Chapter Twenty-Three #2
“In Summer’s name, why would we do that?” the zana asked. A typical fae non-denial. “Is he allergic to shellfish? There’s no need to worry about such human issues with this meal.”
“Would you have us feed you iron during a visit to the mortal realm?” Declan countered. “To offer nothing but metal seats and cold steel utensils and food gilded with shimmering iron leaf? Or would that be seen as beneath a host, even if they’re death aligned?”
Ridiculous Murderpunk, throwing himself against a system that wanted to break him. Antonio couldn’t help the twist of fear as Declan confronted the monarchs, calm but unrelenting.
The sphinx’s eyes were hard, but still he smiled.
“A sluagh lectures us on the treatment of a human, my love. How times have changed.” His expression twisted into one of open disgust. “Mortal, are you aware of what your bond is? Has he told you some sweet, soft story, twisted his nature into nobility for you? Sluagh are the very heart of the Wild Hunt. That he did not run you down and tear your soul from your flesh is only because we put a stop to such behavior.”
Don’t say ‘fuck you.’
Don’t say it.
They’ll kill you.
“Go to hell.” Not much better. “You think sluagh or any fucking fae has a monopoly on hunting people? At least sluagh, it’s their damned nature. We humans do it for fun.”
“There's even various media pieces about humans hunting humans,” Declan added, as gratitude and affection flooded the bond. “My favorite was the one with the man stranded on the island.”
They were both going to die like the stupid, stubborn fuckers they were, but at least they loved each other.
“Humans are silly creatures,” the zana murmured, her twinkling voice gone cold. “Play acting as the long-dead evening court. Cavorting with creeping death and imagining themselves brave.”
“Perhaps sluagh aren’t the ones craving a hunt.” Declan’s words were mild, but the taste of smoke at the back of Antonio’s throat went acrid. Some deep anger Antonio didn’t quite understand. “I hear your heirs have adopted some very pretty crowns.”
“Ah, yes. The kelpie’s trial. Our Kesk and Veroni do tend toward the rash at times.
” The sphinx’s dismissive shrug showed just how concerned he wasn’t.
“Horns and feathers, and no real understanding of what they once meant. The Wild Hunt was depravity that the death aligned claimed as their holy rite. To allow humans in Faerie is to tempt its return. That is why those rash young fae dream of closing the veil. To save the death aligned from the worst parts of their natures. Their methods are extreme, but their motives are pure.”
“Ends justify the means, is it? I’ve heard that one before.” Antonio’d lived it. Nothing worse than someone hurting you for your own good.
“I’ve heard the like as well,” Declan said, and now he didn’t sound quite so mild. “It came with bombs. Bodies in the streets. All to make things better.”
“We are not humans nor death aligned.” The zana had gone unsettlingly still, only her lips moving.
“We do only the necessary. A strong hand is required to guide those whose nature draws them to chaos. The ‘means’ you question have only ever been for the good of those who haven’t the wisdom to recognize their deficiencies.
The life aligned take no pleasure from it. ”
The room felt airless, and the pit below deepened. Antonio needed to find the right words. Calm the Monarchs down. But he was as angry as he was scared, and the last thing he wanted to do was make nice with anyone who looked at Declan the way they did.
“No pleasure?” Declan scoffed. “Nimai was one of those ‘rash young fae.’ And I can assure you he took pleasure in killing humans. I saw it.”
“You speak of a brownie driven mad by his bond’s abandonment of him.” The sphinx sat forward, claws digging into the table Antonio couldn’t see. “A petty, personal squabble.”
“Pretty sure I wouldn’t start skinning people if Declan broke up with me,” Antonio muttered.
“Merely skewer them at the slightest of threats?” The zana’s eyes glinted with cold cruelty.
Antonio sucked in a breath, throat tight with the ghost of mint on his tongue. A field of flowers burned, hot enough to chase away the cold.
“That was self defense,” Declan said, the fierce, reckless bastard. “Kylan pulled away.”
“Are these the matters that concern you? A single human. The crown chosen for a trial. A bit of amusement over dinner.” The tip of the sphinx’s claws dug deeper into the invisible table.
“If you truly wish to guide Faerie, you must learn to think bigger, children. None of that matters. You don’t matter.
Leadership means a willingness to sacrifice yourself.
To do what is required, regardless of cost. To reject your darker natures. ”
“Antonio and I are not here to resurrect the bloody Winter Court.”
