Page 65 of Heart of Dawn
For love.
For life.
For Miko.
“Silly king will ask me no more questions,” Dawn clapped back in a voice that hummed through my bones. “Your crown does not grant you the authority to converse with me, lesser being.”
I lifted my head again to see the look on the king’s face.
Ah, what sweet joy to see him stunned. If it didn’t hurt so much, I would pee myself laughing.
The king slapped his thighs angrily, springing to his feet. “I am partly your maker. Youwillspeak to me, and youwillanswer my questions.”
Dawn pursed its lips once again, releasing a stream of pink smoke straight into Damien’s face.
“Your Majesty!” the guards cried in sync. They caught him as he collapsed, lowering him to sit on the ground.
His azure eyes flooded pink as his hands trembled. He looked at me, he looked at his guards, then bent over with a violent retch and vomited black goo onto the ground.
Dawn’s cackle quickly became a scream. Pink steam curled from the skull’s crown, the rest of it spasming as if caught in a seizure.
“Dirty… Dirty blood…”
Damien gasped, coughing wetly, as if his chest were full of fluids. It took him a good few minutes to be finally able to stand again, aided by his loyal men.
The skull began to melt, the stink of burning flesh stinging my nostrils.
“Your special blood will spill,” Dawn managed, clearly in agony. “I?—”
With a fizz and pop, the skull became a puddle, Dawn gone.
Fae blood. Our blood. We could do something with it, use it to fight back. If Dawn evolved, then so could we. Maybe. There had to be a way of utilizing this as a weapon against the assbug.
Damien, his cheeks flushed crimson, sat back on the log, furious over being put in his place.
Wendy landed on my cheek again. “How are you feeling?”
I put my head back down. “Awful.”
“Maybe some water will help. It won’t heal you, but it might give you the strength to fight on.”
“Okay.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t think of it before. I’m so… Oh, Orion.”
“Don’t worry. There’s so much…going on.”
My little buzzy friend took off and hovered above me, her eyes flashing in the direction of the king. “I have a request that will benefit you, too.”
“Go on,” the king answered coolly.
She told him about the moat.
“You can drink from it,” she added. “As long as you help my friend.”
I listened to the king’s footsteps slowly approach me. He came to a stop, towering above me, his hair fanning around his face as he looked down.
“What a wonderful friend you have, Orion.” He snapped his fingers, and a guard emptied his water canteen, filling it with the golden liquid.
