Fae Champion (Royals of Embermere #2)

31. I’ll Do as I Wish and I’ll Take What I Want

My next inhale rattled through my chest as I sucked in my first breath since being aware of who my mother was. My skin prickled with the knowledge, my tongue suddenly alert as if readying for a burst of sensations. Even my lips felt slightly numb, tingly, as if that information alone were in the process of transforming my identity.

My mother is the queen’s sister .

I leaned my head against the wall behind me while I allowed that fact to settle, to unearth all the yearning and longing and desperation I’d suffered all my life.

After all these years, I finally fucking knew .

“My sister … what?”

The queen’s question, and the death threat that skittered along with it, yanked me back to the scene still unfolding in front of me, just on the other side of Sundo and Bandel’s beheaded bodies .

“Your sister is Elowyn’s mother,” the king answered before physically shrinking back from her.

Dashiell took a protective step toward him. Ivar drew his cutlass, and he and Braque, fingering the button clasping shut his satchel, descended the dais to flank their queen.

“Which sister?”

The queen’s follow-up question was sharp enough to slice up all the dead flesh surrounding us into tiny, little, gruesome pieces.

“You know which sister,” the king answered, only a faint trace of his earlier bravado remaining.

“No, I don’t suppose I do,” the queen said. “Which. One? Whom did you betray me with?”

The king stiffened as if stricken, and I suspected it was her reaction when she found out which sister exactly that he feared.

Another nervous breath awkwardly rumbled through me. Sure, I wasn’t thrilled about discovering I was directly related to the evil shrew who’d done her best to make my life a waking nightmare since my arrival at her court, but a flustered pink I’d never seen on her before was creeping up her neck, coloring her décolletage and inching toward her cheeks and forehead.

“Which sister, Oren?” she demanded with such ferocity that a shiver raced down my spine. I glanced at Rush.

Though he’d been studying the monarchs’ interaction with as much interest as I, he immediately turned my way. Instantly, his brow and lips tugged downward and those eyes I could stare into for endless days glistened with what I could only interpret as regret. Loss and fear held him in their cold, empty embrace.

My own fear spiked with a sudden and wholly encompassing lament.

Even if I found a way out of this and survived, I’d never again be able to trust the man who’d agreed to kill me, if I’d ever trusted him at all. He’d been my enemy from the start, had never even denied it.

His sensuous full lips parted as if to call out something to me up the line … and I hurried to look away.

The queen was back in the king’s personal space, toe to toe, breathing hotly on his neck, only this time she wasn’t playing at seduction. Her fingers curled at her sides like vicious, lethal claws, and Dashiell took another step toward his king as if he might wedge himself between the two rulers.

The queen didn’t so much as glance Dashiell’s way as she hissed, “Are you so weak that you can’t even answer my question? What my father saw in you to think you were a good match for me, I can’t fathom, only than to imagine that you made him promises you didn’t keep.”

Oddly devoid of emotion, my father said, “I wasn’t betrothed to you. You weren’t the one I was meant to match.”

For several beats, the queen did nothing beyond stare up at him and breathe heavily. Eventually, “My father was a great king, and he— I made the best of a terrible situation. When we lost Odelia, I was saddled with you.”

The king looked and looked at her. “You weren’t saddled with me. I was the most powerful drake of my generation. What I am now, who I’ve become…” He shook his head, peppered braids swaying. “That’s because of what I’ve had to endure.”

The queen stomped back, laughing, though her mirth was forced. “Always the way with you, isn’t it? Blaming others for your shortcomings instead of taking responsibility like a man .”

The king winced but quickly hid his reaction. How he ever fell for her sweet, loving wife ploy when she treated him like this, I had no idea.

She circled Ivar and Braque, once more her train dragging across gore without consequence, and spun on her husband. “At least take responsibility for this one thing. Which of my sisters did you impregnate with the”—she faced me for a beat—“crude, brute of a girl?”

“With the obvious one,” the king replied. “The only one of your sisters I’ve ever loved. The woman I was supposed to marry.”

Her hand flew to her chest, and then she stilled entirely. My heart thumped— babum, babum, babum —while she shook her head, gems and chains swinging.

“No, that’s not possible. It’s not possible.”

“And yet it is. Odelia is Elowyn’s mother. She’s the one who chose to name our child Xiomara.”

The queen sucked in a wheeze. “You told me you’d chosen that name to honor me , my connection to my mother.”

He blinked. “A small yet necessary untruth required at the time. I couldn’t tell you this then.”

She lunged toward him like an animal but stopped herself before touching him. “Of course you could have. You’re a coward . That’s the only reason you didn’t tell me.”

The king studied her, then seemed to remember that Rush and I observed their interaction. “This isn’t the place for this discussion. We can talk it over later, when we’re alone.”

Dashiell’s eyes widened in alarm, highlighting their two different colors.

The queen’s glower appeared moments from combusting, so much so that Ivar took a step closer to her, asking under his breath, “Is Her Majesty all right? Is there anything we might do to help?”

