Hi everyone !

If you're here for some "feel good" fluff to help with your book hangover from The Folk of Air, I hope you'll have a good time with The Royals of Everything :) I tried to stick to the style to the best of my abilities but English isn't my first language so please feel free to report any spelling and/or grammar error.

Enjoy and don't hesitate to leave me comments !


"Come on, honey Jude ! You're even slower than usual !" Cardan mocks, a few feet ahead of me. We are running - racing actually, and I'm obviously losing - towards Taryn's estate. The bastard had told me he had a romantic day planned out for me, but I was starting to suspect he was lying. He told me to run or he'd bite out "my sweet round ears".

"Come on" I complain. Don't be mean and don't make me kick your ass again. I would have thought last Tuesday put you in your place." He slows down, enough to let his tail runs against my left cheek.

"Dear wife, there is nothing I love more than to hear you saying "ass" and "my place" in the same breath."

Oh, that wicked, wicked king. I feel heat coming up to my face as I redden a bit - after all this time, a faerie and his crude language can still make me blush, who would have thought ?

Cardan has planned this date to ease the pressure that came with my coronation. It's been a month, but Court problems keep raining on us every morning. When it's not my sisters barging in the throne room, it's pixies fighting, nixies renegotiating treaties or Grima Mog scaring Baphen nearly to death.

Taryn, who is now five months pregnant, agreed to let Cardan borrow Locke's… no, her estate for the day. I was so curious about his mysterious plan, I spent yesterday harassing him in all sort of ways. My face goes a red shade darker at the thought of my newly-found manners of torturing him.

Cold lips press to my right cheek, his tail flicking against the other side of my face. "Come on, darling. You're going to love my surprise." I laugh at his hopeful smile. "How could I not love it ? You've been so cute all morning." He smirks against my skin. "My thoughts exactly."

The rest of the walk is warm in the dusk falling. Fall is definitely here, dressing each tree in gold and red leaves. I wonder when the red speckles are going to stop looking like spilled blood. On the road, we meet Taryn and the Ghost, on their way to the Human world for some baby supplies for their nursery. My sister has a strange knowing smile and I hate it. She blows me a kiss before continuing their walk on the opposite direction. She looks so different with her new haircut, now it's easy to tell us apart.

Cardan carefully puts his warm hand in mine, hesitantly, and seems to relax when I squeeze it. I understand his sudden need to verify we are still here, in love, happy and safe. We tell each other how much we love each other a lot - at least according to Vivi, who made charming barfing sounds while she said it - but sometimes I still feel like he's going to disappear in a second, and I'm pretty sure it's the same for him.

I kiss his neck sweetly before we start racing again. It feels so good to run like a wild fox, and not be a dignified queen for a few moments. I mean, even if Cardan makes being royalty pretty fun, I can't stop worrying about the way my hair looks, if my earrings match Cardan's jewelry or if my next speech will be good enough.

When we arrive at the top of the hill, I look down and I'm breathless. He took me to the hedge maze of Taryn's estate, the place where I first saw him. A banquet table is dressed in the middle, but from this far I can't see anything else. He takes me to the center of the maze with confidence, and I can't fail to notice the utter irony of being brought here for the second time in two years, first as the human pet of Locke, this time as High Queen of Elfhame.

Cardan's tail runs along my leg, as if he's feeling my pride at being his wife. When we arrive at the small meadow, I can see everything is exactly as it was the first time I came there : blankets are arranged on the grass, and a huge table is richly loaded with foods and wine. I don't fail to notice the absence of evermore.

With a twitch of his tail, Cardan uses magic to activate a small and old-looking speaker he must have borrowed from the human world. Pipe music resonates, and it throws me back to when I first find him terribly attractive, with this other girl licking liquor from his throat.

He takes me by the hand and drags me to the blankets. He lays down with his inhumane grace, and I'm in awe. He notices it and kisses me with hunger. When he decides he's done with me for now, he squeezes me with his strong arms until my body relax against his, in the warmth of the dying sunlight.

"I wanted to replace your memories of this place with good ones. Because that time Cleo was touching me…"

I laugh bitterly against his shoulder. "Cardan. A bit of advice : Do. Not. Tell. Me. Her. Name." He straightens, smirking, "I've forgotten how jealous you could be, my possessive Jude." I continue : "And please, for the love of me, do not start this date by talking about one of your exes."

