Chapter 430: A Preschool Graduation On Mushrooms

"Because she marked me, Young Light Bearer." Landon descended one step with a DONG.

Kael stepped up towards Guinevere with a DING. "Congratulations. Join the club. We have matching runes and no health plan."

Landon took another step with a DONG. Kael matched him with another DING. Both men were contributing to a soundtrack that seemed to be making them angrier.

"She is Luminari. Her light was born from Luminari magic. She needs Luminari healers and Luminari infrastructure. She stays until she heals. The light is unstable," Landon growled as he took two steps with a DING and DONG.

Kael was done. He marched back up the stairs until he grabbed Guinevere’s arm. DONG. DING. DONG. DING.

"I am offering her a dragon Keep, a wolf king, a pissed-off dragon king, a best friend, and myself. She goes home."

Landon grabbed Guinevere’s other arm at the same time.

"She IS home. Her light recognized this kingdom the moment she set foot in it. She loves it here. I feel her. This is where she belongs."

"She belongs where she chooses to belong and right now she has a husband and three other mates, one of whom wants to burn this staircase to the ground!"

Guinevere took a step down. Both followed her. She continued while the two men escorting her played competitive Twinkle Twinkle Little Star on xylophone stairs with murder in their eyes.

"Four mates. You claim you are one of her mates now."

DING. DONG.

"Yes. You’ve been asleep. Now you know," Kael said with zero apologies. "And I saved her life. You’re welcome."

DING.

"Fine. I am one of her mates and I get a say. I am saying she stays here to heal. Her health matters, Young Light Bearer."

DONG.

The song was on its seventh loop. It sounded deranged. The cheerful, tinkling melody providing the soundtrack to a confrontation that was three sentences away from a fistfight was the kind of tonal whiplash that broke brains and the brains in the stairwell were already showing cracks.

Blair looked at Damon. Damon looked at Blair. Both of them looked away before they started laughing.

"King Solveil," Guinevere began. "I appreciate your kindness—"

Neither man heard what followed because the stairs seemed to have turned up the volume to match the yelling.

"You LOST her for TWO DAYS, Solveil!"

"You arrested yourself and deserve to go rest. I will take care of her, Young Light Bearer!"

"Cute. But sorry, she goes where I go."

Both men reached the bottom step at the same time and the final note rang out with the cheerful finality of a preschool graduation on mushrooms.

Guinevere turned to look at King Solveil and tried again.

"King Solveil, I want to express my gratitude for everything you have done this evening. Your intervention was decisive and your compassion for your citizens is evident in the way they respond to you. I would like to return to Drakencrest so that my husband does not worry. He has already endured a great deal this week and I do not wish to add to his concern."

She paused, feeling a tidal wave of emotions flood into her that she didn’t know what to do with. All she knew was she did not want to hurt this man.

"I will come back, if you’ll have me. You have my word."

Landon opened his mouth.

His eyes surged.

The molten gold that had been cycling all evening detonated into a brightness so intense his irises disappeared behind the glow. Then his pupils blew wide and contracted. The noise that came out of him belonged to neither occupant of his body, a noise that was pain and confusion and something tearing through his chest that had no name.

His knees buckled.

Guinevere ripped her arm out of Kael’s grip with a force that shouldn’t have been possible from a woman her size. Kael’s hand closed on air for the second time today and the déjà vu of losing her from his own grip was becoming a recurring nightmare he was living through while awake.

She was under Landon before his knees found the stone, her body bracing against his collapse the way a wall braces against a door that someone is trying to break down from the other side. His weight hit her and her boots slid back three inches.

Runes ignited on Guinevere and Landon at the same time. Kael looked at his forearms and did not see any on his skin and was not pleased by that arrangement.

At the top of the staircase, Octavian took one look at his king on the ground and started running.

The Master Mage of Solveil sprinted down a musical staircase and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star played beneath him at triple speed, the cheerful melody compressed into a frantic, sped-up version of itself that sounded like a children’s song having a panic attack.

By the time he reached the bottom, the song had completed multiple loops at a tempo that would have made a bard weep.

His hands were already moving. Light gathered between his palms and a portal bloomed open three feet from the base of the stairs. The destination was immediate. Close. Inside the Citadel.

"Through here," Octavian called.

Guinevere got Landon’s arm over her shoulder. The King of Light was taller than her by a considerable margin but she didn’t care. Under no circumstance would she let this man hit the ground.

She walked him toward the portal.

Kael’s dragon rumbled so loud that Blair felt it in her molars from six feet away.

"Guinevere," he said, and his voice carried the controlled fury of a man watching his mate walk toward a portal with another man’s arm around her and every instinct he had was screaming to follow. "I’m coming with you."

She looked over her shoulder. Landon’s weight was pulling her forward. His feet were moving but barely. The heat coming off his body was singeing the edges of her cloak.

"Meet me back at home, Kael. I will be fine. His Master Mage is right here."

"Absolutely the fuck I will. I’m coming," Kael said, already moving.