King of the Seditious
Washed Clean

“Dimurah?”

“Yes?” She blinked those pretty blue eyes at him.

“If you’re going to ask me for something, there’s no need for flattery.”

“I’m not, actually.” She sighed. “I just miss you when you’re gone.”

“But you hate when I’m here.”

“I do hate when you’re here.” She admitted. “I never know who you’re going to kill or when. Or what it’s going to do to my business.”

He tilted his head in acknowledgement. She’s not wrong.

I never know who or when I’m going to kill.

“Should we go fly?”

“We?” She gave him a chastising look. “I think you mean me.”

“Do I?”

Savage dressed. Putting back on his sleeveless padded tunic and black breeches and tugging on his boots before helping her do the laces on her green dress.

Once she was clothed, she caught his hand and began tugging him behind her. “This way.”

“I know the way, Murah.” He laughed.

But she was jogging. Pulling him along toward the back entrance.

They walked through the archway of the exit and hopped over the one-person path. Turning the opposite direction of the caves to head for the grove. Where trees common to Dread Hideout Country were already thick with their huge leaves again. And the vines that had been crackling sticks through the Fall and Winter were plumping with budding leaves.

Murah stepped through the trees, heedless that she wore only thin slippers. They reached an opening where the trees pulled apart into a squared clearing. But the leaves over top were so big as still block out the majority of light. Making this a sort of quiet sanctuary. Only fingers of light could clamber through to cast like gold spears through the green of moss and trees. Wildflowers scattered through grass high enough to hide serpents.

Once in the middle she turned and took his other hand. “Watch.”

Tipping her head down made red hair fall over her face in soft waves. Masking her expression.

When her wings unfurled this time, the only sound was the ripping of the sides of her dress. They peeled through as if with hundreds of joints. Folding out and straightening bit by bit until they reached out as long as he was tall. The crimson feathers so dark in the dim light that they could’ve been black.

She twisted to caress the bony top of one. “Aren’t they beautiful.”

“They are.” He nodded. “You’re mesmerizing.”

I wish I understood more about what you are.

What we are, I suppose.

“What’s wrong?” She asked.

“What?” He looked up.

“You suddenly looked morose.”

“Much on my mind.”

She caught his cheeks. “Well cleanse your mind! And watch this!”

She released him and did a slow stroke with her wings which lifted her feet off the ground. A couple more made her rise slowly.

Graceful.

She was smiling down at him. Tucking the wings made her slowly turn in the spears of light sneaking through the dark leaves. Another sideways swing of them made her turn faster until she was fully around.

“Beautiful, Murah!” He smiled up at her.

“Should I come down?”

“No. Might I come up?”

She grinned. “Yes! Do try! I may finally be better at you then something.”

She’s definitely better than me. I’ve no idea how to use these.

He swung up through the branches until they grew too thin to get up where she was. Unbuckling his tunic, he let it fall to the forest floor. Crouching on a narrow limb he closed his eyes and inhaled through his nose. Taking in the scents of the forest.

His body was heating again but instead of fighting it. He let it. He felt the cutting pain in his back. Heard a sound like a sail whipping in the wind and looked to his side to see the wings were snapping out fast. Twisting to escape their confinement.

“Jax!” Dimurah blinked in shock. Her wings whooshing through the air to keep her where she was. She covered her mouth. “What-when? How?”

He stood and leapt through the air letting them move of their own accord to keep him there. It was still rough and awkward. But he was quickly getting the hang of it.

Thinking of them as arms helped him control them. He waved them to get higher. Until he could fly in a wide breadth around her. Gold wings glittering in the spears of light each time he passed through them. He was fast on them. They carried him rapidly around the treeline.

She giggled and it rippled into a full laugh.

“Should we fly?” She quoted him from earlier in the pond. “How long have you known?”

He tucked the wings tight to his sides and dropped. Angling his body over one branch and aside another to land back on the one he’d started from. “I just discovered it actually.”

He surged from the branch and hovered before her. Gold wings brushing her crimson ones. He caught her waist.

Her eyes widened. Hands reflexively landing on his forearms.

The faster pace of his wings made them turn in lazy circles where they hovered.

But Murah was busy staring into his face. Holding his gaze. “What are we?”

“I’ve no idea.” He shook his head. “But I don’t care. Do you?”

“No!”

“Well, this has got to be the weirdest damn thing I’ve ever seen…” Phalanx’s voice rose from the ground where he was staring up at them in disbelief.

***

Rosewynn Manor, Outside Meadowbrook, Grier Country

SAVAGE JAXSON

“Why are we here?” Phalanx asked.

“I wanted to see why he’s gathered them here.”

“Who?”

“Their Captain.” Savage explained simply.

“We see them. Now can we go?” Phalanx shifted from where they were squatted peering over some shrubs. “This unsettles me. Almost as much as me replaceing my employer floating with his lover in the woods.”

“You’re fine.”

“That was not as it should be.”

Savage gave him an icy look. And twisted his body to be squatted before him. “And how exactly should it be?”

Sensing he was on dangerous ground, Phalanx calmed.

“You know well I wouldn’t betray you. I’m not going to tell anyone.” He reassured.

Good. Savage turned back to peering over the bush at the treeline where it opened up to the Manor lawns.

There was a line of wolves guarding that border. Their fur ruffling as they moved back and forth. Brushing each other as they passed.