“She might hate what she is, but she can be used, same as anyone else.”
“And the dragons can help Hannon stand against her, same as anyone else.”
“I’m not talking about the dragons, you thickheaded cuntmonger.”
I was stunned speechless for a moment. Then I put out a finger. “Credit where credit is due. That was a good word. I’m going to use that one. Anyway, if you’re not talking about them, who are you talking about?”
Vemar stared at me like his will alone would infuse me with knowledge.
“Turn that long ear into a moving mouth, will ya?” I said.
“The certain type of magic Calia mentioned, the kind that can control phoenixes, belongs to a basilisk. The phoenix’s one true enemy is a fucking basilisk, Hadriel. They can trap creatures in time, which is death to a phoenix. Real death, the permanent kind. And their blood can be mixed into a special blend to will a phoenix to use its magic. No one is immune from everything, not even mythical creatures.”
“How do you know all this? Are you sure?”
“What do you mean, how do I know all this? How do you not know all this? Didn’t you get an education?”
“What sort of education involves mythical creatures and their mortal enemies?” I looked back at the two women, walking slowly behind everyone else, their heads tilted together. “What are the fucking odds, you know? What are the motherfucking odds?”
“This is how it works, though, isn’t it?”
“How what works?”
Vemar gave me a flat stare. “Read a fucking book, bud.”
I lifted my eyebrows. “They don’t cover phoenixes in gardening books. Tell me what you know, quick. I need to figure this shit out.”
He huffed as he shook his head. “Power needs to be balanced. In the mythical stories about phoenixes, the phoenix always has a mortal enemy and a savior. We just found out who the enemy is.”
“She’s not the fucking enemy. She’s no one’s enemy. She hides her magic for a reason, damn it. The king doesn’t even know. She’s on record as a null. As a faerie whose power is locked inside of her. At the latest, a faerie’s power will manifest by the time they’re twelve years old. The very latest. She was eighteen when she first shifted. By then, no one cared about her. She’s able to stay with Calia because Calia says her unique magic can tap into Dessia’s power. Which is true, but not in the way they think. The girls want to keep this hushed up because they know the king will use her. He’ll officially enter her into the court and into his army. That’s the last thing Dessia wants. She’s safe if everyone thinks she’s useless. Trust me, Vemar, she’s not a threat to Hannon. He’s a threat to her.”
“How is that the case?”
“Now who is being dense?” I noticed someone glancing over and pulled Vemar a little farther away while lowering my voice. “Look, she ran away soon after she killed her parents. The people who came after her obviously realized what she was. They covered it up and sold the information to…I forget who. That party tracked her down and sold her again. Her captives used her as the bringer of death, basically. She doesn’t just kill people with her eyeballs, she also has poison fangs that apparently work great for torture. Anyway, her sister, the spy, heard about the situation in her travels. Calia had already been looking for her, so she knew which questions to ask. She broke Dessia out, and they killed everyone who’d held her captive. Dessia did. She can apparently be quite destructive. Calia brought her here, where she forced Dessia to spill about the real deaths of their parents, they had a reckoning, and now Calia protects her. So if people find out about her, then they might want to use her to get to Hannon. Hannon being a phoenix is trouble for her, don’t you see? She wants to keep what she is a secret.”
“Why in the fucking world did she tell you all this? You of all people?”
“Oh, you didn’t hear all that with your long ear, did you?” I rubbed my face. “Because Calia went to that late dinner with the castle people, and Dessia was lonely. She has no friends. She’s scared to get close to anyone. But there is safety in a mediocre butler who dresses like a clown. Well, there was until a certain handsome dragon also started dressing like a clown and then hanging around.”
“We’ll get back to you calling me handsome in a while. I love my ego being stroked. But for now, we have a serious problem.”
“I take it back—fuck you, and no we don’t. Not if we don’t tell anyone. Look, if Hannon was anyone else in the entire world, he would have for-real died when someone killed him. Instead of a whole world filled with people who could kill him, he has one. Big fucking whoop. And if we don’t tell anyone who that is, it won’t be an issue.”