Chapter 5 #3
He didn’t react, only gave me his best soulful blue-eyed stare.
“They mean to be king and queen,” I added.
Again, he didn’t speak.
“Look at what’s become of me, of the king,” I said. “The wheels of change are turning. Badly.”
Garret looked to a male elf on his left who’d climbed off his horse, one I didn’t know by name, then back to me. “You killed the king, Your Highness.”
“Not of my own volition.”
“Please, Valy. Come with me. We can make this right.”
“By taking my head?”
The elf Garret had looked at moments ago spoke now. “You’re a king slayer, and a father killer. King Oberon is dead because of you.”
“I’m cursed,” I said.
“We know. You’re The Cursed Prince.”
“Actually cursed,” I countered. “By shadow magic. With berserker rage. That’s why I… Why those things happened.”
Garret nodded. “I know. We know something awful happened to you. So you can come home.” He smiled warmly.
Liar. That smile held lies.
I took a step back.
“Don’t run from us,” Garret added. “It can only lead to bad things.”
“I have…” I didn’t add I had no choice but to run because of magic, because of destiny. He really wouldn’t understand the soul bond.
“Let’s just take him,” the man spoke up again.
“Leave it with me!” my former lover snapped back.
“Were there unseelie in the village?” I asked.
He hesitated. “What do you mean?”
“You attacked the village. I’m assuming there were unseelie spies in there. They want me, too.”
More hesitation. “I—”
“Fuck this!” the man yelled. “There were no unseelie in there. Only seelie.”
“Then why—”
He cut me off. “Looking for you, demanding answers. Demanding they revoke their support of your fucking name. There’s a new movement. We’re ridding these lands of the old, ushering in the new.”
Ice in the pit of my stomach. Dizzying and horrendous. “What did you just say?”
“Fuck you, Valance. Fuck you.”
I took a step forward. “You mean to tell me that you have turned on your—”
“On our what? King? You killed him.”
“I didn’t—”
“Doesn’t matter. It’s over. You’re done.”
“No…” I needed to know more about this. “Explain yourselves!”
The bastard pointed his sword at me. “You’re coming with us, Prince Valance. It’s over.” He glanced about the gathered soldiers. “Take him and the human. Don’t hurt them. We need them alive.”
At least that was something.
In Danu’s name, the horror of this. To be spoken to like that by those sworn to serve. To hear this shocking news, this sharp turn in loyalty. Was it real? Was I dreaming this, having dozed off in the chalk pit for a moment?
The longings of a foolish fae. Of course, this was real.
Kormac drew his sword, steadfast beside me. “Ready to fight?”
Disgust and determination were powerful bedfellows. “Yes.” I didn’t pull my sword. Instead, I called upon my magic, my fingers dancing to the rhythm of a spell.
This had to end quickly.
I called upon the trees to become soft, to the brambles. They obeyed, rippling around me within seconds.
“Stop him!” Garret cried.
A lover and a traitor.
Vile.
The branches whipped out at the men and women. They swung their weapons, their horses terrified, rearing, some of them bolting as their masters were dragged from their backs.
The vocal elf cut through a branch, ducked another, and charged for us. He leaped over brambles, a bull ready to meet red silk.
Kormac went to move.
“Don’t,” I said.
“But—”
“I said don’t.”
I called the chalk and rocks, commanded them to fly at the heads of these traitors, concentrating on this man specifically. They struck their targets, including him. A direct hit to the center of his forehead. His head snapped back, blood pouring in an instant.
Hurt but not down.
He roared, coming forward again. It was then I noticed Garret coming after him.
My anger spat and raged, flaring as flames kissing oil. I poured myself into my spell, the forest my weapon.
“Valance,” Kormac said, his sword ready to kill.
“Wait!” I barked and unleashed a storm of stones at the vocal elf.
They pounded his body in a flurry of unrelenting force. Within seconds he fell to his knees, bleeding profusely from his head. His face scarlet, his expression that of shock. Blood oozed from his mouth.
