"Just like Fire-harvesters." Jason muttered a bit,rolling his shoulders and clicking sparks around his fangs as the white swirls of markings glowed by his eyes and along his cheeks,showing that he,as Flasher did,as well had dragonic letters along his sids of his neck and trailing downward to his chest. He was scared a bit by the weapons but he didn't show it as he let dark night purple beat out any other colors through his underwings and freckles.

"Stand down, Edgebriar," Ash commanded. He hadn't drawn his sword yet, but his posture was tense. "I don't want to fight you. You can walk away from this and Rowan would never know. We're not returning to the city."

"I'm afraid we weren't ordered to return you to the city, or Mab," Edgebriar said with the barest of smirks. "You see, Rowan knows you're going after the scepter, and he can't allow that. The new king wants the half-breed alive, but I'm afraid we're going to have to kill you, Prince. As Sweetfinger said, it's nothing personal."

They were working for the Iron Kingdom. Rowan must've let Tertius and the wiremen into the palace. He let them kill Sage and take the scepter, and convinced Mab that the Iron fey was not a threat!

Ash's face went blank with shock. "No," he said, as the blood drained from his face. "No, Rowan wouldn't sell us out. Not to them. What have you done?"

"We can't stop the Iron Kingdom," Edgebriar continued, his voice earnest. "The old ways have become obsolete. Mab cant protect us any longer. It is time to ally ourselves with the stronger power, to become greater than we are. Rowan will lead us to a new era, one where we will fear nothing. Not the touch of iron, not the fading of human imagination, nothing! Let the oldbloods wallow in their ancient traditions. They will fall soon, and we will rise up to take their place."

"Rowan will destroy us," Ash said grimly. "This war only hastens our destruction. If Summer and Winter stood together, we could stop the Iron Kingdom." He glanced at Jason as he said that.

"For how long?" Edgebriar demanded, punctuating his words with a savage swing of his blade. "The humans dream their technology, their grand sweeping visions, and forget us. We can't turn back the clock, but we can evolve to survive. I will show you what I mean." He ripped off his gauntlet, holding up his bare hand. On his third finger, an iron ring gleamed in the light. The entire digit was blackened and shriveled, and he shook his fist triumphantly. "Look!" he demanded. "Look at me! I do not fear the touch of iron, of progress. It burns me now, but soon I will be able to use it freely, like humans. Soon, I will be like them."


"You're dying, Edgebriar." Ash's voice was full of horror and pity. "It's killing you slowly, and you don't even realize it."


"No! After the war, when both sides are weak and open, the Iron fey will sweep in and destroy all traces of the old. There will be no more Summer or Winter. There will be no more courts. There will be only the Iron Kingdom, and those strong enough to stand with it."

(Oof this was lengthy)

(I wish I could write like that,but my brain isn't that smart.)

Jason shook his head. "And then what? Will you hurt yourself just because your scared?" His voice was calm,and he seemed to be using a tone that he would use back home if he were talking in a court meeting he would be allowed to,which wasn't often. "Will you all just try and take over whatever else there is? Will you go on,power hungry,and rip everything apart just because you think there's something more? The thing is....is there?" He said,looking to them with strong hazel and purple eyes. He stood straight and folded his wings in and spoke along with the matching blinking of the draconic letters with each word he spoke. "I've seen this before. They try and grow,try to force a new order on a world that has only lived one way. Causing a fall and destroying everything in the process. They become torn apart and soon nothing but baren waist and death is left. If you all keep on this path it won't be good,you'll practically be stabbing yourselves through the heart with iron.You'll send a ball of snow down a mountain to only grow and grow,thinking good shall come out of this,but still in the end you'll only perish under an avalanche. Dragging those who hadn't even been involved down with you." He said,shaking his head with a swaying of his brown hair and green dyed tips. "The same was spoken by my father,the king before my eldest brother of the dragons. He explained it to me,and I understood that even when you throw something into the air and think it will fly,without the right wings to slowly bring it up carefully it will fall back down and most likely conk you in the head."

(I wish I didn't have such writer's block sometimes. It's awful)

"Be silent, half-breed." Edgebriar glared at Jason. "Insult us again, and I will cut out your tongue and feed it to my hounds."

