at a cost.

“Fine. Go to sleep, then.” He patted me again and laid his head back.

My eyes slid shut in no time and I let go.

“You were magnificent today, Twig,” Quinn whispered.

I might have rumbled in happiness before sleep claimed me.



“You have a plan?” Quinn asked as I winged my way toward the castle, the sun barely warming the cool morning air.

Sort of.

“Care to share?”

Sure. I swooped down at the castle at full tilt. Quinn screamed and clasped my neck tight.

“This is not a plan!” he hollered.

I begged to disagree.

We just came within arrow range when a huge volley shot our way. I breathed fire, turning the arrows to ash. Another volley. This time Quinn raised a hand and muttered something under his breath. The arrows stopped in mid-flight. With a flick of his wrist, the arrows reversed course, sailing back the way they’d come.

Shouting from below let me know that at least some of the arrows found targets. I suspected by the foul words and even worse smell that Nyx kept orcs to protect the battlements. I hated orcs. Not only were they smelly, but they possessed beady little eyes and avaricious natures.

Those fuckers loved to raid dragon hoards.

When I’d started my first hoard a platoon of orcs found my treasures. It took me a solid six months to hunt down every last one of them and retrieve what items they had left. It took another six months to find all the treasures they’d sold. I didn’t mind the loss of gold so much—nah, that was a total effing lie, I was pissed—but I’d collected a lot of valuable stones of both the precious and magical variety.

So orcs weren’t my favorite magical creatures by a long shot. By the tensing of Quinn’s legs around my neck, they weren’t his favorite, either. Unfortunately, I was bound by the Alphae Guild’s stupid ‘do no harm . . . first’ rule and I wasn’t sure if volleying arrows while we were raiding their castle counted legitimately as aggression or would be thought of as self-defense.

“You’re over thinking it,” Quinn grumbled. He flicked his wrist toward another volley of arrows and we watched as they turned back on their archers. I did my part by turning more rounds of projectiles to ash, but didn’t directly attack the orcs. More’s the pity.

Well, maybe I couldn’t attack them, but they didn’t know that.

Swooping low over the battlements, I raced just over their heads. The orcs naturally assumed I was trying to rake them with my fierce claws and more than a few jumped off the ramparts. To fuck with them, I threw myself in reverse and after another pass the vast majority of the orc force had taken one long swan dive off the walls. The remaining force sailed off the wall when Quinn pointed in their direction. My tongue lolled out, and I chortled.

“Don’t be smug.” Quinn’s voice, of course, was smug as fuck.

Once the battlements were cleared, I fluttered to the ground, tucked my wings in tight. I wasn’t sure, but I assumed they weren’t as sturdy as normal dragon wings. I spun in a large circle making sure Quinn wouldn’t be in any danger before lowering my neck and letting him climb off.

Unfortunately, my current form was too large to fit through any of the entrances. I grumbled. Quinn shrugged. Fine. I shifted until I stood on two feet once more. I braced my arms against a wall and took a few deep breaths, willing away the jolt of nausea that still came with shifting between my forms. As soon as I nodded, Quinn handed me clothing from the knapsack. I quickly donned it as he watched the perimeter for stray orcs.

Once I dressed, I randomly selected an entrance, placing Quinn at my back. Fortunately, my stubborn wizard didn’t argue with me.

“Do you know where we’re going?”

“No, but I figured I’d just head toward the stank.” I winked before turning my attention to the next set of passages.

“Funny.”

“I endeavor.”

We continued on until we came to a set of stairs. We could go up or down. Turrets were popular places to lock princesses, right? Nyx struck me as the type who would love to play on that idea. Besides, it would be just like my half-brother to spend his time at the tip of the penis. I didn’t roll my eyes, but it was close.

After some debating, we headed up the steps. We climbed for what seemed like an hour, but was probably only fifteen minutes. Damn spiral staircases.

We continued until we crested a small platform with a thick metal door. I tried to open it. Nope, we couldn’t get so lucky as to find it unlocked. Ah well.

“Stand back, Quinn. I’ll see if I can bust it down.” I retreated a couple steps to build some momentum.

Quinn sighed, like he was disappointed in me.

“What?” I grumbled.

He jabbed himself in the chest with his thumb. “Uh, wizard? I think I can open a door.”

“You don’t need to get testy.”

He shot me a dirty look before turning his attention to the door. Closing his eyes for a moment, his brow scrunched under his concentration.

“There.”

Before I could move in front of him he shoved the door open.

“Quinn!”

A ball of fire engulfed us.