3. Eli
3
ELI
I shrieked an incredibly unmasculine shout when Cal put her ice-cold hands on my neck. I quickly let out a deep cough in an effort to cover the shrill sound as soon as Mendax turned his melancholy head to scowl at me.
“Your hands are freezing!” I said to her with a cackle.
She was still laughing at the high-pitched sound I had produced prior.
I stopped amid the barren, endless snow and tucked each of her small hands into the most readily available heat on my person: my armpits. She laughed even harder while shouting something about her hands stinking.
“It’s warm in my armpits, and your hands are going to turn to hand-shaped blocks of ice in a few moments.” I clamped my arms down, locking her in place. Once more, I was startled by how beautiful she was when she stood this close to me. When I looked at her heart-shaped face, it took me back to a better time, when my biggest concern was getting to the human realm to see my human ray of sunshine.
At least I had thought it was a better time and had thought that she was filled with light and goodness. The smile dropped from my face, and I stiffened. Cal had lied to me a lot in those “better times.”
I didn’t support anything my mother had done to her, especially killing Cal’s mother and sister, but it was still hard to believe Cal had done what she had to destroy my mother and everything my mother had cared about. In the end, it was still my mother Cal had murdered.
“What’s wrong?” Cal asked.
“Nothing,” I replied with a quirk of my mouth. “We should keep moving. Mendax has already moved pretty far ahead of us.”
I gave a convincing enough smile, but we both knew what was bothering me. It was one of the best and worst things about having a best friend like Cal—they knew you in ways you didn’t know yourself. We knew generally why the other was upset just by a quick look at their face.
Still, friend or not, she had killed my mother. She had even used my own blade to do it—a feat she had accomplished while I had held my mother back from hurting her.
I would get over what happened. I understood exactly why she had done it, knew all the awful things my mother had put her through. A part of me was even a little proud of Cal. Facing your enemies isn’t always as easy as you think it will be; in fact, it’s usually harder than suffering at their hands.
I glared at the greasy black hair of the fae who walked in front of me.
Cal was so much stronger than I had ever realized. It hurt that she hadn’t let me in and allowed me to be in that part of her world—the part with all the pain and lies. My feelings for her wouldn’t have changed, or at least I didn’t think they would have. I couldn’t help but think things could have been different if only she had let me help her. Perhaps I could have helped Cal not suffer or saved my mother’s life. Knowing Cal the way I do, I know why she didn’t want to let me in. As tough as she is, she wanted an escape from that world, and I believe—or at least hoped—that I gave that to her, gave her a chance to have moments that weren’t consumed by vengeful anger and darkness. She was always the brightest light in my life, and it was comforting to think I may have been hers. Whether that was true or not, I didn’t know, and maybe that was just my foolish brain needing to feel that I was still there for her in some way, that I brought some type of relief to her.
A shiver took over my body.
“You okay?” Cal asked, obviously having felt it.
I untucked her from my arms and instantly regretted it. “Me? Yeah. I just thought I’d go check with our navigator and ask him why we continue to go in circles,” I replied, making sure my voice carried up to Mendax. “Here, take this.” I removed my chest plates and secured them to my belt with the rest of my armor. The icy wind hit my back as I peeled both shirts up and shook my head free when they caught on my pointed ears. I bet that never happened to humans with their cute little ears.
“You can’t walk around in this weather without a shirt!” she exclaimed.
“I’m fine, honestly. I run hot, sunlight in the veins and all that,” I said with a wink as I brushed her off and clenched my jaw to stop a shiver. I didn’t know if I had enough power to spare to crank up my internal heat as much as was necessary. The tie between Cal and I was taking more out of me than I had realized. Even though she technically had a small drop of Artemi in her veins from her sister’s powers, it was only enough to give her some serious pull with the animals. It wasn’t enough to give her any amount of extended life or immortality. I knew because it was taking an absurd amount of my own power being sent through our tie to keep her at even a baseline, health wise. She was dying from the bond and the tie, and ironically, right now, it was also the only thing keeping her alive.
