Chapter 9
Nine
The only person who outranks a queen is the head of the Fairy Intelligence.
That doesn’t mean I can’t kill her though. It only means I can’t be caught.
- King Richard
Irritated, I glare at the red-headed woman in front of me. I didn’t recognise her; I never do when she’s in disguise. She is able to change her entire appearance with her magic, but her dumb-ass ‘knock knock’ jokes are a dead giveaway.
Straightening, I slide my knife back into its sheath.
“I know who you are, Evangeline,” I say to the head of my Fairy Intelligence.
“I want to know why you’re here and not in Gretadal.
” Did she know about the attack on the market?
Did she arrive too late, or did she use me as fucking bait?
It wouldn’t be the first time, but if she put my wife in danger, she isn’t leaving this room alive.
I don’t care if she’s the better fighter. Or if she is a witch when I am not. Or if she’s spelled the room in silence so my guards won’t interrupt us – which she mockingly let me know when she knocked on the door. I will figure out a way to eliminate her as a threat to my queen.
“The last person who didn’t let me finish my joke,” she says as she walks towards me, “died.”
“Did he commit suicide so he didn’t have to hear the punchline?” I ask dryly. “Or was it a heart attack brought on by horror?” Her jokes are often gruesome. And lethal. And gross.
She shrugs. “The verdict’s still out on whether it was the fall that killed him or all the stab wounds.”
Fucking hel. “Why are you here?” I demand again.
She smiles, giving herself the point for having made me repeat myself. There’s no one more competitive than my ex-fiancee, and she sees everything as a game.
Instead of answering, she looks around the room, taking in all the destruction from my “talk” with Jace.
Her eyes linger on the milk spilled on the floor, and I will myself not to move and draw attention to my discomfort.
Her mind is too sharp; she will figure out what all the thrown away food means.
And if the Court is dangerous, Evangeline Sinclair is the reaper herself.
“I love what you’ve done with the place,” she finally says, her eyes meeting mine.
I shrug nonchalantly. “It was time for a change.”
“It suits you… all this rage.”
My jaw tightens over the words she doesn’t say. She has long suspected me of killing Aurelia; this must be how she sees the “real me”. A monster who destroys everything it loves.
My sister.
My fiancee.
Her and Aurelia were the best of friends. They shared their pains and hopes and dreams under the blood of war. Evangeline might have been engaged to me, but no one held her heart like my sister did, and it’s killing her that she can’t bring me to justice.
The scar on my left hand burns, and my fingers twist ever so subtly at my side.
“A Court member has taken out a hit on you,” she says as she moves further into the room.
Her eyes swing around the place, clocking where everything has fallen, reworking the fight in her mind.
I want to run into the bathroom and grab the toothbrush Fabia used to poison me so I can hide it.
Instead, I force my feet to take me to what remains of the sofa.
I pick up a cushion full of debris and shake what’s on it onto the floor.
Then I toss it back and sit down. Looking relaxed. Feeling anything but.
“Was the attack today from an assassin?”
She circles around to stand in front of me. “No.”
“Did you know it was being planned?”
“Yes.”
“Did you use me as bait?”
She scoffs. “If I did, you wouldn’t have got so much as a scraped knee.” She shrugs. “I got word to Echo as fast as I could, but my intel was wrong.”
“Someone played you?”
She bares her teeth. Every time I see them, I’m always surprised they haven’t been sharpened. The look would suit her. “Yes, but the game isn’t over. I haven’t lost. And they’ve given me another clue, so really, one could argue I tricked them into revealing their hand like an idiot.”
I’m not going to argue it. The only thing worse than a sore loser is a dick of a winner, and Evangeline is both.
“Because if the people behind the bombing are familiar with how I work –”
I lean forwards. “And they placed them under –”
“Shut up, Dickie. This is my reveal.” She touches her leg, and although it’s hidden under her clothes, I know it’s her prosthesis.
She’s etched a ruler down its outside length, with the markers from bottom to top saying: just don’t like you, nothing personal, cunt, dick, rot in Hel you asswipe, now it’s personal.
I’ve only ever seen her shove her prosthetic leg up someone’s ass to the ‘cunt’ marker, which sits below her knee, but that was over twenty years ago.
I’m sure she has perfected the technique since, and despite myself, my ass clenches.
I know exactly how far she wants to shove it up me.
She smiles triumphantly. “Given they managed to get a witch to secretly spell some Vylian wares, that means they got access to the castle last night.”
“When security was increased for the ball.”
Meaning they had help from someone who could order the guards around without them being suspicious.
She nods. “Someone in the Court really wants you dead, and they’re willing to stage a coup if the assassins do not do their jobs.”
Fuck. I need to get back to my wife. I only left her with a handful of guards. My scar burns, reminding me how easily life can be taken. Fighting the urge to stand, I ask, “What do you need from me?”
She wouldn’t be here if she could do this on her own. Despite how close we were when we were younger, I have barely seen her in the last two decades. Her hatred for me runs too deep.
And for a woman like Evangeline, who lives on the far, far outskirts of society, who is understood by no one –even by me, even when we were engaged– who trusts nothing with a mouth – I robbed her of everything that made her her. And I left her with no one.
I lost Aurelia that day.
She lost her fiance, her “sister” in all but blood, and the two other people (Jace and Deirdre) she thought she could trust with anything. With everything.
My throat burns as she looks at me. But that guilt soon vanishes with the next words out of her mouth.
“I need to use your wife as bait.”
“No.” I surge to my feet.
