Chapter 26
Twenty-Six
A good brownie never lets their pet monsters eat people.
Technically, the wasps will stab him to death… - Arienna
My nerves are all over the place as we approach the teal and purple mushroom-shaped house I call my home. Or did call. Or still called. Whatever. This is no time to get hung up on grammar.
Because inside there are who knows how many wasps.
Poisonous little bastards that hate being caged.
And outside is Jace, who’s reaching to open the door.
And around us are a hundred, curious brownies, all about to be witnesses to his death.
But between us (Richard and I) and them are a dozen guards – and surely they will kill me as soon as Jace starts to scream.
My mouth runs dry.
My heart squeezes.
As my hands clench and unclench at my sides, I try to open my mouth to warn him, but I can’t speak over the hard lump in my throat. Oh gods, I’m about to commit murder, and it’s not even going to be on the right person!
A small noise escapes me, barely loud enough for me to hear. But maybe none of my babies have escaped? Maybe when Jace opens that door, he won’t be jumped by a dozen angry, starving wasps? Maybe I can still somehow convince Richard to go in first, but how?
A movement by one of the windows catches my gaze.
My heart feels like it’s going to explode as I try to see who it is.
I pray that it’s not Gionova. She’s a drama queen who goes crazy if I’m even one minute late feeding her.
And it’s been… I try to do a quick calculation, but my brain isn’t working. A bloody long time, whatever it is.
“Wait,” Richard calls out from in front of me. “There’s something inside.”
I raise a hand to my lips as Jace moves to the side, a hand on his waist. Dear gods, I’m never going to try murder again. This is way too stressful. But then the pin drops, and I realise what will happen as soon as he looks through the window. Wasps are killed first, befriended later.
Scrambling forward, I make it two steps before Richard yanks me back.
“Don’t go in!” I shout. My thoughts racing, I snag at the bits of truth that won’t make me sound like I’m trying to kill him.
Something that will give my pets the best chance of survival despite being hungry, angry bastards. “I think they might’ve got out!”
“What might have?”
I try not to sound too guilty. “My wasps,” I rasp, knowing how he’ll take it. Everyone hates them, fears them. They are things to be killed, not loved. But that’s just because no one ever gives them a chance.
And okay, even after that chance, they are still kind of dicks. But they are cute dicks. And they mean well. And I love them. I can’t let him – He can’t –
“Wasps?” he says flatly.
My heart drops to its knees as chaos erupts all around us.
“We have to move,” a brownie says softly.
“Only grab the necessities,” says another.
“I’ll grab the statue.”
“I’ll pack the golf clubs.”
“The kids, Harold!”
“Are you sure? In six months, the twins become teens.”
A hard lump in my throat, I drown them out as I look at my king, knowing he wants an answer. I want to plead their case to them, but I can only nod.
“How many?” he demands.
I struggle to breathe, desperate to think of something that’ll make the number not seem so high. That won’t make him want to burn the whole house down. I’m supposed to protect them, but now I might very well get them killed.
“Don’t make me ask again,” he warns, a hard note to his voice that makes me flinch.
“I – I don’t know. A couple days ago, there were only six that had hatched and about eleven larvae. I separated them all before mum’s wedding, but…”
As the hundreds of brownies walk quickly to their own homes, Richard looks at me with unreadable eyes. “You do know wasps are venomous, right?”
I nod, silently asking him to see them as something other than that.
“And yet you’re living with seventeen of them?”
“Well, it was nineteen,” I babble, “but Hyatt is gone now, and he killed Bo, so – Ow!”
His grip is like iron as he drags me away from my house. His fingers loosened the slightest bit at my yelp, but I still have no illusion that I’ll be able to free myself. “Are you telling me you’ve been living with murderous wasps?” His dark tone and the weight of his eyes tell me to say no.
I move my tongue around in my mouth, trying to wet it enough to speak. “No– Ah...” Coughing, I try again. “No?”
He glances up, looking over my head. His violent violet eyes narrow. “I can see at least two of them.”
“Well, technically, Hyatt was the only one that killed someone, and he flew off after the wedding, so –”
Shaking his head, he calls out, “Burn the house down.”
“No!” I lurch at him, clutching his tunic. “Please don’t. They’re my pets. I’ve raised them since they were larvae.”
“I’m not risking my women for wasps.”
“But what about all my stuff?” I ask, reaching.
“I’ll buy you new things.”
Frantic, I try to kick him. He doesn’t bother dodging; he just looks at me dryly as pain shoots all the way up my leg. “Ow!” He holds me upright as I hobble, clutching my toes. “What are you made out of? Diamond?”
There’s a small twitch at the corner of his lips. Then they flatten again as he redirects his attention over my head.
As I turn, still fastened to him, all the blood drains from my face. Jace is holding a black, glossy ball of something in his hand; it soon goes up in flames.
