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“Heaccidentallydestroyed the city, which was already in insanely bad shape, because earth fae tried to steal his mate from him, which you damn well know.” Odin’s pleasant charm was fading fast. “If this is the reception we get, keep your twelve-year-old king.” He tossed a hand toward the kid. “Who are you, by the way?”
“Granite,” the kid said. His voice was rough, though I didn’t think there was any way he’d gone through puberty yet—or whatever the fae version of puberty was.
“Your magic attacked your throat?” Odin asked, sounding much less angry all of the sudden.
“And my spine,” he rasped.
“Damn. I’m sorry.” He held out a hand, and Granite shook it awkwardly. “I’m doubly sorry if these assholes are making you the king. Filling cracks is boring as hell.”
Granite shrugged. “Better than school.”
Odin’s grimace told me he knew exactly why. I guess some kids were bullies everywhere—even Bluhm.
Sevva said, “I’ll work on the people, but for now, you need to go home and show Mom and Dad that you’re alive. Mom’s been crying foryears. I’ll talk to the rest of the representatives, to see if I can convince them that taking you back would be the best call.”
I grimaced at that, and Odin did too, though probably for a different reason than I did.
So when he squeezed my hand, giving me a chance to argue with the idea of traveling through the stone again, I didn’t bother.
Chapter9
I managed notto catch myself on fire while we transported that time, though I still ended up collapsing against Odin’s chest, swearing at his method of travel. His hand stroked my back, and I pressed myself tighter against him.
When I finally peeled myself away from him, I realized we were standing in the middle of what looked like a road or sidewalk of some kind.
People were walking all around us, some gaping, some glaring, and some rushing away.
No one looked happy to see us.
Odin didn’t seem to care, though.
“I’ve got to figure out how to transport through fire,” I finally told him, squeezing my eyes shut and leaning my forehead against his shoulder.
“We’ll ask Flame if you’re strong enough,” he told me.
I frowned.
I’d better be strong enough.
“Everyone’s staring at us,” I said.
“Sounds like their problem, not ours.” He laced his fingers through mine, and towed me toward the front door of what was apparently his parents’ house. As I looked around, I realized that I couldn’t see the sky; that the city had been builtinsidesomething.
“Where are we?” I asked him.
“Another ridiculous city that I tried to convince the people was a terrible idea. It’s built inside of two massive cliffs, connected by bridges that are nowhere near as steady as they should be. The cracks in the cliffs run deep. I can tell Granite has been trying to fix them, but he’s young. He doesn’t know what he’s doing yet.”
Alarm bells rang in my head. “Are we safe here?”
“I’m already fixing some of them, Velvet. Don’t worry. The cliffs will crumble at some point—but it won’t be while I’m here.”
“Is that really supposed to make me feel better?” I asked him, my voice dubious.”
He chuckled. “It’s not our job to make decisions for the people. If they cared what I thought, our whole damn land would be formatted differently. King’s Valley wouldn’t have fallen if they had just listened to me and stopped tunneling downward, but they wanted to expand that way rather than grow upward. The earth replied the same way I told them it would; no one else but me could keep it together for long enough. This city is much more volatile already. Replacing me with Granite is the worst decision they could make—but it’s still their decision.”
Damn.
“You don’t want to live here, right?” I checked.
