“I can’t believe I’m going to say this to you, Kylia, but I actually respect you for this.” The words came out of Feron’s mouth so suddenly that Harriett and Kylia simply froze, their brains too busy trying to contemplate what they both thought with 100% confidence that they would never hear. But neither could find a shred of dishonesty upon the young prince’s face. “What?” Feron finally asked after the two continued to stare dumbfoundedly at him. “Is there something on my face?”

“Yeah, your face, wolfboy,” Kylia replied without missing a beat, Feron’s comment managing to knock her usual demonic sense back into her.

“You are so very funny, you know that?” Feron lied without attempting to mask it in any way.

“You should see me at parties. I’m a literal riot.” Both Feron and Harriett knew right away that there was no hidden meaning to Kylia’s words. And although neither said anything to each other, they both silently made internal promises to never let Kylia plan anything outside of a get together at a café. In fact, they both then immediately appended their internal promises to not even include café visits.

“Jeez,” Feron continued, “I didn’t think what I said was that weird. I just didn’t know you were a summoner of this caliber.” As Feron finished speaking, both he and Harriett took a moment to look about the magical carriage that was currently carrying them through the sky at an alarming rate by two ethereal, flame covered warhorses. The carriage itself on the inside was filled with lush and comfortable seats that were of a purplish red shade. The inner linings of the walls about the carriage had what appeared to be gold and black, metallic vines that seemed to have traced their way about the entire inner workings of the carriage, eventually wrapping around a lantern hanging at the very center of the ceiling above them, a blue flame dancing happily about them and providing a great deal of light to them.

“What? Did you think only you humans could summon and form contracts with supernatural things?” Kylia then crossed her arms hard and made a ‘tsk’ sound between her teeth. “Where do you think you all learned it from? The elves? Or maybe the gods themselves?”

“I guess we never questioned it, huh, Feron?” Harriett asked.

“Well, there was never any need to until this exact moment, I guess,” Feron replied.

Kylia made another ‘tsk’ sound. “Leave it to humans to think they invented everything in existence without questioning it at all.”

“Okay, A: you’re right,” Feron said, taking both Harriett and Kylia by surprise once more. But this time, Feron continued without giving the two women time to wonder if Feron was possibly growing sick in some way (Okay, I should state here that Harriett thought that Feron might be getting sick in some way. Kylia, on the other hand, just simply felt as though having Feron grow soft on her was sick. It’s all about interpretation sometimes.). “And B: I was just more surprised that you would summon anything at all. I figured that relying on anything outside of your own power would be a sin in your culture.”

Truthfully, Harriett had to agree with her best friend’s logic. With all of Kylia’s talk about surpassing her siblings and one day taking on the mantle of a Demon Lord, Harriett had also assumed that being part of such a demonic lineage meant going it alone all for a viable quest for ultimate power. Though Harriett figured that she was pulling a bit of her conclusion from fictional novels and tv shows, she at least used some of her brain to deduce that after meeting Kylia and her father, there may have been a grain of truth to the fictional stories she had grown up with. But if Feron’s two praises of Kylia had been surprising enough already for the morning, Harriett was truthfully thrown for a loop when she watched as Kylia’s cheeks took on a flush of blue to indicate one thing: Even demon princesses could get embarrassed.

Kylia began to rub the back of her head vigorously. “It’s not like I wanted to be good at this or anything. If anything, I blame my stupid mother for this.”

“Your mom?” Harriett echoed back at her.

“Yes, my mother. Keep up,” Kylia bellowed before continuing, “She was always forcing my dad to take me on trips to meet and see everything I could. Even though I wanted to do nothing but train, she insisted that seeing things outside of the palace would make me a better Demon Lord. But it’s not my fault that this ended up happening. I can’t control all these stupid creatures that want to be around me.” She turned around in her seat and opened up the window directly behind her. Then, she cupped one hand around her mouth and yelled, “You hear that, dumb dumbs? Stop liking me so much!”

The warhorses each gave off a ‘Neigh’ in reply, which, to Harriett, almost sounded gleeful and happy. Kylia uttered another ‘tsk’ through her teeth before closing the window and turning back around.

“See what I mean? They are useless,” Kylia angrily muttered.