The onslaught of snow slowed slightly, changing the surrounding landscape from a blizzard of angry flakes into an eerie and still white blanket. The sudden change stirred some sort of alarm inside me. I knew all three of us had felt it by the slight change in Cal and Smoke Show’s posture. Every one of us felt the unmistakable trace of danger in the air.
It was spooky, the in-between—an uninhabitable space between the realms that was said to hold the magic that was refused by the other realms. It was almost impossible to find your way back out of the Infinity Forest. Most of the wiser fae would never go this far into the forest; I had previously been one of them. It was amazing the things you did for friends and loved ones.
The simple thought gave me pause—Cal was everything to me, but the line between being friends or more felt so blurry between us. If I was being honest, I didn’t know what the perfect label for us was yet, especially after everything I had just learned about her. And just like the Infinity Forest, I had no idea how to get back out. Thankfully, we would find Moirai at Lake Sheridon and would not need to find our way back out. At least that was my hope.
A small spark of gratitude had lit inside me when Mendax had kept his obscenely sharp jaw shut when Cal mentioned that we were going to Lake Sheridon. It didn’t seem in his character to miss out on an opportunity to scare her, but he had, and against my better judgment, it made me think a little differently about the Unseelie. He was a horrible, evil monster who deserved his death, but he did appear to genuinely care for Cal.
Deafening stillness encompassed the forest. Not the peaceful kind of stillness that calmed and relaxed but the kind that made the air thick with anxious anticipation. It was the kind of stillness that remained when nothing else survived. The crunch of shifting snow beneath our feet echoed ominously among the snow-covered pines.
I didn’t know what the Fates had in mind by sending us to the Infinity Forest, but I knew that it wasn’t good.
My head snapped up at a far-off noise.
“What is it?” Cal barked nervously.
“Huh?” I stupidly asked, trying to cover my sharp intake of breath and buy myself time to think of an answer that wouldn’t frighten her. As a fox shifter, my hearing was significantly better than either of theirs, and I’d heard her loud and clear, but I’d also heard something very large coming toward us in the distance.
Mendax never looked back, continuing his position as self-declared leader, while my ears strained to figure out what was coming at us. Shit. This was not good.
I stopped and abruptly grabbed Cal’s arm. Her wide eyes, full of worry, snapped to mine.
“I need to pee,” I blurted.
“Okay…” Cal replied slowly.
“What is the holdup, Goldilocks? Ready to give up and die already? You lasted longer than I expected,” Mendax grumbled from ahead.
That chiseled-jawed motherfucker.
“Go pee, you weirdo. Catch up with us,” Cal said, walking faster to join up with Mendax.
“No! Watch me,” I called out. What the fuck did I just say?
Yes. This was definitely a great way to win Cal over.
“What? Ew,” she said with a look of disgust that made me want to shrivel into a little ball and burst into flames.
Fuck. This was why I didn’t scheme. “I just have to take a leak. Cal’s gonna hold my stuff so I don’t lose it in the snow,” I shouted at Mendax.
“You and your tiny cock are on your own, though you do have my sympathy should you lose it in the snow,” Mendax countered with a look to Cal. “Calypso, my pet, leave the weird man with a detachable dick alone and come up here with me.”
I tightened my grip on her arm, causing her to look deeper into my eyes as she laughed.
“Just pee behind a tree like you guys have been. There’s one right there. What is going on?” she asked, full of confusion.
I lowered my voice. “He—he was saying weird things about my junk the last time we were behind the tree,” I declared. Detachable dick this, you dark-haired shadow muncher.
She snorted. “What? You are such a liar.” But somehow my fib worked; Cal turned toward Mendax. “Just keep going. We will catch up with you in a few minutes!” she shouted to the irritated Unseelie.
