Chapter 22 Draven
Draven
Ihadn’t balked when Redthorne suggested we cater to public opinion before, even if that was mostly for the sake of Nevara. But tonight proved what I’d already known: Autumn diplomacy does not work in Winter.
The fae that belonged to Winter respected strength. They were just as brutal as the mountains, just as dangerous. Nothing but the strongest storms could move them.
They respected power. Responded to fear.
Even if the disdain emanating from Everly’s bond proved her further obstinance against acknowledging our reality.
Soren’s silver tongue had begun to shift their view of Everly, that much was clear from the way they reacted to his stories this evening. But that wouldn’t be enough on its own. And that was something I’d known from the moment Lady Thessara opened her mouth.
I was ready to end her then. Hells, I had been ready to be done with her impertinence the very first time she insulted my wife, but then I glimpsed the fury in Noerwyn’s expression and decided I wanted to see her unleash it on someone else for a rare change.
Even so, the court needed something more permanent. They needed to understand that I kept my promises and that no one would be permitted to disrespect my wife again.
And the frozen corpse standing in the center of the Hall would deliver that message well enough for now.
But as the nobles filed from the room, my thoughts drifted to someone conspicuously absent.
Eryx.
Despite a summons extended to every member of the court, he had not made an appearance.
Not through drinks or during any course of the meal.
Between our last conversation in my study and the line I had just drawn in the snow regarding Lady Thessara, his disobedience wasn’t something I could allow to stand.
By the time dinner was over, I was well and truly seething.
I carefully reached for Everly’s arm and felt the unmistakable press of her mana against her skin. It was just as restless and feral as ever, begging to be set free.
I gently brushed my thumb along her wrist, drawing some of her mana into myself to sate it. Everly sighed and leaned in a little closer, her relief palpable through our bond.
The only reason we had made it through dinner was because I had done this very thing every few minutes, taking just enough to keep it from boiling over.
It was clear that she was exhausted. The faintest shadows lined her crystalline eyes, and her steps faltered a little more than before. She needed to rest, but leaving her alone was not an option yet. Not while this business with Eryx still needed to be settled.
We landed in the war room, where Commander Astreval had informed me the Lord General was reviewing reports. His posture was rigid, his expression cold. He gave a slight, stiff bow. Not formal enough for his king. And certainly not enough for his queen.
Good, I didn’t want to waste my time.
“You chose not to attend the dinner,” I said plainly.
His jaw tightened. “I did.”
There was a long beat of silence where he offered no further explanation. Instead, he continued on as if we had never entered the room, lifting his quill from the inkpot before signing the parchment on the table in front of him.
Everly shivered as the temperature in the room dropped by several degrees, the righteous indignation flooding the bond apparently insufficient to keep her warm.
Are you going to slaughter him too? She demanded silently.
If I must. I replied in the same manner.
She shook her head, apparently preferring to let the court and my Lord General run wild until they overthrew us entirely.
A muscle ticked in my jaw, and I focused on the male who had always been loyal… until now. “You have something to say. So say it.”
Eryx’s eyes sliced up to meet mine in challenge.
He held it for several seething breaths before his gaze flitted down to Everly. “You wish to discuss this in front of her?”
He practically spat the word her. As if she was undeserving of a name, let alone a title. As if I had forced him to confront his actual enemy instead of my wife.
My patience was running as thin as the ice spider-webbing along the floor beneath my boots.
“If you are referring to your queen, you will address her with the respect she deserves,” I said, my voice as icy as a frozen tomb.
Eryx squared his shoulders, not missing a beat as he replied, “I’m referring to the monster you hid within our palace walls while you speak of hunting the ones beyond.”
Everly’s breath hitched, and an array of emotions flickered through our bond. Anger and humiliation and regret. My mana surged in response as more frost snaked up the walls and wind ripped through the room.
Eryx did not so much as flinch.
I stepped forward, ice cracking underfoot. “I will allow that one remark to go unpunished on account of your previously loyal service, but it will be the last derogatory thing you say about my wife.”
His features went pale with fury, the expression making him almost unrecognizable.
“Yes, my service has been loyal,” Eryx seethed. “I loyally followed your order to kill the Unseelie on sight, and you reward that service by keeping secret the single greatest threat in the Court I have pledged my life to protect.”
“My wife is not a threat,” I growled. “Do not forget that the Shard Mother chose her.”
He let out a scoff. “Even if the goddess did choose her, her very existence is a threat, which your majesty cannot possibly be blind to, let alone the implications if the court finds out. It was bad enough when you were hiding her in your suites, but how long do you think the secret will hold when she’s out amongst the people. ”
Few could read my features, by necessity, but the male who had fought at my side from the moment I stepped onto a battlefield must have seen something in my expression I hadn’t meant to show.