Ash shook his head. "Rowan wants power, and would sacrifice his entire court to achieve it. You don't have to be responsible for his insanity, Edgebriar. Let us pass. We can end this war, and if Summer stands with us, we can find a way to deal with the Iron Kingdom."

Edgebriar's face didn't change. "We have our orders, Prince Ash. We will be taking the half-breed with us, but I'm afraid your journey ends here. Rowan made it quite clear that he did not want you returning to Mab, for any reason." He gestured to the knights behind him, and they began to close in. "I apologize for the location. A prince's tomb should be a grander affair."

Ash faced the approaching knights calmly, though his muscles were coiling beneath his skin. "Rowan doesn't know me as well as he thinks," he murmured, seemingly unconcerned with the jagged blades closing in on him, "otherwise he never would've made such a mistake."

Edgebriar smiled, leering at Ash from behind the trio of knights, content to let his guards engage the Winter prince. "And what mistake would that be?"

"There's only four of you." His arm whipped out, sending a flurry of ice shards at the oncoming Thornguards. The knights flinched, throwing up their arms to protect their faces, and Ash lunged into their midst.

The first one didn't stand a chance. Ash's blade sheared through his armor, and the faery crumpled before he could even raise his sword. Where he fell, his spiky armor seemed to unravel, flaring out into thick black briars, thorns curling into the air. In seconds, the faery's body had turned into a giant thornbush, growing right out of the rocks. A metal band glinted on one of the branches.

Two Thornguards had Ash pressed into a corner and were hounding him mercilessly. Ash parried and spun, blocking their attacks, his blade a blue-white streak through the air.

Jason quite would like to keep his tongue and he felt amazed at how well Ash fought,but he pushed it aside as he glared at the one Ash had spoken to. "Stay silent? Ey~,that ain't my style hot shot,I'd like to dance~!" He joked,spreading his wings and letting fire spark to life around his fangs. He brandished his stinger as a scorpion would and the two little ice creatures,at some point having woken,jumped out and to the side. He flashed a few words with his lights to them and they watched them before nodding and scuttling off to somewhere unseen.

It was enough. One of the knight's momentum brought him on Jason's stinger. The knight crumpled without a sound, and brambles erupted from his armor, covering the body in a cocoon of thorns. Edgebriar stepped out of invisibility and reached for Jason with taloned fingers. Before he could dodge, Thornguard latched on to his wrist and yanked Jason to him, twisting his arm behind his back. His other arm came up to circle his throat.

Jason knew this trick and this time wasn't about to get caught. He didn't have full control though,and his mind flashed back to fighting Shade that first time in the throne room. He didn't realize it but he ducked forward and twisted against his own arm,not caring of the snap that came from the glass. He shoved his tail up and around and,instead of stabbing his attacker,he wrapped it around his throat and swung around to face him with glazed and angry eyes. He threw him down and jumped on him,ramming his fist once to the side of his head then raising his stinger up and growling one thing before stabbing down into his throat. "This is for Clementine." He rammed the stinger in and thrust downward,and it exited through the chest and then yanked out as he jumped back,wings thrusting him backwards.

Edgebriar jerked, looking startled. Then his eyes rolled up in his head, and thorny creepers slithered over his body, hiding him from view. Ash glanced once more at the thornbush, at the iron ring dangling from a twig, and shuddered. "Come here," he sighed, motioning her to a large rock. "Sit down. Let me see what happened."

Jason was glaring at his victim and seemed out of it,eyes not focused and breathing....erotic. Like,something was playing before his eyes over and over and over that he couldn't stop. His arm was bleeding through the green fabric of the hoodie arm and it was the one lacking the bindings. Dark scarlet trickled down his palm through the cracks. He shook his head and came back after a minute and shuttered,wings folding in close and tail curling in tightly. He used his good arm and pulled his hoodie over his head. "What did I just do?"

"You saved our lives. That's what you just did. I'm sorry," he murmured as he examined his wound. Ash knelt and studied it, then tore a strip from his sleeve and dunked it in a nearby puddle. He raised it to his arm. "We would have met them no matter where we were going. We're just barely out of Tir Na Nog. You'll need to take your hoodie off if I'm going to bandage your arm."