go and choose me.”
“I am choosing you, Carus.” His hand slipped from mine to gently cup my face. “This is all for you. I didn't understand at first—my thoughts were jumbled—but now, I see. I know why I must save the world. Because it's what you would do. You have helped to make me into the man I am and now, I fight for this planet in honor of you. Stand beside me and take your place as its queen.”
“I don't want to rule the world,” I said sadly. “And you're confused if you think I've made you into this. You have always been a kind man. You've always cared about humans and their world. All I did was get you involved. And this”—I waved my hand out at the wild landscape—“is not honoring me. It's hurting me. Please, understand that.”
“My love, my eternal goddess,” Azrael whispered sadly as he stroked my hair back from my face, “you are the one hurting me by rebuking me after we have claimed the Earth together. I cannot release you from the bonds we have forged; it is done. There is no going back. Only forward.” He waved his muscular arm out at the world. “There lies our future. Our territory. It is our right and our duty to protect it.” When he looked back at me, his confidence had cracked and fear strained his expression. “Please, do not abandon me when our work has just begun.”
“Azrael,” I whispered brokenly as I wrapped my arms around him. “Damn it, Az, you know I would never abandon you. You are my world. I'll stay with you and we'll face this together. But, baby”—I leaned back to look at him—“you need to compromise with me.”
“What do you wish for, Carus?” Azrael asked with a soft smile of relief. “Whatever it is, I will get it for you.”
“I'm asking for a compromise, Az, not a gift. Slow it down. This doesn't need to be done in a day, right? Give it some time and see how the world responds. You may not need to completely alter it.”
Azrael considered this, then nodded. “Very well. You have your compromise. We will go slowly if you will agree to stay with me.”
“Deal.”
Azrael grinned brilliantly and his eyes began to glow. “It's time to speak to the humans. Will you attend me?”
I let out a long breath and nodded.
“Then you must do so dressed as a queen, not a warrior.”
Darkness gathered around me and took solid form, settling into a sin-black gown that trailed into diaphanous layers and crept up to swirl around my neck in a wide, lacy collar that framed my face.
“Beautiful,” Azrael whispered as more darkness crept over him, forming an elegant suit—black on black—that looked savage on him. He drew his long hair back, between his sparkling wings, and glanced upward. A crown appeared on his brow—a golden band with a diamond cut into a nine-pointed star set at center-front. “And now, for you, Carus.” Azrael lifted his hands and a matching crown appeared within them. He set it on my head. “I crown you, Queen of the Human Realm.”
I shivered as my dragon scales slipped back into my body and the silken darkness settled over my skin. My husband had lost his damn mind, but I couldn't leave him. I had to stick it out and wait for the chance to shove some sanity into his thick, horned skull. For better or worse, right? It wasn't as if he'd never done the same for me.
We went downstairs, crossed the courtyard, and then took a set of stairs up onto the battlements. We were spotted as we made our way to the center-front of the curtain wall, stopping right over the gate, where an arch sheltered us from the sun.
“There they are!” a human shouted.
A massive crowd had gathered in the meadow before the castle, homemade signs pumping into the air and voices crying in adoration. They shouted and rushed forward to line the edge of the moat, some even cried when they saw us. The mass of them stretched back into the forest and beyond my view. I could see vehicles parked in the open spaces that studded the fey wilderness and even some tents among the trees.
People had made a pilgrimage to see us. All sorts of people had come. Some dressed in lace and chiffon with pointed ears glued over their own, some wore medieval clothing, some flounced about in prom gowns, and