His mouth dropped open, and he shook his head.
“But you never planned to keep it a secret,” he said more to himself than me.
It hadn’t been a question that needed an answer, so I didn’t reply.
Eryx ran a hand over his scarred face, the lines of exhaustion in his features even more evident with the movement.
“After decades of being at war with the Unseelie, after they killed our monarchs, after ordering even the citizens to dispose of them on sight, you cannot possibly believe that they will accept her in their midst, let alone as their queen.”
Each word landed like another blow.
Everly went deathly still, save for the slight press of her fingertips against my bicep. The bond swirled with so many emotions—hers and mine—that I couldn’t begin to make sense of them.
Except for the rage. That one felt clear enough.
Perhaps now Everly would understand the reason the court needed displays like the one I had put on today.
“They will accept what I order them to accept,” I said, my voice calm in the way blizzards were calm right before they devoured everything in their path.
Eryx stepped away from the desk, a sharp crack splitting the air as the quill in his hand snapped clean in half.
“And what will you do when they refuse?” he demanded. “Execute them? Kill every last one of the people we’ve spent our lives protecting until you rule over a kingdom of corpses?”
The world narrowed.
Cold roared through me—a visceral, ancient fury rising like a tide. Shadows warped at the edge of my vision. The air grew heavy and charged, like a glacier that was ready to shatter.
“He isn’t wrong.”
Everly’s whisper struck harder than any blade. Through our bond, I felt her exhaustion, her dread, the hollow ache of inevitability creeping beneath her resolve.
“You are my queen, and I will not deny your existence,” I shot back before directing my next statement to Eryx. “And the question is not what I will do, but what you will do as my Lord General. Or do I need to find your replacement?”
Lord Generals did not retire, and they did not simply lose rank. Their position changed hands for one reason only. And we both knew what it was.
Still, I pretended to feel nothing when I said the words, though each one echoed like the slow twist of a jagged blade in my gut.
I did not want to kill him. Especially not for a reaction I could have anticipated, given everything I’d asked of him… and everything I’d kept from him.
Eryx wasn’t just my most loyal soldier. Outside of Nevara, he had been the person I trusted most in this world, even with Everly’s protection.
Could I trust him now, furious as he was?
Part of me wondered if I was a fool for even asking the question. But another part couldn’t deny the hard, bitter truth in his words.
The court would rebel. Winter fae despised the Unseelie more fiercely than any other Seelie court, and that kind of hatred didn’t vanish just because a king commanded it.
Had I really expected Eryx to make an exception just because I had? Whether it was justice or not, Everly’s life depended on it.
So I let the threat hang between us, fragile as a chandelier suspended by a porcelain thread. And every bit as deadly.
“No, my king. If my loyalty is not something I have proved to you in blood several thousand times over, allow me to reiterate it now.” Bitterness and betrayal shone through his furious gaze. “I will stand by your side, even as you deny me the knowledge I need to do my shards-forsaken duty.”
Relief followed his words. If I knew nothing else, I at least knew that Eryx was too noble to lie. Perhaps I had lost whatever respect he’d held for me before, but that was something I would have to live with if it meant keeping Everly safe.
He shot a glare at her as he continued. “Though, I question your concern over my position when your wife is poised to be the death of you.”
Everly squeezed her eyes shut, her voice filtering into my mind.
Which of us will tell him that you called that long before he did?
An unexpected bit of amusement surged in my chest, in spite of everything. Indeed I did, Morta Mea.
Eryx turned from us toward the side door, unaware of the exchange between us.
“On that note, your precious queen’s people have sent us a message.”
My instincts flared as he opened the door and called out to the soldiers down the hall.
“Bring them in.”
Two soldiers appeared, their faces twisted somewhere between nausea and fury, as they wheeled in a cart stacked with barrels draped in bloodstained cloths.
The smell was the first thing to hit me. It was a scent I’d known too many times in war or in the remains of ruined villages even before Eryx ripped back the cloth with a violent jerk.
Inside the first barrel lay a pile of severed heads, each one in a different stage of decay.
Everly squeezed my arm tighter, and I could feel her anguish rippling through our bond as we took in their graying skin, and sunken eyes, and the hair matted with dried blood.
Every last one of their faces was unmistakably familiar.
Soldiers. Spies. Trusted contacts who kept our borders safe from the shadows creeping in.
Eryx ripped the cloth off the other barrel to reveal even more familiar faces.
“The Shadow Clan,” he said tightly, holding my gaze, “sent these to the palace gates an hour ago. All marked as gifts for the Thane’s niece."