“Stop, please! I can get them out safely!” I struggle, pulling with all my might to go to them. I can’t watch them die. My lungs are being crushed. Gasping, I pray for mercy.
They’re just misunderstood balls of fluff.
Delilah likes to sit in front of the window, deaf to the world, and Samson follows me around the house.
He doesn’t like being looked at or acknowledged in any way, but he likes my presence.
Even Gionova isn’t so bad. She’s only tried to kill me six or seven times.
How can Richard give the order to kill them so flippantly?
“You’re not going in.” His words are emotionless.
Tears run down my face as Jace takes a step forward.
“You can drug them!” I yell. “You can drug them, please!” I fall to my knees. “Please.”
Jace turns to me. His blank eyes linger on my face before lifting to Richard’s.
I pray in the absence of time. In that moment when life stops moving. Please.
“Are you certain it will work?”
I collapse, my shoulders dropping to the ground as I cave in on myself. One arm is held above me, tight in Richard’s hand. I tremble as I nod. “Yes. It’ll be long enough for them to be moved elsewhere and released. Please, just let me do it.”
“No.”
A sob breaks me in two. They’re my babies. How can he force me to watch them die?
“I’ll do it.”
My heart stops, certain I’ve not heard him right.
“Your Highness –” Jace begins tightly.
“I’m not risking anyone else for these damn wasps.”
“With all due respect, it is our job to give our lives –”
“Not over this, Jace. Not over a personal matter that does not benefit the kingdom.”
I lift my eyes to him. He’s blurry through my tears, but I can see the truth on his face.
He’s going to risk his life to save my monsters – just for me?
Because I asked? A shaky breath exhales from my lungs as I struggle to understand him.
His thumb sweeps across the pulse at my wrist, slowly, gently.
Easing it with every pass of his finger.
Sniffling, I lick the tears off my lips. How can he possibly be both this and the monster planning my execution?
“What do you use?” he asks, crouching down beside me.
I wipe at my eyes with my palm, then my mouth and nose with the back of it. Swallowing down the snot in my throat, I rasp, “Ambrosia.”
His lips twitch. “The alcohol?”
Another sniffle. “They like it. They’ll eat it until they pass out.”
He leans forward and kisses me, a quick peck on the lips, and I’m not sure which one of us is surprised more. With wide eyes, I stare at him. He holds my gaze for a second, looking just as lost at me, then he glances away.
“Someone get me some ambrosia,” my king says, rising and pulling me to my feet alongside him.
Jace approaches us as two of the guards scatter. Leaning close to his king, he whispers, “What are you doing?”
Letting me go, Richard gestures his head to the side.
I watch as they walk away a bit, watch them talk, a heated discussion clear in their gestures.
Jace waves his arms while Richard stands stoically, his arms crossed, his face saying he doesn’t give a fuck about whatever Jace’s saying. His gaze latches on to me…
He studies me, his violet eyes soft and hard all at once – an enigma. Everything about him is an enigma.
I raise a hand to my lips, feeling the ghost of that peck.
It was lighter than any of our previous kisses…
and yet, it was the heaviest of them all.
I saw it in his eyes, the softness, his surprise.
He didn’t mean to do it. Which means he wasn’t able to stop himself, and the fact that this rigid man lost control, even for a second, floors me.
He kissed me not for a role or a political gain. He kissed me for me.
Confused and lost, I hurry towards my house, seeking comfort in the familiar, in the predictable. In the easiness that was my life before I ventured into Raza.
“Take another step,” he calls out behind me, his voice flat and even, “and I’ll burn the place down myself.”
My feet grind to a halt. “But –”
“Does Jace need to take you away from here?”
I shake my head quickly, hearing footsteps behind me. “I’ll be good.”
His lips press against my ear as he runs the back of his fingers down the side of my neck. “I know you will because if not, I’ll have to punish you.” His hand tightens around my throat, holding in the hot gasp that wants to escape. “My queen.”
I shudder, fighting the sudden urge to do something bad. Something naughty.
“The ambrosia, Your Highness.”
When his presence vanishes behind me, I suck in a ragged breath. It does little to bring order to the chaotic thoughts running free in my mind.
Walking over to one of the far windows, Jace bangs on it with a fist, drawing any free wasps to him.
Richard approaches the door.
Opens it and steps inside.
My breath catches in my throat. I want to call him back. I want to give myself time to think about what I really want.
But that little voice in my head, that whisper of reason, tells me to stay quiet.
You want to live, don’t you?
I nod even as I start to tremble. Excitement and fear swirl inside me. I latch on to the former until it takes over all else, until I’m waiting in anticipation of his scream.
I want to live.
Above everything else, I want to live.
That little voice starts to laugh. And then it coos, Well, we might as well break all the rules then. Can’t exactly go to Niflhel twice.