I walked her toward some large, old Scots pines.
“It’s true,” I whispered, now fully committed. I leaned over to make sure that Mendax had continued walking on ahead. “Every time we go to relieve ourselves, he stares at my dick all weird and says it reminds him of a shade-foot.” I almost couldn’t say the words with a straight face.
“What the hell is a shade-foot?” She scrunched her face.
“They are like ogres, but they only have one large, stalky leg and one giant foot. They are super fast and lie on their backs with their giant foot up, giving them and everything around them shade.” I spotted a bigger Scots pine and grabbed her hand to quickly pull her to it.
The large creature was getting closer.
“You expect me to believe Mendax eyed your dick and said it looked like a giant foot ?” she asked incredulously.
I snorted and had to pretend to hack and cough in an effort to camouflage my cracking facade. “I think he meant the leg, but yeah, it was super weird. Last time, ugh—uh, no, I’m okay. Sorry, bug in my throat. Last time, he said he had a bit of a thing for ogre feet. They get him all hard and stuff—said he couldn’t help it.” I shrugged. I was going to Tartarus after this.
“You are such a fucking liar,” she said with a laugh, but I could tell I had at least planted a seed of interest.
I held my palms up innocently. “Didn’t you see the way he got when we passed that lady ogre at that pub? He practically needed a pillow to hide his chub. Hope you got some big ole piggies in those boots if you want to satisfy smoky the bear,” I said with a nod at her feet.
“Shut up. You are so full of it. Hurry up and go! Mendax is probably to the lake by now,” she laughed.
A loud, horrible screech ricocheted throughout the forest, close enough to wipe the grin from my face.
“Get in this tree. Go, please,” I said, turning her body to face the giant tree trunk. “I know you can climb trees, but do you need a boost?” I stepped close behind her little human frame and put my hands on her waist, ready to lift her up. It felt different than it had when we were children. My hands on her body felt like I was breaking a rule of some kind.
“Eli, what’s going on?” Cal asked, a new note of worry in her voice.
The grating scream came again, and I knew she had heard it this time by the way her body went rigid.
“Mendax!” she exclaimed without a second thought.
I watched her, a pit forming in my stomach at a realization. If I hadn’t already been setting that bastard up to be eaten by a sickle, the worry in her voice would have really struck something in me. Why did she care so much about him?
“He’ll be fine.” No, he wouldn’t. “Get in the tree, Cal, please,” I requested as I boxed her in against the tree. Her back pushed against my chest as she tried to turn around.
The next shriek of the sickle sent a wave of goose bumps up my bare arms.
I would not let that piece of shit Unseelie get her killed. This would work out for the best. After this, the bond between Mendax and Cal would be broken, and she and I would be able to leave the in-between without ever even seeing the Fates or her father.
And I wouldn’t have to be the one to kill the man that Cal really loved.
“What is that?” she asked, still trying to turn around and face me as I sandwiched her against the tree.
“Fuck, Calypso! Please get up this tree. Go to the tallest branch, and you will see exactly what creature it is that makes that horrible sound.” I was starting to panic.
If she tried to run for Mendax, she wouldn’t even make it to him before the sickle got her, and it would be all my fault.
“Please go!” I shouted as nicely as possible. I nearly bit my lip off when she crossed her arms like a petulant child. Her bottom rib pressed against my fingers when I tightened my grip on her waist. She felt light as I lifted her stubborn ass up, pausing when my mouth brushed her ear as I whispered. “If you do not get your pretty little ass up this tree and out of danger in the next three seconds, I will drag you up by your pretty little throat. Fucking go.” It was taking everything inside me not to fling her into the tree in a panic. Her body slackened slightly in my grip, and my eyes widened. “Suns above, you fucking pervert. You liked that? You liked me threatening you?” Of all the things to get turned on about…
“What? No!” she snapped.