Garret halted a few feet away, aghast at his friend’s predicament.
The elf collapsed to the side, twitching his last signs of life.
Garret looked to me, to the other elf, back to me. “Valy… You killed him.”
“Get away from here.”
He stood tall and straight and proud. “I can’t. I have to bring you home.”
My spell continued to wreak havoc on the others behind him. Killing them.
“We’re your people,” Garrett tried.
“You have just murdered your people,” I returned.
“There was no choice. I was following orders.”
“You will not have me.”
“Please, Valy.”
“Don’t call me that again.”
“But—”
“You will not have me! “
The ground shook underfoot. I called to the chalk pit, commanded a change in its structure.
Liquid…
“You turned on me,” I said. “You are a traitor, Garrett. A murderer. Is Lasair in charge now?”
He continued to plead while his eyes darted between Kormac and I. Plotting. Figuring out the best moment to strike, most likely.
“You won’t have me,” I said, tears rolling down my cheeks.
More grief, more anger. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, what I was hearing. My old life fell apart more and more with each passing second. Falling through my hands as sand, away into shadows I would never reach again.
“Valy.”
My tears kept streaming for him, for the former me. For what I had to do.
“Valy.”
If I showed him mercy, he would never stop hunting me.
“Garret…”
He sprung. A branch snapped at him, grabbing him by the leg so fast my head spun. It flung him, as directed, into the now liquid chalk pit.
“Valy! No!”
Other pits nearby liquified under my spell. In turn, the soldiers were thrown into them, a woman joining Garret.
“Valy!”
His screams were of hopelessness, enough to freeze even the coldest of hearts. And his was but one part of a chorus of anguish.
I walked to the edge of the pit, Kormac silent and keeping pace with me.
Garret was already half gone, the woman too. They clawed at the air, trying to get a hold on the edge of the pit. Yet that was nothing but gloop under their touch.
“Valy! Please! Help us!”
“How could you do this?” I whispered.
“We had no choice!”
Swallowed deeper, to his chest. A chest I’d kissed and climaxed on many times. A chest so comfortable post-fucking.
“Valy…” His blue eyes locked onto mine. Pleading.
The woman screamed her last, taken under by the chalk.
Garret fell silent, his own tears now falling. He didn’t take those lovely eyes off me as he sunk, the chalk licking at his chin, smothering his nose, claiming the rest of his head until there was nothing left of him.
I stared at the whiteness, lost in a hollow place.
He is gone…
Shock struck me like a mace. Garret was dead. By my hand. By my magic. And I couldn’t take my eyes off the chalk.
The seed magic died away, the forest returning to its natural form. The liquid pit solidified once again, forever trapping him down there with the elf he’d died with. Forever gone. More ashes from a life burning down.
“Oh my goodness,” I breathed, my chest a nest of pain.
“Valance…”
The voice of the human surprised me, jolted me out of my staring.
I looked to him, tears freely streaming down my face.
With no energy to fight them or to hide my face, I let him see me sob.
I sniveled, and tiny wails escaped from between my lips.
Every muscle tensed, my teeth grinding so hard together I thought they might break.
“Come on,” he said gently. “Let’s leave this place.”
“I… I…” I closed my eyes. “He used to be a friend. A lover. I don’t understand. What’s going on?”
“Change, Valance.”
“But… But why.” I knew why. I knew the plot against me and the Rosestar name.
That didn’t mean I had to understand. “And I killed him. I killed them all. They murdered our people. I have murdered them. Is that vengeance? Or is that something else? Something far darker than…” I didn’t finish, the sound of my voice chipping away at my constitution.
I can’t do this. I can’t go on.
Yes, you can.
“The longer we stand here, the longer we put this off.” Kormac, the voice of reason.
I opened my eyes, turning to face the chalk pit again. “Goodbye, Garret. Goodbye to it all.”
On the verge of a full meltdown, I sucked in the warm air and steadied myself against the future.
“Let’s head for the village,” I said.
Before I fall into your arms to search for comfort there.
That was the last thing I wanted.
Really?