air, safe from any threats.
I closed my eyes and snuggled closer to my Fae-gift. “I’m going to rest for a bit, Penelope. Only wake me if it’s necessary, please.”
Surprisingly, I did find slumber while we were airborne.
* * *
A gentle shake of my shoulder had me blinking awake. “Huh?”
“Welcome home, my daughter,” Father said quietly. “It’s time to wake up.”
I shot up straight, and I instantly groaned.
My aching joints were screaming at me.
I held my back and arched, squinting at my surroundings. I was still in the flying saddle, sitting astride Penelope’s back. But we were no longer in the air. The sun was setting now, casting an orange glow upon the king’s castle, where Penelope stood directly in front of the mighty palace.
“Wow,” I muttered in surprise, still blinking the sleep from my blurred gaze. “I slept the whole damned way. You get all the blue apples, Penelope.”
She flicked her tail with glee.
I shook my head past the slumber fuzzies and turned my attention down toward my father. I spoke respectfully, “King Traevon.”
Father’s lips started to pinch, but he quickly cleared his expression and dipped his head to me in greeting. “I take it your flight went well?”
“It went spectacularly.” I wiggled in my saddle, the kinks mended in my body. I unstrapped my waist and watched as Father bent to free my feet from the bindings. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” The king raised his hands and gripped my waist, helping me down to stand on solid earth. His emerald eyes scanned my face, in no hurry to look away. “Are you too tired to chat, or are you able?”
“I slept the entire way. I’ll be fine to speak with you.” I yanked my attention away from him and tilted my head back to look up at the spires on his castle. “You changed the color.”
“That was your mother’s doing.” King Traevon gently looked away from me and up to view what I did. He pointed at the far right tower. “Minnie wanted that one green, but I put my foot down. I have not one inkling why she would want one tower to be green when she had the rest painted in gold.”
I snorted. “It’s Mother. She defies all odds.”
“True enough.” Father waved a servant over and spoke to her, “Have a stable hand take Penelope to the stables for brushing and give her ten blue apples afterward. And take the princess’s bags to her room.”
With a quick curtsey, she was off racing across the yard.
“I see they’re still afraid of you.” My lips twitched. “It wouldn’t hurt if you smiled at them every so often.”
The king lifted one red eyebrow. “Does that work for you?”
“Not in the slightest.”
“Indeed. It’s a lost cause, as I’m sure you have learned by now.” Father leaned to the side and delicately sniffed in my direction. “Is that…my two-hundred-year-old gorgon wine from my spell-locked cellar I’m smelling on you?”
I sniffed at my shoulder and then shrugged. “Probably. We cracked that cellar open a year into our banishment after some poor schmuck lost his hands and his eyesight for a short while trying to rip it apart. There isn’t much left down there now. You’ll need to refill it whenever you plan to visit Sugar Cove.” No apology was given, none would be forthcoming either.
The king grunted, his eyes not leaving my face. His voice was droll when he asked, “Is there anything left of my summer home? Or is it in complete shambles?”
“I don’t know. You tell me,” I stated evenly, and turned to face him fully. I waved my right hand in front of my face. “After all, I left here when I was eighteen years old, and now I’m thirty. I’ve aged twelve years, from a child to an adult. And you don’t seem at all surprised by my appearance.”
His arms crossed over his chest. “I didn’t hear a question in there. Ask.”
“Were you spying on me while I’ve been gone?” I kept my facial features utterly blank, hiding my hope he had been paying attention to me deep down in a place he would never find.
“I wouldn’t intrude on your privacy,” the king answered. “I sent you there to have your freedom while you could. That does not include me hiding in the darkness to watch you.”
I scanned his face.
I couldn’t tell if he was lying or not.
Either way, he hadn’t contacted me.
Only one of my parents had kept in touch. My mother.
I sniffed and turned toward the heir’s castle