“You did. I could smell it. Honest to sun’s fire, Calypso. Not when I give you the shirt off my back or take a dirty mattress on the floor for you, but the first and hopefully only time I threaten you. You are sick. Go.” I shoved her up onto a V-shaped branch and followed behind her, using my upper body to pull myself up and block her at the same time.
“I did not get turned on by you, and what do you mean you can smell me? Who’s the fucking pervert now?” she grumbled but continued to climb the absurdly tall tree.
I remained close behind her in case she still decided to run. “Right, I’m the pervert because I’m a fox shifter and I can smell it when you’re horny. Shows how much you know about animals’ mating behavior, miss scientist. Of course I can smell your arousal.” I rolled my eyes dramatically. “And your fear and anger and…sometimes your sadness.”
Cal turned her head, eyes the size of melons. The look on her face was almost enough to make me forget we were hiding from a sickle.
“You’re serious.”
“Use that branch there. Wrap your thighs around it. And yes, you should smell yourself around Mendax.” I bit my tongue, wishing I hadn’t admitted that out loud. She gave me a sheepish look but continued climbing higher until she reached the tallest, most hidden branch.
“Oh my suns, Eli,” she said as she looked down to where the sickle was coming into view.
Cal’s mouth hung open as she stared out at the snowy landscape beneath the tall pine we had sequestered ourselves in. My leg hitched over a wide branch, and I settled myself into the space in front of her. If something happened and it came this way, it was going to have to get through me to get to her. She probably would have fought me for sitting in front of her had she not been in shock after seeing the ice monster that was heading this direction. I had to take an extra long breath before I was able to convince myself to look, telling myself it was for the best.
Cal pressed her chest against my back to look over my shoulder.
“You did this on purpose,” she accused. “You heard it coming.”
“I did,” I admitted. I was sneaky and dirty now, apparently, but I refused to be a liar. “I’m sorry. Mendax will most likely feel no pain if that brings you any comfort. It will be over fast for him.”
Her blue eyes looked at me in a way that made me question everything I thought I was sure of. She closed her eyes a few times, fighting the glistening sheen that filled them. If I cared about her any less, I would have stepped down from the competition right then, but I cared about her a great deal more than I probably should have. She had been through enough already. I would do anything to keep Mendax from ruining her life more than it already had been because of my mother. She wouldn’t have gone to him had it not been for my mother. She didn’t know him like I did. Mendax wasn’t in love with her; he was infatuated, and I wouldn’t let him hurt her. I just wouldn’t.
“What is that thing? You have to help him!” She shoved my shoulder so hard, I had to grip ahold of the branch to stop myself from falling out of the tree.
Resolved, I shook my head. “I’m sorry, Calypso, I really am, but no, I won’t help him. He deserves this death. I know you don’t believe me right now, but among a hundred other reasons he should die is that he is incapable of loving you the way you deserve. He is a monster.” My jaw felt tight and uncomfortable, and my stomach felt like I had swallowed stones. This was not an honorable way to destroy your enemy. “And now a monster will finish him.” My eyes landed on the black-clad fae in the distance. He stood out against the snow like a bull’s-eye. I rolled my eyes when the arrogant prick continued walking as if nothing was happening. “That is a sickle.”
Snow shivered off the treetops as the spiderlike creature of the in-between let out another horrifying shriek. I’d never seen one in person, only heard the tales of their ability to maim and seen the many paintings around the castle. Seeing it in person was so much worse than I ever could have imagined. Especially when my weak body was the only thing between it and my best friend.
We watched as the sickle’s five black eyes landed on Mendax.
He had seconds left to live now.
Why did I feel guilty? He deserved to die. I had outsmarted him fair and square. I had absolutely nothing to feel bad about. I knew for a fact he would not have felt any sympathy for me had our roles been reversed.
