Chapter 44 #2
“Your army is at your command.” Rune waved a hand behind him—at the soldiers on horseback, who, one by one, bowed exactly as they were, sitting on their saddles.
They bowed to me.
“Queen Jasewine of the Midnights sends her regards—and the entirety of the Midnight army, should you need it for any reason. They are and will be at your disposal indefinitely, Your Highness.”
Queen Jasewine.
As in his sister, Jasewine?
Fuck, what the hell was happening?
Once more, laughter erupted from Lyall, who’d gone almost all the way to the beginning of the gardens, surrounded by his soldiers—a fucking coward playing the tough guy.
“You gave up your throne?!” he screeched, like a fucking vulture. “You…you…are you insane, bastard? You were finally worth something, and you gave it away?!”
Rune hardly turned his eyes toward him before he turned to me again. Smiled.
“You gave it up! You gave up your throne!” Lyall continued. “And FOR WHAT?!”
Those last words he shouted at the top of his voice so that everyone heard them.
I heard them, too, but I still couldn’t make sense of them.
Rune gave up his throne?
Absurd. Unreal. Impossible.
But Rune climbed up the stairs slowly, came to stand beside me—while I could do nothing but look up at him, mouth open, eyes wide, heart determined to beat against my ribcage until it broke.
“For the queen, of course,” Rune told Lyall—and the way he was looking at him.
He wasn’t concerned. He wasn’t afraid. He wasn’t stressed out or even fucking suspicious—he looked exactly like he had in that image the Illusion Game had showed me once in the mist over the river.
A carefree Rune. A happy, calm, completely peaceful Rune.
A second of silence. Nobody in the entire kingdom seemed to even breathe.
“I will not accept this, bastard,” Lyall then hissed and stepped forward. His soldiers moved with him—but they weren’t the only ones. At least two dozen of those wearing silver armor jumped off their horses and gathered at our sides, went around us, drew out their weapons. Aimed them at Lyall.
This isn’t happening.
The laughter this time came from behind me—Hessa. She was laughing her heart out while Lyall looked like he was about to choke on his own rage.
A diamond the size of a Ping-Pong ball was in my fist. Rune was by my side and a werewolf in front of me, not to mention soldiers who looked like me and who were actually turning against Lyall to defend me.
This was it. This was happening.
“You have two choices,” I heard myself say, as if someone else was in charge of me. My voice was louder than I expected or maybe it seemed so because of the silence that had fallen like a blanket over every single person around us.
My legs were strong enough to carry me forward. I raised my chin even if it felt so damn unnatural to do so, the fear a fucking cloak over my shoulders.
Lyall looked at me like he couldn’t believe his own eyes, and I hardly believed mine.
“You try to attack me, and you get sent to your kingdom bleeding.” The rage in him fired up, and I saw it in the way his eyes darkened. “Or…” I let my voice trail off for a second on purpose. “You can choose to leave now, and nobody will stop you.”
Because killing Lyall would have meant that all of this would have been for nothing. His death would be the death of Verenthia.
Unfortunately, he got to live one way or the other.
The next time I smiled at him, the fear seemed to lift, at least a little bit.
Because today, under all that sunlight, I could really see him for what he was without all the filters that circumstances always put between us—he was just a small man misguided by his ego. A fucking child who looked like a man.
“I think he’ll leave,” Rune said from behind me and crossed his arms in front of his chest. “His Highness is a smart man. And he also hates the sight of blood. Don’t you, Lyall?”
The look on his face was one I was going to take to my grave. One of my favorite memories until the end of time.
My body still didn’t quite feel like my own when I turned to the other side, to the soldiers, the ones around us with their silver swords drawn, and the ones on horseback still.
I said, “Please make way for the Seelie King to leave. He’s no longer welcome here today.”
All those words and my voice didn’t falter. I felt stronger, more grounded where I stood by the second.
The soldiers moved.
How is this not a movie? I wondered for a brief second, because I was still just a girl from Earth, and they were grown men, fae, soldiers who were moving because I said so, without argument.
Not just them, but the people, too. They were all parting to make enough room for Lyall to walk all the way to the gates, surrounded by the soldiers on their horses still.
I don’t know what went on in Lyall’s head, but he only needed a moment to get himself together from the initial shock that had spread all over his face.
“You will regret this. I will make sure of it,” he hissed, barely moving his lips. Then he smiled like the fucking snake that he was and added with more venom than I’d ever heard him speak before, “Your Highness.”
With a dramatic wave of his red cloak, he moved all around the edge of the crowd and the horses, and he went for the gates with his chin raised. God, it almost looked funny. I almost burst out laughing at the sight.
Two dozen Seelie soldiers with their swords still drawn and their hands lit up with magic followed. The sound of their footballs and their armors clanking as they went was something I would never forget, either. I would forever remember it as the sound of victory.
Lyall had finally admitted defeat, even if it was only for now.
He left without a fight—and Rune was in front of me.
“What…what…what are you doing? What are you…”
A finger over my lips, and I forgot to speak. He was looking down at me with those eyes and smiling that crooked smile. “We can speak later, My Queen.”
Queen—what a heavy, complicated, terrifying word.
“Rune, what the hell is happening? Is it true? Did you…did you…” I couldn’t even say the words, and the noise from the crowd and the soldiers was getting louder, and Hessa was still laughing her heart out.
Rune said, “Yes. I gave the crown to Jasewine. She’s way more qualified to rule a kingdom, and everybody knows it.”
I shook my head again and again. “Why? Why the hell would you do that?!”
“Because my place is where you are,” Rune said. “How can I serve you from a kingdom away?” He meant every single word.
My poor heart.
“I think I’m gonna be sick,” Hessa muttered from our side, sticking a hand between us, pushing my shoulders back. “Back off, bastard. The queen needs to address the people now. I’m about ready to wrap this up, so chop-chop.”
I moved back, almost stepped on Maera’s paws as she looked up at me, no longer angry. No longer growling.
I thought I might start, though, when Hessa’s words actually registered in my head. Until I noticed that she and Rune and Maera and the soldiers had all stepped back and I was now somehow facing the crowd, and they were all looking at me. All those sets of eyes, blue and bright and wide.
Confused. Curious. Suspicious. Some even smiling, most relieved.
My mouth opened but no sound came out.
I am so screwed.