He actually seems upset now. "I'm sorry. What I meant was, I wanted you touching me. I always wanted you. Heck, I even want you now. I will always want you. " It's not the first time he declares himself to me like that, but it never gets old, and it still feels like I'm dying of happiness.

He kisses the top of my head while I try to revive my scrambled brain to give him a proper answer. I succeed to mutter : "I want you too. I love that you can't lie. I love you."

The music stops, and we enjoy each other's silence for a few minutes, until I can't stop from adding a comment and disrupt our peace : "I hate that you're so good at being a boyfriend, and I suck at being a girlfriend. Look at you, with your rehearsed declarations. You're so perfect, it's totally unfair."

He bites my ear, sharp teeth slowly running against my skin. "You oblivious human. First, I'm kind of offended you called me your boyfriend." I wave my hand, dismissing his comment. "Semantics. I won't feel married until I'm like 30 or something."

His lips brush the round tip of my ear. "Good to know. Second, I guess I'm kind of bad at being a boyfriend, given that I turned into a giant snake on our third date." I burst out laughing and he smiles. "Third, I love your laugh and your awkward declarations. I love you because you're a messy spy, not a poet."

My eyebrows rise. "A messy spy ?"

"A beautiful powerful very sexy messy spy, of course. Please don't be mad that I said you're messy !" But it's too late for the poor High King, as I start tickling him. He starts a menacing growls that quickly turns into desperate squeaks as I run my fingers on his body.

Between two hiccups of laughter, I kiss his tears of laugh. They taste like love and salty eternity.

He keeps giggling and twisting around, so I pin his hands above his head, seated on his chest. We are not laughing anymore. His face is mischievous, as he murmurs, "Why do you think I asked your sister to go away for the night, sweet Jude ?" My eyes widen. "Tell me you did not make Taryn leave her own place so we could fuck in her garden."

He leans forward to kiss me instead of answering. When I stop to breath, he laughs silently in my ear : "Fine, I won't tell you. I couldn't anyway."

I growl of frustration into his mouth, and he exchanges our positions, getting on top of me. I allow him to do so, of course. He could never distract me enough to switch places with me, obviously, even if his training with the Roach made him better at hand-to-hand combat. I am still a badass spy queen, even if I'm madly in love. And horny. So horny.

His hands are everywhere and I can't wait for him to get his ridiculous ruffled shirt off him. I want his skin against mine, him inside me, his hands around my neck and the other pulling my hair, like last night. I want his canines to scratch my shoulder, marking me as his. I whine of desperation against his mouth, and he stops our kiss to look at me with wicked pride and dark lust in his eyes. "Don't make this sound again if you want this to be sweet."

I smile, whining again. "Which sound ?" Cardan throws his head back, softly laughing, and I put my hands in his black curls to bring him back closer to me.

It's not the first time we have sex in the wild. What can I say ? My High King can't keep his hands to himself. As his Highqueen, sure, I have the power to tell him to behave properly. But let's say, I don't really mind him misbehaving. And you would be shocked how docile faeries are used to royalty dismissing them to fuck like rabbits. Grima Mog told me scary stories about Cardan's grandfather.

Of course, my sweet possessive boyfriend still bothers to put up glamours so no one can hear us or see us, so our moans are strictly to ourselves and I don't have to worry about making noise. And god, how much noise we make.

When we're done and my hairstyle is undone, brown curls tangled around him, we silently cuddle in the peaceful night. He shows me a constellation I don't know, and we talk about the details of our respective weeks.

He confesses : "I started planning out this date when Taryn asked me if she could replace the maze with a pool." I get up on one elbow. "A pool ?" He laughs. "I made the same face, I'm sure. But my pregnant sister-in-law wants a pool, with chlorine and everything, whatever that is, so she shall have one." I kiss him with tenderness. "You don't have to be so nice to her, you know. She's my sister, she grew up with me, so she's used to hearing 'no' and to a bit of brutality."

"Oh I know. And I love when that brutality is directed towards me."

I giggle. "Brutality it is, then."

We spend the rest of the night to make love and eat sweet plums. I can't remember how many times I came and how many "I love you" were exchanged.