Chapter 4 #3
“The Seelie throne could not recognize the new heir yet, as she was merely weeks pregnant when she killed the king, and so the balance began to crack.” I looked out at the Midnight Court again.
The sky was dark from what I could see. It was dark everywhere in the kingdom.
“When the Seer of Shadows foresaw the death of the Ice Queen, it broke a little more.” My eyes closed.
I breathed in deeply. “When the royal Unseelie family was murdered, the crown taken by common fae, the balance shattered all the way, and it has been breaking a little at a time ever since.”
“Royals,” Raja whispered. “The thrones need true royals to exist.”
I nodded. “And the Ice Queen had no offspring. No family. All she had to make sure that the realm didn’t fall apart was her soul.”
Eyes closed, Raja moved back and fell into one of the recliners. She breathed slowly, steadily, deeply for a moment.
“By the stars, Rune,” she said in a shaky whisper.
“She asked me to kill her.” The fear was in my chest now as it had been then. Again, my eyes closed and I saw her face—so much like Nilah, but so different—those eyes when she leaned and took my hand in hers and said,
“You have to be brave, Rune. You have to kill me—tonight, and with this very knife.” When she took her hands back, she’d put in mine a knife that was bigger than my head. I hardly felt it against my palm, though. Hardly looked at it.
“Only together do we save our home. We must make sure that every fae throne has its rightful master. We must ensure that the Seelie prince takes his place, and that you or your sisters take that of your father.”
I’d been too stunned to speak then.
I was too stunned to speak now, to tell Raja all of it, word per word.
“He has to die for the balance to be restored. All the old kings and queens must die, and a new era must begin. You must kill me tonight, Rune…”
Those had been her words that now seemed to be etched everywhere under my skin.
Naturally, I’d tried to refuse. I told her that I couldn’t, that I wouldn’t, that they would never let me.
She promised me that they would. She promised me that nobody would see me until I was there.
And nobody had.
Image after image flashed in my head, and suddenly I felt I was being dragged, sat down. Raja was pushing back my shoulders, reminding me to breathe. My body had let go of me.
But the images didn’t stop assaulting me.
Of the Ice Queen when she turned to look at me as I entered through a hidden door on the wall in the feast hall.
There were a lot of fae there, celebrating, all Midnight, except for her.
I had been shaking so badly that I nearly dropped the knife from my hand a dozen times, but nobody turned to look at me except her.
Nobody saw me, except her. Her illusion magic kept me perfectly shielded.
And then she stood up, smiled at me, eyes glistening with tears.
“Be brave,” she said and touched my cheek.
Those two words echoed in my head for what felt like an eternity.
The next thing I knew, I’d stabbed her in the chest, and she was bleeding. Smiling. Whispering, “Thank you.”
And then everybody saw me and screamed.
“Rune.”
A slap on my cheek.
I focused on Raja’s face in front of mine, in the present.
“Stay with me,” she said. “We still need to talk.”
And we did.
I forced the thoughts in my head to calm down. I sat up straighter in the recliner and said, “I’m going to Nerith.” As soon as I had food in my system and a bottle of water with me, I was going to the Neutral Lands to cross to Nerith.
Then Raja said, “You are not going anywhere.”
That’s when I first heard the muffled sound coming from the doors that were as black as the walls. I’d almost missed them entirely, on the other side of the oval-shaped room.
Someone was out there, it seemed.
I stood up, my limbs strong again, my mind sharp. “Who’s out there?” I asked.
“Your family. Your sisters. They’ve come to take their throne back, believe it or not.
They’re unimportant right now—focus.” She grabbed my chin and turned my head toward her.
“We have a lot of things to go over, Your Highness. We still have your court of marshals and generals and such to attend to, and Helem’s funeral, and your crown feast where your future allies can come to pay their respects. ”
She must have lost her mind. “Raja, I’m going after Nilah.” I moved her aside as gently as I could because it was time to put clothes on.
No wardrobe that I could see when I made it near the bed, and the walls all looked the same to me.
“Clothes,” I said, and the wall right next to the bedside table moved. It pushed itself back and then slid to the side, revealing a closet beyond. Velvet and leather and silk—none of them even similar to the shirts I normally wore.