“Yes, Ivar, you can murder the betraying bastard who calls himself my husband and lies to me about my own sister.”

The king tsked , confident Ivar wouldn’t follow her orders, but I had no such faith in his survival. Ivar was eyeing the king, and Braque was also considering him thoughtfully, as if deliberating between different potions in his mind, all the better to end my father with.

“You can’t have me killed,” the king said. “I’m the co-ruler of Embermere and there are spells in place to prevent that. Besides, I’m not lying. Odelia is Elowyn’s mother.”

“My sister died without having children.”

“She didn’t.”

“She had to’ve. She had only one miscarriage, and her mind was addled before her death.” She gasped and once more surged toward the king, stabbing a finger into his chest. “Did you take advantage of my sister? When her mind was gone?”

The king stared at her without replying for several moments before seeming to come to some decision. He sighed and clasped her hand more tenderly than seemed reasonable, but she yanked it away.

“Of course I didn’t take advantage of Odelia,” he said. “I loved her more than…”

The queen’s eyes blazed. “Go ahead and say it. Go ahead. You loved her more than you love me.”

“Well, Talisa … for one, Odelia never threatened to murder me or castrate me or to sever my manhood and serve it to our courtiers.”

“Your manhood,” she snarled then scoffed. “You’d have to be a man to have a manhood.”

He pursed his lips, eyelids drooping in either disappointment, resignation, or disgust, I couldn’t decide which.

“I’ve had enough of this,” he said, “and I’m going to lie down.”

“Of course you are. That’s what weak men do. They take lie-downs. ”

Dashiell opened his mouth, no doubt to defend his liege, but the king hurried to speak first.

Interesting . My father was more protective of his attendant than he was of his daughter.

The king added, “That’s what men of all sorts do when they’ve been poisoned and very nearly die because of it. I trust that Elowyn will be safe now that you know her true pedigree.”

He turned to leave, proving to me with finality that he had about as much common sense as a rabbit trying to make friends with a wolf.

“You can do whatever you want, but I’ve already decided Elowyn’s fate. Your lies have only cemented the need for her to go.”

The king whirled toward her, eyes finally bulging with his anger. “Lies? Don’t be a fool, Talisa. You know Odelia loved me too. Not everything was as it seemed with her before her … demise. If you kill Elowyn, you’ll kill the one last descendant of your bloodline. Now that Saturn’s gone, you can’t?—”

“I told you never to speak his name again,” she growled. “And you’re in no position to tell me what I can and cannot do. I shall do as I wish.” Seemingly as an afterthought, she amended, “As I must for the wellbeing of this kingdom.”

The king cleared his throat. “Talisa?—”

She hissed.

He cleared his throat another time. “I’ve done everything you’ve ever asked of me. I loved Odelia with everything in me, but when she died I performed my duty and married whom I had to in order for Embermere to thrive. Your father— my king —asked me to be your partner in ruling this land, and I agreed, because it is such an important task. I’ve sacrificed everything I am to do what I must. You can’t do this to me now. You can’t kill my daughter.” After a pause: “You can’t kill your sister’s daughter.”

How had the man not yet learned not to tell the queen she couldn’t do something? Even Rush fidgeted down the line from me as if it pained him to witness his king’s idiocy.

Predictably, the queen whipped toward him. “If what you say is true and Odelia is the girl’s mother, then I have even more reason to kill her and wipe out any chance of my sister’s disease from tainting the bloodline.”

“What bloodline? There will be no more of your bloodline if you die without an heir.”

She smiled devilishly. “Well, who’s to say I won’t bear another child? Perhaps my only problem has been your lack of manhood. I may begin taking to my bed the many virile men who’d be honored to give me pleasure.”

She shifted to take in Rush, and my heart skipped a beat. “I think I’ll start with Rush. There’s never been a more … striking, alluring, sensual, delicious fae, don’t you think?”

I had no idea whom Crazy was asking this of, but a snarl erupted from me before I could stop myself. “Don’t you dare lay a finger on him.”

She chuckled. “Haven’t you learned already? I’ll do as I wish, and I’ll take what I want. Isn’t that right, Rush?”

She stared at me while I looked to the man whom, I realized starkly as my heart thundered, wasn’t my enemy after all. How could he be, so long as my entire being yearned to touch him, to be near him—to protect him from this hideous ho-bag in a crown?

Was this what the mate bond was about, then? Was it why I couldn’t stomach the mere thought of the queen so much as touching him? Why my thoughts raced furiously, making it difficult to entertain reason?

Rush studied me, his eyes and tattoos bright as if all he saw in this entire fucked-up mirror world was me. As if all he wanted was me.

“Isn’t that right, Rush?” the queen pressed, and I experienced her insistence like a vise around my throat, my ribs.

He held my gaze, and I watched something inside him shatter as he answered, “Yes, Your Majesty. If you’ll hold to every term of our agreement, then I’ll do as you ask.”

“No,” I breathed so softly no one heard me. More loudly, “Rush, no!”

