Chapter 427: Oh, Come On. Now He’s Just Showing Off.

FLASH.

With zero warning, Guinevere’s light surged again.

White pulsed from her body and split cleanly into two streams, a river hitting a rock, choosing both sides. The rock in this metaphor was standing between a dragon and a king and one side of the river was offended by the other side’s volume.

The larger stream waterfalled into Landon, while the smaller stream trickled into Kael.

The measuring had started before the glow finished. Manhood, territory, and magical capacity were all on the table. Kael looked at Landon. Landon looked at Kael. One of them was breathing hard. Both were doing the immediate, involuntary math on who got more light because both could feel what Guinevere felt and Guinevere knew exactly who got more there.

"Don’t look that proud, Solveil. My tank was already full," Kael panted. "I am also at a bad angle like this. Normally, she fills me up. I take the whole load."

The sentence left Kael’s mouth, traveled across the room, and arrived at every ear present. He heard it after it was already too late to shove it back in. The words were out. The words were the verbal equivalent of setting yourself on fire. The words were going to follow him to his grave, dig him up, and make him say them again.

Brennan and Blair locked eyes with the involuntary horror of two people who had both caught the innuendo at the same time and were now bonded by it against their will. They both immediately looked away.

Damon glanced down at her, lips twitching, fully having caught that interaction and finding the dragon princess entirely too adorable. Her face was doing something between horrified and entertained. He watched both compete and decided this woman was the most interesting person he had ever stood next to and the standing was becoming a habit.

"You should be very proud, Young Light Bearer," Landon replied. "Your light abilities are much stronger than the first time we met. But it is acceptable that I absorb her excess because my light is her light." The anger in Landon’s voice was replaced by something closer to amusement. He was also standing over Kael, who was sitting, and the angle was giving the amusement a superiority that Kael did not appreciate.

A compliment. From the King of Light. To the Young Light Bearer Dragon. Wrapped in a superiority complex and delivered from a standing position to a sitting one. Kael rejected everything about what was happening. On a spiritual, physical, and emotional level.

"That’s because your light is a dry sponge. Mine is already an ocean. That’s not a compliment. That’s a deficit," Kael said slowly, the same voice he would use to explain dark magic to the elders.

Yes, he had just called the King of Light a dry sponge. To his face. While sitting down. While holding the man’s mate. While glowing like a shitty nightlight in comparison. Insulting a king’s magic from a weaker position took either balls or a specific flavor of stupid. With Kael it was usually both.

Landon’s lips curved, amused, like he was finding Kael to be entertaining and Kael did not appreciate that either.

"Correct," Landon agreed. "A deficit that just absorbed more of her than yours was able to."

"Yes, because I’ve been her goddamn lightning rod since this started."

"Previous light absorption is not the flex you think it is, Young Light Bearer. Her light needs to be stabilized."

"Previous capacity is exactly the flex I think it is, Solveil."

"And yet." Landon’s amusement was fully operational now.

"No ’and yet.’ Don’t flatter yourself. Let’s see how you do after a day of that."

"Oh, I fully plan on it." Landon looked down at Guinevere, who was still panting, and let go of her arms.

White light flared from his hands, then wrapped around her like sunlight. It moved like it knew where to go, finding the places she hurt, settling into them, and Guinevere’s body softened against Kael’s chest as the pain she’d been holding drained out of her.

"Oh, come on. Now he’s just showing off," Kael snapped. "I have the same light. Mine saved Sterling’s life. But mine is harder than his. Mine shows up when it wants to."

The Sterling card. Played from the bottom of the deck. Kael was aware. He was also aware that Sterling may have just been rendered unconscious and wasn’t actually dying. Didn’t matter. His light didn’t care about technicalities and neither did he.

"I can relate," Guinevere breathed. The sentence was an onion with layers and subtext that her subconscious decided to let out. Subtext only Blair and Damon picked up on because the Young Light Bearing Dragon and King of Light were preoccupied.

Guinevere looked up at Landon with genuine gratitude and warmth. Kael felt all of this through their connection and strongly disliked it. Before he could say anything to stop her from thanking the man whose kingdom was trying to charge her with attempted murder, she spoke.

"Thank you for healing me, King Solveil."

Landon’s jaw shifted by a fraction and an emotion she couldn’t name traveled through his light into her like a fist to the chest. She blinked up at him, not understanding.

Behind her, Kael looked like a man watching his least favorite person step on a rake in slow motion. The slow motion was the gift. Not the rake. The rake was funny. The slow motion was art. He knew exactly why Landon’s jaw did that. She had called him King Solveil instead of Landon. And Kael was going to remember this moment on his deathbed and smile.

"Your intervention on my behalf is very kind of you," she continued. "Especially given what I am accused of. I hope your recovery continues. But I want to be transparent, Your Majesty. The runes on your forearms are from me. They transferred during contact. I take full accountability and would like to formally apologize for any physical, magical, or aesthetic disruption this has caused."

"Disclosure," Landon repeated, like he was tasting something he hadn’t ordered but wasn’t going to send back.

"Yes," she replied. "I felt you should know. I have no memory of that contact and the transfer was unintentional. But there is no cure that I know of and they flare up at the worst times."

Runes flared to life on all three of them, right on cue, like they had been listening for exactly that.