“No—other clothes,” I said to myself, searching the hangers, pushing back the jackets and the capes, the cloaks—none of these things were mine, though they looked the right size.
“There are no other clothes. These are the only ones fit for you now. Again—learn to deal with it. And you are not going anywhere, Rune.”
Raja was right behind me.
“I am.” I grabbed a jacket made of dark purple velvet, the darkest in the closet, the closest to black. I grabbed pants and shoes and socks and said, “Bathroom.”
The wall cracked open on the other side of the bed, pushed itself in and to the side to reveal shiny black tiles and marble basins. I made for it, ready to get dressed and get out of this place, but just as I was about to enter, Raja stepped in front of me.
“The Midnight Palace will not let you go. Have you forgotten what I taught you? A newly appointed king cannot leave the palace until their connection has fully settled. Might take days or weeks—but it will not let you go.”
“I don’t care. I’m still going to try,” I said through gritted teeth because the idea of being trapped in this building when Nilah was a world away made me want to start burning things down already.
“But you do,” Raja said and stepped to the side. “Get dressed. I will attend to those brats and get you some time to come together. Make it quick.”
I didn’t plan to argue when she turned around and walked away. I just slipped into the bathroom and closed the door behind me with a thought.
Velvet irritated me. Not only the feel of it against my skin, but what it meant. What it represented. High-born fae. Royal fae.
Neither of those were me. I wasn’t high-born or royalty. I had never felt like any of it my entire life, nor would I ever—yet here I was. A king.
The Midnight King in a foreign bedroom where the walls listened to my intent and gave me things without the need to voice my requests.
Like the mirror that had appeared right there hovering over the floor when I stepped out of the bathroom again, dressed.
The mirror, as tall as me, exactly as wide, as if it existed to show me every little inch of myself that it could see.
The man staring back at me scared me. He looked…not me.
“And this,” Raja whispered from the other side, from near the windows, and she was looking down at what was in her hands—a crown. The crown of the Midnight King. “This will be on your head after your coronation tonight.”
“No.” I didn’t want a crown.
I didn’t want a fucking kingdom.
I wanted to find Nilah.
“Rune.” With a sigh, Raja put down the crown on the table, and straightened her dress. “I know all of this is sudden and that you can’t wrap your head around it—”
“So, how can you?” I said, with a lot more bite than I intended. I strode over to her and met her eyes. “How can you simply embrace all of”—I spread my arms around the room—“this?”
She didn’t even hesitate. “What other choice is there? What’s the alternative? Quit?”
My eyes closed and I fisted my hands for a moment. There were still shadows coming from my fingertips, and I hadn’t made an attempt to try to pull them in.
“I need to go after Nilah,” I said through gritted teeth, and each word scratched my throat as it came out.
“You need to stay right here and create your circle first.” A step, and Raja touched my cheek.
She wasn’t much of a toucher, only when she had difficulty saying what she was thinking.
I opened my eyes again, and hers were bloodshot.
“You belong here, Rune. You always have. This kingdom is rightfully yours.”
Every inch of my skin rose in goose bumps, and she noticed. That is why she let go of me and stepped back.
“I have to try,” I told her.
“It won’t let you leave.” Her every word rang true.
“I’ll find a way.” But when I turned around and made for the door, she stopped me before I took the second step.
“She did all of this. She tore her own soul in half. Even if the palace lets you leave, you won’t find it here when you return, and all of it would have been for nothing. Her sacrifice…all of us. We would all be doomed, and you know it.”
I would have laughed if I only had the energy to spare.
“Don’t you see, Raja? We already are doomed.”
“We’re not. Lyall is the rightful heir, and you are already king, and—”
“And what?” I cut her off—again, speaking much louder than I wanted to.
Much louder than was fair. “That’s just two courts.
What about the Frozen Court? What about the Unseelie royals that have long been slaughtered?
” She had to understand—there was no saving the realm.
“The fae courts are already doomed.” So was Verenthia.
“No,” Raja said, raising her chin again, defiant. “Not yet. Lyall will be crowned king. You will be, too. We’ll find a way before you run off to Nerith—to whatever world you wish. That is how we at least try to save our realm.”
I stepped back. “I’m sorry, Raja. I can’t stay here, not yet.”
This time, when I made for the doors, she didn’t stop me. When I walked out of the bedroom, she didn’t come after me.