I straightened and watched as Mendax’s black apparel reflected off the tall spikes that covered the sickle’s hunched back like tiny mirrors. It’s nearly translucent, whitish-pink flesh crackled and snapped like ice as it reared up, displaying six of its eight sharp-as-blades legs, which looked as if they were made of ice, as did the spikes across its neck and back.
“Oh my suns, is that?—”
Cal’s question was lost in the air as we stared at its translucent belly, where a decent-size man was compacted inside. What looked like a dark-bearded face was pressed against the creature’s stomach. From where we sat in the tree, it was impossible to tell if the man was dead or alive in there. Like the nonchalant prick he was, Mendax looked completely confident and unfazed as he held out his right hand and conjured up his infamous black smoke.
My stomach clenched and dropped. It was obvious he didn’t know anything about sickles. That meant this wasn’t going to be fair, and I hated the way that tugged guiltily at my gut.
With an absurdly high-pitched rattle, the creature dropped its body back down to the forest floor—directly over top of the Unseelie prince.
“Mendax, no!” Cal screamed to rival any banshee I’d ever heard.
Five, milky-coated black eyes shifted to us in the tree. It was only for a fraction of a second before it went back to its task of eating my competition, but it was enough. It knew our location now and was going to move on to us after it finished with this meal.
Another awful, spine-shattering cry sounded, this one shrill and painful to my ears as the sound shot forth from the creature’s white-pincered mouth. It moved backward, and a still too-calm-for-the-situation Mendax leisurely pushed himself free of the icy creature just as the sickle shot an arm-length icicle straight into Mendax’s chest. Why was he not fighting harder? He fought me harder for a mattress!
“I can’t just sit and watch this!” Cal cried out, and yet again, guilt punched me in the stomach for what I’d done.
“Close your eyes. You don’t need to watch his last moments. You’ll no doubt remember him in a better light than he ever deserves anyway.” I reached behind myself and squeezed her thigh.
“We can’t just leave him like this!” she shouted but covered her eyes quickly.
I winced. This wasn’t like me, and I hated it. My gravel-filled stomach turned again. This was for her, and I would see it through. If she had taught me anything, it was that being the good guy all the time wasn’t working for me. I cleared my throat, determined to calm both her and myself. “He’s fighting like a warrior,” I said, embellishing. He was stuck on the ground, pinned with a three-foot dagger of ice sticking out of his chest, a wet rim of black Unseelie blood surrounding it. Remorse pulled at me so hard, I actually debated going down and helping the stupid bastard. I hated him, and I sure as Tartarus wanted him gone, but at my core, I still hated killing. I hated it. I wanted the Seelie and Unseelie to live among each other peacefully, without all the old conflicts and hate, and this went against that. No matter what had transpired, I could never understand how the realms had gotten so divided at the hands of a few cruel and sinister rulers, my mother being one of them.
“What’s happening?” Cal shouted, pulling me back to the present.
“Well, uh…he put up a good fight but—” I fumbled over my words as I watched Mendax suddenly spring off the ground like a panther, pulling the icicle from his chest like it was a stray nose hair. I was acutely aware of my mouth falling open as he spun the large ice lance skillfully and wielded it like a weapon he’d trained with since birth.
That was fucking brilliant. He was going to use the creature’s own icicle against it. Son of a bitch.
“He’s just—he tripped…trying to run away,” I said. But he hadn’t tripped. The maniac had launched himself at the creature and stabbed it right in its fat, white neck. The sickle squealed but quickly swung its curved arm out to hook on to Mendax’s waist. I let out a gasp, knowing that I was about to see the dark fae split in two like a boiled potato.
“What is it?” Cal asked as she buried her face in my back.
Instead of falling into a bloodied heap on the snow, the prince gripped the sickle’s arm and began to climb up it. C limb up it.
“The fuck?” I muttered as I watched him attempt to pull himself up the razor-sharp, segmented arm. How was he not shredded into a thousand ribbons right now? “Bu—he, well, he just got a…um…rather embarrassing hit to the crotch. Should’ve blocked that one. He’s a very slow fighter, isn’t he? Ooh, yeah—looks like the sickle got another shot in. No babies coming from him I’m afraid.”
