A Kingdom of Ruin (Deliciously Dark Fairytales Book 3)(117)

“What was that?” Claudile furrowed her brow and stepped up quickly to look in the pot. “This elixir will work without your add-ins.”

“I’ve spent my life dealing with people on death’s door,” I said as I stuck my face in the next pot and breathed in. This was for my father. He had a concussion and was hard to rouse. The elixir should bring him around without any lingering effects. I was fully confident that he’d be fine.

I was not so confident about what would become of the kingdom when all our help left us.

“When a person is plagued with a demon sickness, any other ailment or wound can kill them quickly. So I’ve never been able to settle for it works.”

I sprinkled a little bit of rosemary into my father’s elixir before stepping past a few other pots and hauling the last of them off the stove. This elixir was for the shifters who were currently fanned out outside of the shed, resting. None of them were hurt too badly, but our brew would speed up their natural healing ability and ease the ache.

I took the pot out to Hannon, standing by with Sable and Dash, ready to distribute it. They could do that while keeping an eye on Father, lying under a nearby tent.

“You need to break the curse, Finley,” Hannon said as he waved his hand over the cooling pot. “With Jedrek dead, the demon king is free to re-enact the suppression magic.”

“I know, Hannon, but we need to tend to the wounded.”

“You’ve made something to help the worst of them. Ami and Claudile can handle the others’ needs. You need to deal with the curse.”

I sighed and left him to it, heading back in the shed.

“He’s right,” Ami said, slowly stirring one of the elixirs she’d devised. It was to slow blood loss and had some very interesting components. “We have this handled. You need to reunite with m—” Her voice hitched and she turned to the side to cough into her elbow. She patted her throat. “Sorry, burr in my throat. You need to reunite with the curse holder and free these people.”

I agree, my dragon thought. Claim him. This bullshit with the hot and cold is well beyond old. Claim him, mark him, and imprint. Get that big alpha dick deep inside you.

I rolled my eyes. It had been so nice when she turned her attention, temporarily, to demons and whips. Here we went again with alpha dicks. Next she’d be asking me to get all that jizz so we could get with his child.

You know me so well, she thought.

“He’s busy,” I said, checking the smell on another of Claudile’s elixirs. I tilted my head, catching a fragrance I wasn’t quite expecting. “Is that—”

“He’s probably stalling,” Ami said. “He—men like him, I mean, tend to stall when they know a serious obligation is on the line, and they don’t think they have all it takes. They convince themselves they aren’t good enough. That they aren’t enough, period.”

I didn’t know about men like him in general—was there more than one guy like him? I wasn’t sure the world could handle it—but that did sound like him. He’d worry his kingdom was in ashes. That he still couldn’t protect me. All sorts of crap.

Butterflies swarmed my belly. He was overthinking things, obviously. I’d given myself to the fucking demon king, for the goddess’s sake—nothing else was going to faze me.

I took a moment to look around. Things were in hand for the healers, for the most part. The shifters who were still alive would claw their way back to health, my father included. He had access to his animal now, so he was already slowly improving. My remedy would only speed up his recovery.

I took it off the fire to cool.

Besides, I wasn’t on my own anymore. For the first time I had help outside of my family. I said as much.

“It’ll be good for you to have a community,” Ami said. “To rely on others.”

“Maybe.” I pulled off the apron I’d worn out of habit, revealing a crappy pair of clothes I’d retrieved from the bundle that had been dropped just outside of our entry point. Someone had retrieved it, venturing close enough to hear the faeries and demons through the barrier, still waiting. That was probably a good thing, since if the demons had gotten through, they probably would’ve been killed by accident.

“Or maybe I’ll get bored,” I murmured.

Claudile huffed out a laugh. “Likely.”

I picked up my sword with one hand and went to grab the elixir for my father with the other. Hannon would do what he did best and nurse. It was time I fulfilled my other duty.

More butterflies took flight in my chest, this time accompanied by a low, throbbing burn deep in my core. My heart sped up. I wanted Nyfain now. I wanted our reunion. I wanted to finish what we’d started…and then keep going with it.

“Aren’t you going to wear that?” Ami asked with a note of suspicion in her voice. She probably still half thought I’d stolen it. “Why would you carry it if you could put on the belt?”

“No. After a battle and dealing with demons, he’ll probably have random spurts of rage. The leather belt is getting a little worse for wear, given all it’s been through. I don’t want him to rip it off without thinking.”

“You know him very well,” Ami murmured, and her tone struck me as odd. Kind of whimsical. Like she’d known a man like that once and longed for him.