fabulous belt.
I flashed my fangs in return.
He lifted a black brow, and ever so slightly parted his mouth—just a little—showing me long, sharp tiger fangs.
I sniffed…and closed my mouth.
Properly, his fangs were bigger.
But I had mine all the time, whereas, he had to shift partially to show me his. My fangs were far superior to his, even if tiny. There was no need to poke the beast, though.
I just wish he’d poke me…
Oh my Fae, I needed help in the head.
Father leaned toward me, and whispered, “Is everything all right, my daughter? You look troubled. If you need a break, you can always leave the room for a few minutes.”
Leaving the room was not going to help my ‘trouble.’
“I am fine, but thank you.” I smiled, reassuring him. Sweat trickled down between my breasts, hidden underneath leather from anyone’s view, thank the Fae. I winked. “But we should probably talk about the actual issue we came here for. I think we’ve gotten off track.”
“Utterly so,” Father agreed, returning his attention to the others. King Traevon interrupted their talk of which colors of their kingdoms should lie atop the other on the belts they were soon to purchase, and stated, “King Athon was correct. We need to focus on what we are all avoiding if we have any hope of leaving here today.”
King Elon grunted. “First, we should agree on the number of earthquakes there have been so far recently.”
“There have been two,” Queen Mikko answered.
I nodded in agreement, as did the others.
King Elon looked to the merfolk queen. “Do you think the earthquakes originated under the ocean?”
“No, the quakes originated from under the inland. I can confirm that much,” Queen Alora stated, flipping her multi-hued ponytail over the back of her chair to stop it from brushing her bronzed skin—she did have much skin showing. “All of the ocean was impacted at the same time, so I believe the earthquakes are originating directly under the center of our realm.”
King Athon pointed a finger down onto his table. “You’re suggesting it’s starting here at High Pointe?”
Our world was flat, a perfectly even flat circle, so that would make sense if it originated in the center—land in the middle and a thin ocean surrounding the island, all equal space for each kingdom. If you tried to swim or take a boat too far, you simply dropped off the realm where the Fae gifted ocean poured over into the deep black void and disappeared forever. Some have done this, even though they could feel the Fae barrier warning in your bones—Father had taken me close to it once, flying on our Fae-gifts, and the chill that attacked my body was not pleasant—and we lost those souls forever.
Queen Alora nodded. “Yes, I am confident it is coming from under High Pointe.”
The entire room went quiet.
If an earthquake was massive enough…
High Pointe might fall. That would be the end of us.
Queen Mikko’s onyx black skin crinkled on her face. “Does that mean the Fae are trying to destroy us?”
“If they were truly trying to destroy us, they could do that in the blink of an eye,” Father soothed her worries. “They would extinguish our Fae-sparks, and we would all perish. No, this is something else.”
King Athon scratched at his strong jawline, and asked, “You are the oldest of all of us, King Elon. Have you ever felt this power before?”
King Elon shook his head, his long, shamrock green braids swaying around him. “I have not. The power is far older than even I.”
All the power did was make me ill.
I didn’t think I could add to the discussion at all.
I crossed my legs under the table and pretended like I wasn’t a child playing in the deep water when I shouldn’t be. I couldn’t even tell that whatever I sensed was old. It simply felt like my insides were readjusting to different places—dreadful, that.
“There are no soothsayers alive right now to ask, either,” Queen Alora grouched. Her solid sky blue eyes with white sparkles may have glanced in the shifter king’s direction, before she added, “King Traevon, did your mother keep any books of our history that we could review?”
“She did,” Father answered. “But I scoured the texts last night, and I could not find any mention of earthquakes with power behind them. If I could ask her, I am fairly positive she wouldn’t have said anything different from what I read.”
Interesting. Grandmother wasn’t giving out information freely to Father. That, or she no longer