His responding smile was so broken, so filled with grief, that I felt something fracture inside me.

“You can’t really mean to kill Elowyn,” the king said to Rush, who waited a few moments, but eventually interrupted our stare to look at my father.

“I’ll do what I must. ”

“You swore an oath to me to protect her!” the king bit out.

“And that’s exactly what I’m doing.”

He laughed. “By killing her?”

Rush pressed his lips into a tight line and said nothing beyond flicking a now nervous glance at the queen.

The king chortled darkly. “I should have known. You’ve been under Talisa’s thumb for years. Why should I have ever expected anything more of you?”

Again, he remained silent, but Rush winced at that jab.

The king tipped up his chin and took in his wife and again said, “You can’t do this to me. You can’t kill my daughter, the only thing that’s left of Odelia.”

The queen frowned. “Again, none of this is about you. It’s not about me either. Our rule has never been about you or me, about what either of us wants. Our job as the royals of Embermere is to govern in the best way possible. It’s always only ever been about the needs of Embermere and how to best meet them. What’s best for my kingdom, for our kingdom, is for our subjects to see us strong and united. For us to be steady and unopposed. Not to be defied at every turn, to be labeled liars .”

She closed the short distance between them and held his stare. “For the good of Embermere, nay, for its very survival, Elowyn must die, and she must die today .”

An entire minute ticked by slowly as the two stared at each other.

I dared not look away from them, not even to meet Rush’s waiting eyes. I could somehow sense, like a rotting fragrance on the air, my fate being decided.

The queen’s cheeks softened as her lips tipped up tentatively. “Maybe you and I can … sire another child together?”

“I thought my ‘manhood’ was insufficient.” The king’s voice had no intonation, a vacuous accusation.

“You know me, Oren. Sometimes … well, I didn’t mean what I said. But you know that, don’t you?”

“Do I?”

She stepped an inch closer. “I’d hope you would, after all the … private time you and I’ve shared over the years. You know what I’m really like, what I really mean.”

Once more, she trailed a fingertip across his torso and leaned into him. “We’ll have fun creating a new heir, won’t we?”

He looked down at her, but his expression didn’t reveal whether or not he saw her obvious ploy for what it was. “What of the Fae Heir Trials? What of Rush? You’ve told him he’s to be the next heir, haven’t you?”

“I have.” She drew idle circles across his chest, scraping at his tunic. “And given our new agreement he’ll be a good one. But it can’t hurt to have a backup. One never knows how things might unfold … and who might accidentally die along the way. At least we’ll have fun making the backup”—she shrugged—“so it’s really a win-win scenario. ”

“And the magic of the trials?”

“Once Elowyn’s gone, the magic will adjust to the one winner of the Gladius Probatio. The trials will proceed as they should have all along, and Rush will prevail, at least for now.” She glanced at him. “Perhaps permanently depending on how well he fills the role … intended for him.”

She peered up at her husband. “All right, darling? It’s all settled. Rush will step in as agreed, and we’ll have our fun working on a reserve, just in case.”

“And there’s no way Elowyn can be a part of this?”

“None, not after her behavior. You heard that guard riling up our subjects, suggesting she should be my replacement.” She snorted. “As if. But he wasn’t the only ingrate in that crowd. You must have heard them.”

He nodded.

“We can’t allow that kind of discontent to fester or it will be the end of all we’ve done to keep this kingdom together, all we’ve worked so hard to ensure.”

The king glanced at Dashiell, then Braque and Ivar, and finally the queen again without so much as looking at the “girl” whose fate they were discussing.

“All right,” he said.

The queen’s smile was brilliant, like she was celebrating the beauty of spring with all its colorful flowers and perfumes. “Excellent, darling. I knew you’d come around.”

She drew a final circle on his chest before facing Rush with that broad smile still brightening her face.

“It’s time, Rush. Hold to your end of the bargain, and I’ll hold to mine.” All but admitting that she’d suggested to the king that they have another child just to sway him, and that whatever true plans she had still remained her own alone.

Rush looked to me, to her, then me again. His tattoos shone so brightly that their outline traced a swirling, entwining line through his tunic and crept once more up his neck and jaw, across the backs of his hands.

“Ivar,” the queen said, “remove his shackles.”

Ivar narrowed his eyes in Rush’s direction in concentration and the bands and chains vanished, along with their wafting, dancing shadows.

“You’d better hurry, Rush,” she urged, “unless you want all your friends and hers to witness what you’re about to do. They won’t remain asleep for long.”

Rush nodded absently, staring at a faraway point, finally standing with a grimace. He reached behind him to remove a few shards of crystal, wiped at some of the blood droplets smeared across his face, then drew a dagger.

Carefully skirting Bandel’s torso and the slick blood and goop beside the pygmy ogre’s severed head, he stalked toward me and then crouched.

I peered up at him, my heart a spasm of conflicting emotions, before taking in how his dagger already pointed my way.

His mouth opened as if he were going to speak, but instead he slammed it against mine.