Mendax had somehow managed to reach the monster’s large front pincers. He held on with one hand and slammed the point of the icicle into one of the sickle’s many eyes.
“Blast to the face,” I coughed in awe. Having always been a participant in the fights with him, it was completely shocking to watch him fight. He was an absolute killing machine.
“Mendax got hit in the face? Was it bad?” She turned around and pushed her face into the rough bark of the tree.
“Yes. Very bad—mm-hmm. His face will never look the same,” I grumbled. And to think I was even starting to feel guilty for the guy. Now, a part of me was considering rescuing the sickle, for sun’s sake .
Just when I was about to give in and tell Cal that Mendax was probably—most assuredly—going to make it and then try to kill me, things took a turn for the worse…or better, depending on one’s perception of the situation at hand.
Black blood stained the snow as the creature threw Mendax to the ground a few feet away. Before the fae could pick himself back up, the sickle shot out another weapon of ice, which shot straight through Mendax’s shoulder, pinning him to the frozen ground. The fae struggled to get up, but the pissed-off creature’s spindly legs were already hovering over him. I saw it on the prince’s face: this time, he was trapped.
“Fuck…” I swore under my breath. “Call your smoke.”
“What?” Cal asked, still covering her face.
“Nothing.” I cleared my throat. My knuckles cracked anxiously before I tucked them under my thighs.
Mendax held out his bloodied hand, and relief lightened my shoulders. I guess I didn’t want him dead quite as much as I’d thought. Regardless, that was between him and me, and as long as he was tied to Cal and I was bonded to her, either he or I would be dead by the time we met the Fates in Moirai. I would never let him stay alive to ruin her life, but even I would admit that I had seen a different side of him when he was with her. Don’t misunderstand me: I loathed him. I had a chest covered in scars that reminded me every time I dressed of the magnitude of my hatred for him. Spending so much time with him had sort of dulled that hate though and given me a bit of insight into his world. Would we hate each other to this degree had our mothers not been enemies and used us as the family attack dogs? Probably not.
His blackened hand trembled, but instead of drawing smoke, it dropped onto the fluffy snow where he was pinned. He was out of fight and powers, and I knew exactly why.
“Suns damn it,” I said as I stood on the tree branch and climbed around Cal. “Don’t you fucking say one word,” I barked at her.
Her eyes shimmered with gratitude and more calm than I would have expected. I had to remind myself that Cal wasn’t a damsel in distress that I got to save. She had likely been part of more killings than I had, and I wasn’t sure if I would ever get over that knowledge.
“I knew you weren’t like us.” Her bright blue eyes looked sad at the realization. “I’ll stay put if you promise not to get us killed.”
The words filtered through the branches above me. I was halfway down when I shouted back at her. “Don’t you move from that branch until I come back!”
I shifted just before my paws hit the snow. I didn’t have enough power for what I was about to do. This was stupid. But I was doing it anyway.
In my fox form, I reached the scene faster than I would have by walking and much quieter than I ever could as a man.
Mendax was on his back, completely under the sickle, still pinned to the ground when I approached. My body tingled all over as I shifted back into a man just as the sickle’s mouth was about to close in on Mendax’s face.
“Hey, ugly fuck!” I shouted. Both Mendax and the white head of the sickle snapped around to look at me. The movement caused the contents of the creature’s round belly to move slightly, catching my eye. The remainder of its last meal was easily visible now as the disfigured body inside was smashed against the thin, see-through walls of its captor’s stomach.
“Where is Calypso?” Mendax demanded.
“I should have been more specific with my descriptor. I was speaking to the five-eyed ugly fuck,” I responded.