“Yeah, you are a real slave driver based on their responses,” Feron responded. Harriett figured that he had also heard the delight in the horses’ ‘neighs’ upon Kylia acknowledging them.

“Watch it, wolfboy. What are you trying to say?”

Before Feron could antagonize Kylia further, which was starting to become his favorite game, Harriett jumped in as fast as she could with a response of her own. “I think what Feron is trying to say is that we are very thankful for you being able to do this. Isn’t that right, Feron?” As Harriett finished speaking, she shot Feron the glare of all glares.

Feron’s Adam’s apple moved up and down as Feron swallowed hard. Then, he turned his head towards Kylia and nodded, “Uh yeah, that’s definitely what I meant.” He moved to rest his back more on the seat behind him and spread his arms out upon the upper parts of the seat. “Thanks to you, this definitely allows us to fly a bit more under the radar. And luckily, Laverne should be able to keep our little adventure a secret for just a bit longer thanks to us not using the jet again.”

“But what if your dad asks why the jet went to London in the first place?” Harriett asked.

Feron smiled at her. “I’m an 18-year-old Vampire Prince. Would it be that weird for me to take the family jet to one of the biggest cities on Earth?”

“I suppose not,” Harriett truthfully replied. “How lucky we are to have you with us, Your Majesty.”

“Please don’t start. It’s been a long day already,” Feron countered.

“It’s like, 10 am here,” Kylia added.

“With you, every day is a long day,” Feron coldly stated.

Despite Harriett’s growing intervention skills, the dispute between the two royals continued for the next two hours, Kylia’s carriage allowing them to make excellent time along the way. Though they had debated for several hours as to which person to start with, Feron had had the excellent idea of starting with the classmate that was the farthest away from civilization. After all, even if their parents or the higher ups at S.A.M. wanted to intervene sooner than expected, they would have a hard time pinpointing their location in a barren wasteland of ice and snow. Kylia had naturally argued against this though, not because she was against the plan, but because she just liked to press Feron’s buttons. But even though they had only known her for a small bit of time, Harriett was happy that she was along for the ride. Herself and Feron were too close to this situation. They had grown up knowing what they were and expecting to be treated in certain ways. But Kylia was like them and knew the burden of power. And thus, she treated them as equals, albeit more Harriett than Feron. Especially Harriett over Feron, Harriett corrected.

Another hour passed before Harriett felt, rather than saw, their destination for a brisk chill had somehow struck the carriage, penetrating its warm walls and causing the air inside to drop in temperature for a noticeable moment before the flame upon the ceiling warmed the air once more. Wrapping herself in the thick coat she had obtained in London before starting on the initial venture of their journey, Harriett moved to the window that Kylia was sitting by and opened it ever so slightly. If the drop in air temperature before had been any indication of what was to come, then it had done an extremely poor job for the burst of air that hit Harriett’s face instantly made her regret every choice that had led her to this exact moment. Without missing a beat, she shoved the window shut and instantly crossed her arms to recover the bit of warmth that had just been stolen from her.

“I think… I think we are here,” Harriett said through shivering teeth.

“What makes you say that?” Feron asked.

Harriett stared at her best friend dumbfoundedly. “Did… did you not just feel that gust of cold air that tried to kill us just now?”

Feron merely shrugged.

“You gotta be kidding me,” Harriett exclaimed.

“I literally create the energy of stars in my hands. So my internal temperature is just a little bit higher than yours. But just a little bit.” At this, Feron held up two fingers and held them extremely close together to get his point across further.

“Terrific,” Harriett grunted before turning her anger filled stare onto Kylia next.

“You know I nearly burned down your house right?” Kylia rhetorically asked. “Do I really need to explain anything else?”

“Point proven,” Harriett said with defeat. “Well then, I guess I’ll have to improvise.”

“What does that mean?” Kylia questioned.

“It means Harriett is about to make your dream come true early,” Feron clarified.

Kylia’s eyes lit up like two suddenly ignited torches. “You mean she’s going to do magic again? Really?!” Kylia then proceeded to grab Harriett by both of her shoulders with way too much of her demonic strength. “Well what are you waiting for? Do it. Show me what you can do!”