I smiled and squeezed his hand, kissing Daath on the cheek before walking over to Kalian.
He stood up from leaning against the wall and smiled when he saw me coming. As I made my way over to him, he bowed low, at which I rolled my eyes.
“Your Highness.”
“Stop that,” I scoffed. “I’m Myrcedes to you. And that’s an order.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he chuckled, standing back up straight. “Well, Myrcedes, would you permit me to tell you how stunning you look tonight?”
I blushed again and smiled. “I would.”
“Good,” he nodded, stepping in to close the gap between us. He ever so gently placed his hand on the back of my head and pulled me in for a long kiss. When he finally pulled away, he whispered. “You are the most beautiful creature I’ve ever laid eyes on.”
My blush intensified, and I smiled, feeling like an absolute idiot. “You don’t look bad yourself, General.”
Actually, he looked wonderful. He was wearing his armor again, the gold-plated one that was molded perfectly for the shape of his chest. If I didn’t actually know that was his uniform, I’d have assumed Lindsay designed that one too. Whoever decided that the fae army’s uniform would be literal gold shaped to their chests, abs and all, must have been a succubus, or just a very horny fashion designer.
“I haven’t seen you in this since the day we met,” I smiled. “It’s nice to see you like this again.”
“It’s nice to wear this again,” he smiled. “Though, I must admit… I kept one pair of jeans. Just one, though, and only for days when I’m visiting you!”
I laughed as he got defensive and shook my head. “Fine, I suppose I’ll excuse it then.” I’d bet it would be a month before the other fae caught him in them, and in a couple of years, they’d be all the rage amongst the magical creatures. “Thank you for coming, Kalian.”
“You think I’d miss any event in your honor? After everything you’ve done for me?” he smiled. “I’ll go my entire life never being able to thank you enough.”
“It was nothing,” I shook my head and laughed. I wasn’t used to the idea of someone owing me their life, though, in the past few months, that had become the case for quite a few people.
“No,” he shook his head. “To stand by would have been nothing. That would have been easy. You’ve never done that, though.” He smiled ever so softly at me. “And the world is better for it.”
I laughed nervously and shook my head. “Okay, I appreciate everything you’re saying, but it’s already hard to breathe in this damn corset, and I don’t want to look like a tomato all night, so no more sappy talk!”
“Fine,” he laughed. I could feel his laugh vibrate on his metal chest plate, where it rested against my torso. “Then, may I have this dance?”
“I can’t dance,” I started to shake my head when he grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the floor, anyway. “Kalian? Kali- no, really, this is a bad idea, Kal!”
“So what?” he laughed, pulling me into his arms. “I’ve had worse ideas than dancing with a gorgeous woman.”
I blushed and leaned into him as he led me in the dance slowly. Sometimes, we’d get into a comfortable groove, so he would try to speed up or spin me, but that resulted immediately in his foot getting stepped on every time, so finally, he settled for a slow, simple, almost boring pace. It didn’t matter. It was nice enough to be with him.
After a while, Hestus interrupted our dance, quickly joined by Maluc. At first, they offered to dance with me, but I warned them how many times I’d stepped on Kalian, so they settled for getting me something to drink instead. It wasn’t long into my conversation with the gargoyle twins that Siena found her way to us.
For a while, I cycled through conversations with them, Gloria, Lindsay, and a few of the reapers that I’d met in the castle a few times who wanted to ask a thousand questions about how I could travel to the Bay of Souls without needing the connection of a recently deceased Spirit. Almost everyone who spoke anything other than English would break out into their foreign language in the middle of a conversation to see if I could respond in kind. For a few of them, I could. There was a very old Seelie who spoke the ancient fae language and wanted to know what I remembered of my life as a fae. Another reaper spoke modern Greek, so we had a rocky conversation as we realized my knowledge of the language was several centuries old. Maluc spoke to me in a gargoyle dialect for fifteen minutes, uninterrupted, before he finally took a breath long enough for me to break in and tell him I had no idea what he was saying.
After a while, a hush fell across the room as Daath and Syrion ascended to the dais. I glanced over and shot them a look that said, “What the hell are you doing?”
They merely smiled.
“Good evening, everyone,” Daath began. “Thank you all for coming tonight. And thank you all for managing to keep this event secret as long as you did.” He found Lindsay in the crowd and winked. “I believe you all know why we’re here.”
“Recently,” Syrion said, “We discovered that we were wrong to announce our beloved as the Queen of Earth. She is, in fact, Queen of the Middle Worlds.”
“For thousands of years, as Kings of the Night, you’ve all considered yourselves our subjects, as have we. However, we’re overjoyed to welcome your true Queen, the one you all should come to know as your ruler as long as you live.”
“Myrcedes, please join us,” Syrion smiled.
I started to shake my head when Lindsay and Siena appeared out of nowhere beside me and pushed me toward the front of the room. I shot