The pointed spikes on the monster’s back glinted an icy blue as it turned back to Mendax, apparently deciding I was a waste of time—or, far more likely, much too impressive and terrifying to attempt a fight with.
I focused my attention, and the power of the sun shot forth from my palm in the shape of a small orb. Truthfully, I had been going for something much larger in size, but like any man, it was second nature to exaggerate the size of my balls. I wasn’t used to working with my powers so depleted.
Pushing my palms forward, the orb lit up the dull landscape like a firework as it soared toward the monster and landed on its back. The monster’s shrill cry rattled my brain, making my ears ring until I could hear nothing at all. It reared back and leapt, easily clearing the distance between us.
“Shit.” I took off like a Seelie out of Tartarus, making certain I ran the opposite direction of the Scots pine that was camouflaging Cal.
Somehow, by fate or luck, I managed to stay slightly ahead of the ice spider. At least until I was about thirty feet or so away from where Mendax lay. That was when my body faltered as it slashed my back leg with its sharp, segmented arms. With a grunt, I fell to the ground and turned in an attempt to block the beast as I fell. I had no shirt on, let alone any armor to protect me.
Mind-numbing cold blasted onto my face as its awful pincers latched on to each of my cheeks in a bite. Pressure tugged at my neck as it pulled at my head. I pressed the weird skin and white fur of its hideous face with my palms, but it was no use. I couldn’t push it away even an inch, and just as Mendax had fallen under it before, I was almost completely out of power. If I didn’t use this last bit, then I would die, killing Cal as well, but if I did use the last of my power…well, I wouldn’t have anything else to send through the tie to keep Cal alive either. I supposed this was the destiny I deserved after what I had attempted to do to Mendax.
Before it could bite down any harder, I used the last traces of my power and sent the biggest surge of fiery sun I could muster straight into the creature’s face through both my hands. Half a second of a scream left the monster’s ugly maw before it combusted in the air with the high-pitched sound of ice shattering against brick.
I leapt up just as wet bits of pinkish-white, leathery skin rained down around me, hitting me in the face with a sickening clap. Keeping my adrenaline-fueled momentum, I stalked back over to Mendax.
“Where is Calypso?” the Smoke Slayer snarled. “What did you?—”
I gripped the long icicle protruding from his shoulder and tugged with all my strength. It didn’t budge. I tried again, but my hand was still so hot that it only slipped off the end of it, unable to get a grip.
“You should have left me. I would have left you. For a moment, I even thought a little more of you for setting me up. I didn’t think you had it in you.” Mendax spoke slowly and seriously as he glowered at me. “And for the record, this proves I was correct in my assumption: you didn’t have it in you.”
This prick .
I kicked his shoulder so hard, I felt my own teeth rattle. A crack sounded, and Mendax scrunched his body over in pain—enough for me to get my boot under him with another hefty kick. The bloodied lance made of ice snapped, leaving a large chunk still lodged in the ground and the other part still through his shoulder. He let out a low groan as I gripped the icy stick once again and yanked. It slid from his body with a slick and disgusting sound.
“Yes, for a moment, I almost forgot myself,” I responded. “It seems just being in your presence has polluted my character. I don’t like you. In fact, I fucking hate you.” I stood over the evil fae, comfort at my own words giving me confidence. “I am not you, and I am not an Unseelie, and for that I am eternally grateful. I don’t enjoy hurting or killing. I find no game in trickery or lies, and I don’t get off on causing pain. In fact, I dream of a day when all the realms can integrate peacefully and coexist without prejudice. I love nothing more than to laugh and help those who are struggling or in need.” I threw the cold sword of ice onto his stomach and turned to walk away. “You will die. It isn’t necessary for me to bloody my own hands with guilt to achieve that outcome. Think what you may, but I’m the only one here who has met Zef. Just like Cal and I, her father and my own were best friends before Zef ascended. He left my father the care of watching over them. You will die, and I will have clean hands when I marry Calypso in Seelie.”