A Court of Three Stars

5: The Queen of Light

Eternal Palace, Pangera

Ruhn

"You still alive, Athalar?"

I strained my neck to see the angel hanging beside me. At some point, I think I must have gone numb. I could barely feel anything anymore. Maybe I was about to die, perhaps the gods had taken mercy on me.

"If you can..." Hunt panted, blood dripping slowly down his sides, "If you can call it that, then yeah."

Laughing hurt, but I did it anyway. If the options were screaming, sobbing, or laughing at this massive fucking disaster- I would choose to laugh.

"How about you, Helhound?"

A wet cough sounded on my other side, a glimpse of Baxian's bloodstained skin, "Great."

At minimum, I wasn't alone in this. At minimum, some summons had both the Hind and the Hammer's phones ringing simultaneously, drawing them from this room, and giving us some reprieve.

If I could only be so lucky as to get a drop of water from somewhere, then I'd be set.

"You guys-" My voice caught in my throat, a small spike of pain as I coughed up blood and spit it out. One of my teeth was on the verge of falling out, "You guys wanna hear a joke?"

Hunt let out a sound that might have been a sob or a sigh, I couldn't tell, "Sure."

I tried to force a breath in my lungs but found it stuck in my throat. Maybe I actually was dying, maybe that was why I felt so loopy as I spoke, "Two angels and a fae Prince walk into a dungeon..."

I couldn't finish, couldn't get the words out because I was laughing too hard, or maybe I just couldn't breathe. Both?

All I knew was that Hunt and Baxian were laughing too. Every heave felt like it might be the last, but I couldn't stop. The joke wasn't even that funny, not really, and I hadn't even finished it- but all three of us had lost it enough to laugh until the salty scent of tears stung in the air.

The door burst open, banging off the doors like thunder. The Hawk stood there, all dark hair and tan skin, eyes ice blue and glaring, "Shut the fuck up."

I just laughed harder.

The male prowled into the room, grabbing an iron poker from where it had been glowing in the crackling fire. He held it towards me like a sword, like some kind of fucked up knight, the orange metal burning with heat where it was pointed at my chest, "I said- shut the fuck up."

I chuckled to myself, knocked out the tooth that had been hanging on by a thread with my tongue, and then spit it in his eye.

Baxian might have pissed himself from how hard he laughed at that.

The Hawk let out a sound that was half a growl and half a snarl, a hand braced over his eye, blood splattered on his face. He looked up at me with such rage that he might just put me out of my misery, "You will pay for that, Princeling."

"You've got a little something on your face." Baxian drew the attention away from me.

Hunt bit back laughter, shaking silently next to me. The chains rattled with every deranged laugh that he contained.

Yeah, we'd all be in this together. Until Leur came to get us or we died in the bitter end. It was just me and two males who I hadn't really liked before any of this against the world.

"Perhaps it'll be your tongue I rip out first, traitor." The Hawk snarled at Baxian.

The male just stuck it out towards him in invitation.