“Yes. A Dragon has too much easy access to you. They could assassinate you at dinner with the ladies and lords” –a popular choice; twenty-eight attempts so far given a lot of the nobles really don’t like me– “poison the queen’s crown to kill you at her coronation” –they do like their theatrics– “attack you in the Council Room” –no guards are allowed to enter there, so I’m always on my own– “place a landmine under your toilet seat so when you sit down for a shit –”
“Enjoy thinking about all these?” I ask dryly, a ghost of a smile tugging at my lips. It’s at times like these when she really reminds me of Aurelia. The two of them raised so much hel.
“A job should always come with perks.”
We stare at each other for a long time, all her hatred seeping into me. I cling to it, embracing it fully. The scar on my hand burns with guilt, and I resist the urge to rub it against my thigh. Her eyes dip to it anyway. Her nostrils flare.
It wasn’t uncommon for me to come home bleeding. Jace was Aurelia’s guard back then, not mine. And princes were not treasured enough to protect. At the time, Evangeline didn’t think anything of it, but now, I can see all her gears turning.
“Was that Nicholas or Jace?” she asks. Deirdre would have brought Aurelia back to life.
Holding my hand out, I twist my wrist so she can see both sides of the knife wound that has long healed. “Jace.”
Nicholas, she might be able to convince to turn on me. I’ve done my best to protect him from the worst parts of this world; his heart is still good, still naive. One can play on that to trick him. But Jace? Not a fucking chance.
Her anger slips for just a moment, disappointment and pain flashing through.
And then it’s gone.
“Pity he didn’t go for the heart.”
I don’t react despite having wished the same that day.
After they learned I was going to kill Aurelia, Jace stabbed me through the hand, pinning me to the ground so he could beat me to a pulp.
Nicholas stood on the side, shocked and horrified while I lay there praying for Jace to kill me before I went through with what my sister had ordered me to do.
“The number of assassinations I’ve saved you from…” she says flatly. “Do you have any idea how tempted I’ve been to just be a bit slower in stopping them? Just one second and poof, Aurelia would be avenged.”
“Vengeance doesn’t bring them back.”
“I know,” Evangeline admits on a growl, “but, fuck, would it feel good to feed your ass to the birds.”
“So why are you here then if you don’t want to protect me?” I drop my hand as I shift my weight, prepared to fight. I’m bigger than her. I have a longer reach. If I can get to her and bind her hands before she calls on her magic, I might stand a chance.
“I’m not protecting you,” she growls. “I’m protecting Aurelia’s bloodline, which just so happens to be you.”
“Nicholas is still alive.”
She snorts. “Nicholas is a baby. His blood is weak. In two generations, we would have a family of softies completely obsessed with their hair.”
I smirk. “And sweets.”
Her eyes narrow. “Are we joking with each other now, Dickie?”
My smile drops like a headless corpse. “No.”
“Good. Because it makes me feel like I need a shower.” She wipes at her arms and shivers in disgust, pulling a face that makes me look at her dryly.
I’ve seen her purposefully rub herself in rat shit so she could sneak through Alzan territory.
She then refused to shower upon her return (assassination mission successful, of course) because she “got used to the smell”.
If it wasn’t for Aurelia giving her a regal order, Evangeline would’ve ended the wars simply by smelling so bad she made us all commit suicide.
“I know the feeling,” I deadpan even as I relax. As much as she hates me, Evangeline won’t do anything to jeopardise any other part of Aurelia. I know I can trust her with my wife. “What do you need her to do?”
“I’m going to take out a hit on her. Ms Traitor will want to make sure she stays alive, so she’ll use her own resources to protect her.”
“Like hel –”
“In the meantime, start taking her to Council meetings. She’ll give you extra protection when Jace can’t be with you. Have her sit on your lap. That way, if they try to kill you, they’ll most definitely kill her, which will make them hesitate.”
“No.” It comes out as a fucking snarl. “Find another way to draw them out.”
“This isn’t a request, Dickie.” Her eyes flash sweetly. “As head of FI-9, I’m giving you a fucking order.”
I take a step towards her, but she doesn’t flinch at all. She lifts her head to hold my gaze.
“Arienna...” The words stick in my throat, and my body buzzes with the need to strike first and fast and eliminate the threat before me. Telling Evangeline anything about my queen feels wrong, like smothering oneself in honey before going to kick a wasp’s nest.
She smiles viciously, and I know she’s enjoying watching me struggle. “Go on,” she purrs.
I exhale sharply. “If any harm comes to her, I will repay it to you a thousandfold.”
She snorts. “Yeah, okay.”
“If anyone kidnaps her, I will trade the kingdom itself to get her back. If any of these assassins reach her, I will kill them inside a fairy ring. Then their entire family.”
Her smile falls as a thick, weighted silence crushes my lungs.
Her eyes rove over my face, seeing things I don’t want her to see but don’t bother to hide.
Her nostrils flare as she wars with her desire to use Arienna to get me to admit to killing my sister.
Her jaw clenched, she fists her hands so hard, her body shakes.
And still the silence stretches.
Until finally…
“I will make sure no harm comes to her,” she grits out. “For the protection of the kingdom.”
I incline my head, then move away from her to head into my bedroom. I’m going to grab the things I originally came in here to get, then I’m going to see my fucking wife. At the archway though, I stop.
For over twenty years, Evangeline has pursued the truth of what happened that day. For over twenty years, she’s kept the memory of Aurelia alive when the rest of the world has forgotten her. And now, she’s prepared to lay down her life to protect my wife. She is suffering all alone.
Reminding myself that I once trusted her almost as much as I do Jace, I turn around.
But she’s gone.
And it’s just me and my thoughts.
And my desperate need to be in the arms of my wife.