“Yes,” the King said. “Prince—”
“Stand up,” Vadoma said to Justin.
Justin did.
“Hmm,” Vadoma said. “You’ll do.”
“For what?” Justin asked, sounding annoyed.
“You may sit back down,” Vadoma said. “I am done with you now.”
Justin scowled at her but did as he was told. Which honestly shocked the hell out of me, so much so that I still hadn’t been able to find my voice to say a single thing. I thought maybe that was a good thing and hoped that if I didn’t speak, she wouldn’t know that I was here and then would go back to the desert and not say anything about my eyebrows.
She moved on. “You there. Gigantic man. What is your name?”
Tiggy pointed at himself before looking around to see if there were any other gigantic men around him. “Me?”
“Yes, you. Speak now.”
“I Tiggy.”
“Tiggy.”
“Yes?”
“I like you,” Vadoma said. “You may live.”
Tiggy looked pleased and confused.
Vadoma turned to Gary.
“My Gypsy Queen,” Gary said, bowing low. “I am Gary the Supreme Magnificent. But you can just call me Gary. It is truly a blessing to be in—”
“I don’t like you at all,” Vadoma said.
Gary stood up from his bow slowly, eyes narrowing. “I’m sorry?”
“You’re a unicorn, yes?”
“Yes?”
“Is that a question? You either are or aren’t. Make up your mind.”
“Yes. I am a unicorn.”
“Then I don’t like you,” Vadoma said.
“But—”
“No talking! Vadoma has no time for magical talking unicorns.”
The air started to sparkle around Gary.
“That’s never a good sign,” Kevin said. “Dear, maybe you should just calm down a little bit? You know how things turn out when you feel stabby.”
“Calm down?” Gary said dangerously. “Calm down? Oh, it is on now. Does Gary have to bring the motherfucking pain up in here?”
“Bah,” Vadoma said. “Useless creatures with your prancing and your fluffy tails. Dragon. You there. Dragon!”