Trinket (Reverse Harem)

A Sad & Sexy Tale of Korr

Korr growled at his brother. "I am fine."

Ethat fretted and poked at the still-healing wound on Korr. "It does not look fine, brother. I know you want to leave—"

Korr brushed his brother's hand away, firmly. "We are leaving because I do not trust you here. I see how you snarl at the guards and they are our guards."

"They could be spies for other factions."

Ormiss glared at Ethat. "My guards are carefully vetted. You don't trust me to run my own home?"

Ethat was about to snap something when Korr grabbed his brother by a handful of his hair and yanked him around to face him. "We have a task to do, and you are a hazard. I talked us out of one incident, and Asund bought peace with his body, but I'm not giving you a second opportunity to eat horse-fish."

"But—"

"Brother. We both know it will happen again. It always happens." Korr raised both brows.

Ethat glared at him. "Not without good reason. I am not sorry for—"

Korr released him and pulled his hand over his face.

"It is like talking to an angry bull," Itek said to Korr. "You will not reason with the bull when it is enraged, and it will not apologize for becoming enraged, as it is simply doing what bulls do."

"I know," Korr sighed. "Oh, I know."

Ethat huffed. "That hippocamp princeling marched into these quarters and threatened our consort. He thought he could defeat a dragon? Even a weakened and withered green dragon like myself? He is too stupid to wear the crown and I would have done this queendom a favor."

Korr let out a long, slow sigh and permitted himself a heavenly glance.

Item walked over to Ethat and put his arm around Ethat's shoulders. "Ethat."

"Itek."

"That was a prince, correct?"

"Yes."

"Now, follow along for a moment. If you had killed him, who would become the next heir?"

Itek looked at Ormiss. Ormiss gave them a I hate you smile.

"And if the horse-fish there became the next in line, where does that leave us?"

Ethat frowned.

"Here, Ethat. Here. Forever. Because that horse-fish would be a King, and Theia would be a Queen, and none of us get to trump that. So please do not kill heirs to underwater queendoms."

Ethat scowled.

Korr rolled his eyes at me. "Please seduce a necromancer."

I scowled. "I do not want anymore consorts. The five of you are headache enough."

"I didn't say take one as a consort. I said seduce one."

Ethat gave Korr a horrified look. "She is our consort!"

"So? Perhaps she will spot something she hungers for and we will get to watch her devour it."

"Not even the hippogryphs are so... brazen."

"Actually, we are," Itek said.

"You cannot be agreeing with him!"

"I wasn't agreeing with him," Itek said irritably. "I also wasn't agreeing with you."

"I thought we were getting ready to go back to the surface." I did not want the two of them to start bickering, and I didn't want us to get off track. The sooner we got back to the surface, the better, because having the Hippocamp Queen giving me the constant side-eye while the rest of the court looked at us like we belonged on the dinner table and not at it was unpleasant at best. I didn't want to take another chance with a squid, and I did not want Korr to be anywhere near a squid either in his weakened state. I didn't even like the idea of him trying to make the trip to the Pantere Priestess of Dreams.