Crown of Moonlight (Court of Midnight and Deception #2) - K.M. Shea Page 0,91
home. I couldn’t see much of her house—not because of the lack of light, but because the place was covered in vines, flowers, and enough plants to outfit roughly ten city parks.
Verdant was singing at the top of her lungs when I helped her out of the truck. She landed on top of me—and let me tell you, for a petite fae she had a lot of muscle, because wowza did she hit me like a rock!
I righted myself in time and helped her up the winding sidewalk. “No, Verdant. No air guitars. You have to figure out how to get inside—AH!”
I screamed when three white deer stepped out of the thick underbrush.
“Babies!” Verdant cheered. She let go of me and flung herself at the nearest stag. She scrambled up its back, and hung over its shoulder. “Thanks, Leila!”
“Um, yeah. Goodnight?”
The stag and a doe walked off, leaving the last stag with me.
It nosed my arm, and it took me a moment to realize it was the same stag I had saved from the hunt. “Are you happy to be home?” I scratched its forehead, ducking when he swiveled his head and nearly took me out with his antlers.
The stag flicked his tail, then followed his brethren.
I shook my head and jogged back to the truck.
“Who’s next?” I asked Rigel.
“Summer is the next closest.” Rigel watched as I scrambled into my seat.
“Then summer, here we come!”
Birch’s place was less than fifteen minutes south, and was an easy drive.
Rather than pull up to his house, we got stopped at these massive gates and had to wait for a car to come pick him up.
The gate guard seemed to think I was going to steal all of Summer’s valuable artifacts if they let me in, based on the way he was suspiciously eyeing me.
I didn’t mind—I was just happy he wasn’t having a massive heart attack because his distinctly ruffled monarch was cruising around in the bed of my truck!
When the sent for car finally arrived, I lowered my truck tailgate. “Come on out, Birch. This is your stop.”
Birch—frost in his hair from the ice—groaned and turned away from me.
“What happened to your good cheer and happy songs? Come on!” I climbed into the bed of the truck and grabbed Birch by the ankles.
Rigel got out of the truck. “Do you want help?”
“Nah. I’m just going to let him fall since none of his people seem inclined to help.” I sat on the side of my truck and shoved Birch off the back with my heels.
No judging—I’d backed up to the grass, and as King of Summer it seemed like Birch took his landscaping seriously because the ground was practically a cushion. He didn’t even thump when he hit it, he bounced and rolled.
But I felt a little guilty anyway because the car door opened and out came Consort Flora.
“Oops,” I said.
Chapter Twenty
Leila
Birch groaned into the ground.
“Birch, stand. We should return to the house,” Consort Flora said.
To my surprise, Birch managed to sit up, and the judgy gate guard helped him into the passenger seat of the fancy car.
Consort Flora waited until he was safely strapped in, then she bowed to me—the redneck who’d brought her husband back in the icy bed of a truck. “Thank you for bringing him home, Queen Leila. I am certain he will be grateful for your assistance when he wakes tomorrow.”
“Oh, you don’t have to tell him I assisted him,” I said. “In fact, I think I’d prefer if you didn’t.”
Consort Flora smiled serenely and got back into her car.
I scrambled into my truck and waited for Rigel before I stepped on the gas, purposely gunning it for a few spaces so Fell crashed around in the back and smacked into the side of my truck.
“Whoopsies,” I said. “Sorry about that, Fell,” I called, even though he couldn’t hear me.
Solis laughed.
“We’re dropping off Fell next?” I asked.
“Yes. Solis lives closest to the Night Court,” Rigel said.
“Great! I like having good neighbors. Oh, but won’t we need to double back to the library to pick up your car?” I asked.
Rigel shrugged. “We can use the night mares to go pick it up after we finish.”
I sighed deeply. “Good point. Okay, fine. How do I get to Fell’s place?”
Rigel gave me directions, and Solis seemed to come out of it a bit. He leaned forward between our seats and sighed.
“You know, Leila, you’re too good.” Solis braced himself on our seats. “We fae don’t deserve you.”