not lying. Trixie’s sick. Take it easy.”
Penelope merely stared back, bored to the extreme. She took orders from no one but her owner, as a Fae-gifted pegasus should. She tilted her head to the side and watched me with one eye, waiting.
I strapped my feet in first and then my waist. “Be careful on your trip back, my friend. We pissed off plenty of elves on our journey to the coast.”
“It’s not my fault most of them didn’t like my jokes.”
“Still, be careful.” I pointed a sharp finger at him. “And do not hit on anyone already taken this time. You know you don’t have a shot in Fairy with someone already soul-mated.”
He brushed his white hair behind his pointed ears, a wicked grin etching his pretty face. “You never know. They may be bored and looking for some fun.”
I sighed heavily. “You are too good looking for your own good, because, for some dreadful reason, I actually believe you.”
My cousin’s chuckle was absolutely sinister. “Don’t wish my good looks away, cousin. If those were gone, I’d be positively frightful.”
“That we can agree on one hundred percent.” I nudged my right knee into Penelope’s flank, guiding her around Caspian’s horse. “You had better listen to me, though. The king will be upset if his prized possession doesn’t return. Try to conduct yourself in a way befitting the nephew of the king on your travels.”
“Yes, Your Highness,” Caspian mocked in a high-pitched voice.
“May the Fae save you,” I whispered quietly, knowing he wouldn’t do as I said at all.
“I heard that!” he shouted behind me.
“Of course, you did.” I leaned forward and nudged Penelope’s flanks harder, a direct order to start racing down the beach for flight. I gripped her mane with two fists and held on as she sprinted away. “I’ll see you when you arrive in Gatlin Grove!”
A few bystanders were walking on the beach for an early morning stroll. All stopped in their tracks when they saw us. Their mouths gaped open in a comical show of shock as Penelope’s black and red wings opened wide and started beating the air hard. Our neighbor was one of them, and I was reasonably sure she pissed herself—if the dark wetness on her pants was any indication—when she realized who I really was, all of the malicious comments she had tossed my way in the last twelve years surely running through her spiteful head.
“Surprise!” I shouted at her. “I’ll be seeing you again.”
She fainted dead, hitting the sand hard.
I snickered and leaned forward further, lowering myself against my Fae-gift’s warm body. “Fly, Penelope. Fly.”
Her hooves left the sand, and her wings flapped a strong cadence in the air, her take off seamless and enchanting, flying us higher and higher, the white clouds so much closer.
My stomach rolled, but I managed to praise her—finally—for good behavior, “That was perfect, Penelope. Now, take us home.”
I swallowed hard as she veered inland, away from the coastline. A tiny burp made its way past my lips, no matter how hard I tried to stifle it.
Penelope peered back, eyeing me with trepidation.
“I’m not going to puke on you. I promise,” I grumbled.
She huffed out a hard breath but turned back to her main job of getting us home safely. The dips and rises of her flying gentled some, now understanding the precarious state of my stomach.
I rested the side of my face against her warm neck, and whispered, “Thank you, my beautiful girl. I’ll give you all the blue apples in my bag if you keep this up.”
She nodded ever so slightly, careful not to knock my head.
Everything was sideways from the way I was lying, but the view was still tremendous. I sighed in happiness, my heart full, as I looked down upon my kingdom. The stunning hills and valleys were vast, and in the distance, to the north, I could even see part of the Gorgon Kingdom right over the Blood Forest separating our lands. Sugar Cove was too far north on the coast to see the Caster Kingdom to the south, and the Shifter Kingdom was directly to the west of the Elf Kingdom, again, too far away to see right now. But I had already viewed those plenty when flying with Father. Only a pegasus and its rider could fly over the Blood Forest that divided all of our lands equally without being snatched from the air and destroyed. Father had shown me a lot while we were high in the