“You may not wish to do so, but only discipline keeps it from rising. There are those among the fae who cannot help but be drawn to death and lust and chaos. They rely on us, on the Council to save them from themselves. Order must be maintained or chaos reigns.”
With each word, the feeling of airlessness, of a room filled only with stifling power grew.
The Monarchs weren’t only fae, they were ancient, so old their names had been forgotten.
Maybe even they didn’t remember them. If Antonio weren’t so familiar with the feeling of helpless fear, he would have bolted.
Instead, he sat there above the abyss, with Declan at his side. The sluagh’s hand found his, and that, more than all the Monarchs’ hateful words, was what mattered.
“That’s what we’re trying to do,” Declan said, gone all calm and reasonable again, though Antonio could feel his anger and fear. “Monarchs, that is what I’ve been working for since I first started seeking a voice in the running of Faerie.”
Antonio kept his mouth shut, watching Declan sideways. The fall of those rasped words was careful, each set just so. Fae didn’t lie, but that didn’t make them any more honest than your average human. They were just more canny about shit.
“You believe a being of chaos can stem its tide? A sluagh?”
“I believe only a being of chaos can do so. I’ve seen what happens when a group of people has no hope for something greater.
When they feel voiceless. There are no death aligned on the entirety of the Council.
I have the respect of my peers. I am what they wish to be.
” Again, that acrid burn, all the sharper now.
“A bonded sluagh. And with your leave, a Council member. An unconventional bond, but one I would choose again and again. Few death aligned would ever want for more.”
“Your bond is an abomination,” the zana said, fierce now instead of cold. “The like of which aided in the debauchery of the Winter Court in more ways than one, leading to death and horrors you’d be ill to imagine. It ought not exist.”
“But we are bonded. And as you said yourselves, you’ll be rid of us in a handful of centuries.
Less than. Even if you never set another of my kin on the Council, there is comfort in possibility.
We could matter. If you allow us to, we could matter in a way that aids your cause.
Our cause.” Declan was quiet for a beat before adding, “In our oaths, I pledged respect to Antonio. I promised him a status equal to my own. What could I have done earlier, but uphold that promise? I’d have spoken against iron-laced food for a fae, and so spoke against glamoured food for my bond, a Hollow. ”
“You could have held your tongue and showed yourself capable of recognizing your place.” The sphinx rubbed the bridge of his nose, like a tired parent. “A word of advice for both of you. If your betters serve you a plate of glass, you pick up your spoon, and you choke it down.”
Christ. Antonio hated how familiar they seemed. Petty tyrants, only not so petty. Had a whole fucking world at their fingertips. They would get along with Clara just fine, except for the whole ‘not recognizing humans as people’ thing.
“Yeah, you don’t gotta worry on that front. I’ve been swallowing shit my whole life.” Antonio gestured to himself, suspended over what looked like an open pit, in a chair that bit his skin, in front of two completely naked fae. “I’m here, aren’t I?”
“Indeed.” The sphinx’s eyes rested on him briefly, before returning to his moon-crowned partner.
“Well, dearest one? I cannot say I find the child’s argument persuasive, but it could be good for a jest and a bet.
Do we allow this little play to reach its inevitable conclusion, or do we call the curtain now? ”
The zana didn’t answer immediately, treating both of them to shimmering study. Antonio didn’t like the way she looked at him any more than he’d like the way she’d look through him. He sat silent as Declan, still as he could bear.
The both of them waiting, mice in the sights of a snake, bracing for the strike.
“When children reach for the fire after being warned it’s hot, there’s only one way for them to learn, my heart.
Either they burn, or they pull back and fall in line.
Let them be an example to others who may wish to follow in their charred steps.
” She sighed, an echo of every mother who watched a wayward child grab something they shouldn’t but did nothing to stop them.
“They’ll be worth more as corpses of their own making than possible martyrs by ours. And far more amusing to watch.”
“And this is why your wisdom guides Faerie.” The sphinx rose to his feet, bringing his junk straight into Anonio’s eyeline.
If the fucker was human, he’d be the sort to send dick pics to strangers.
“As our visitors seem insistent on spurning hospitality, let us move matters along. I’ve more important duties than lecturing a pair of recalcitrant infants. ”
“What a pity they’ll not recognize the truth of it until it’s too late.”