52. Chapter Fifty-Two
~Felix~
Holding Tarron’s still-throbbing heart in my hand, I hardly dared to breathe, torn between disbelief at what we’d just done and relief that we’d actually managed to do it.
It wouldn’t have been possible if I hadn’t read about alchemy in my studies of other supernatural beings and magic. The process of changing base metals into more valuable ones usually focused on turning lead into gold, but some of the information I read suggested that metals could be changed in either direction by anyone in possession of the mineral known as alchemite. That mineral could only be found in the fae realm, had inherent magic in it, and was exceedingly rare. When I read about it, I filed the information away in the back of my mind as something interesting but unlikely to come up in day-to-day life.
I’d just been proven wrong.
On my own, I never would have recognized the deep purple stone. I’d never seen alchemite before, but thanks to Tarron’s meticulous categorization and labeling, the word stared back at me from the cabinet drawer, and I knew it would be my best chance of escape. I rattled the silver chain deliberately, masking the sharp crack as I smashed open the drawer and seized the small, smooth stone.
Iron , I pleaded with the stone, hoping it would read my mind as the stories suggested it would. Change the silver to iron.
The stone’s cool surface pulsed faintly in my grip, and when the chains stopped burning against my skin, I felt stronger almost instantly.
It actually worked , Kai breathed in surprise.
You doubted me? I teased, quickly unwrapping the chain from my body. Instead of weakening me, the iron would now work against the fairy prince who had Evalina on his bed.
My Evalina.
I saw red as my full strength returned, and I charged forward with no real plan other than to make him pay. Iron wouldn’t kill the fae but it did hurt them, the same way silver hurt me. Thankfully, Evalina figured out that we needed to isolate the power in his hand to render his magic ineffective. The idiot even kept an iron sword amongst his collection, and I chose that one to carve his heart from his chest. I would take advantage of any opportunity to make him suffer more, but most importantly, we needed to get rid of his damn heart before anything else went wrong.
As if fate itself had overheard my mate say she had an idea, the bedroom door slammed open with a crash, cutting off whatever she intended to say next. Jumping in surprise, we both turned to see a furious-looking man march into the room followed by a group of Etta soldiers. The man took in the whole scene: Evalina on the bed, the skirt of her dress still up around her knees, Tarron’s lifeless, mutilated body on the floor, the thumping heart in my hand and the bloodied iron sword held in the other.
His eyes grew wider with each passing second, his face turning a deep shade of red. “What. Have. You. Done?”
Each word snapped out of him, each one a statement of its own, and Evalina instinctively bowed her head.
“Your Majesty, we can explain.”
Well, that cleared a few things up. The man in front of me had to be the fae king, and considering I’d just slaughtered his son, I couldn’t imagine he’d be too happy to meet me. Evalina was right, though; we could explain why it had been necessary. I just didn’t know exactly where to start.
“You can explain why you murdered your prince?” the king thundered. All the soldiers’ eyes were fixed on me and the heart in my hands, making me wish, not for the first time, that I wasn’t completely naked for all of this.
Thankfully, someone else strode in the door a moment later, a familiar face that towered above the fae men, and I breathed a deep sigh of relief.
“Hey, Vaughan.”
Darius and a few other warriors followed behind him, evening out the odds in my favour even better. My Alpha examined the room, making almost exactly the same circle that the king’s had, his eyes just as wide but with a lot less anger on his face.
“So, funny story…” I tried to joke, but when the king’s eyes narrowed to thin slits, I gulped the rest of the words down.
Not the time, apparently.
“Prince Tarron was a monster, Your Majesty,” Evalina stepped in, her voice steady despite the storm of emotions swirling in her eyes. “I’m sorry to say it so bluntly, but it’s true. He threatened to force me to have a child with him so he could use that child’s heart in a spell to give him more power. He performed other spells and killed at least one other werewolf in pursuit of this. He visited the terrestrial lands many times to steal materials for his experiments, and I’m fairly certain he made my mother sick too. Those are the crimes that I know of, but I’m sure there are more. We acted in self-defense.”
“There are definitely more,” Vaughan confirmed, stepping forward to place himself slightly ahead of the king, a clear sign that he was on our side. “As I told you downstairs, he blackmailed the elves into bringing Felix here. Seems like he unleashed some kind of illness on them too and promised the antidote if they would help him. At least the guy’s consistent. Well, was consistent, anyway.”
His gaze dropped to the heart in my hand, frowning as he noticed its steady rhythm.
“Is that… still beating?”
“Yup. And I’m pretty sure if it goes back in his body, it’ll revive him. The guy was into some truly messed-up shit.”
The king let out a long breath as he processed everything we’d just said. When he spoke again, his voice sounded calmer but still not at all friendly. “After my conversation with Alpha Vaughan, I understand that my son may have gotten a little carried away. You can be assured he’ll be punished for it. Return his heart to his body and we’ll take care of it. You’re free to go.”
Evalina let out a squeak of disagreement, but she didn’t need to worry. We were on the same page; no way was I putting that heart anywhere near his body again, and I told the king so. “I’m sorry, but that’s not happening. He threatened my mate and tried to assault her. He killed another werewolf after stealing her from her mate and raping her. I’m sure there are other atrocities we can’t even begin to guess at. Death is the only suitable punishment.”
“You killed my father for less.”
The words from Evalina were quiet but firm, and all eyes in the room went to her. My mate stood from the bed, drawing herself up to her full height, her chin raised. She might not be tall, but at that moment, she looked as fierce as anyone I’d ever seen.
She had mentioned her father’s death before, but she never said it had been a punishment. My heart panged at the pain I could see in her eyes even as she stared boldly at her king.
“Your men searched our house and found materials that they said could only have been gathered by visiting the terrestrial realm. Since that was forbidden, you sentenced him to death. Why should Tarron receive a lighter punishment than that? He visited the terrestrial realm and so much more.”
The king’s guards shuffled restlessly behind him at that news, and the king’s jaw clenched. “It wasn’t only that he possessed them. He intended to use them to cause harm to our world. Tarron told me about the spell books he found…”
He trailed off, but we all understood the implication. Tarron must have denounced Evalina’s father, resulting in his death, and given how he had also poisoned her mother, I had to suspect the entire thing had been a set-up to make Evalina as vulnerable as possible. He wanted to leave her with no options other than to give in to him. How she resisted as long as she did only confirmed her strength of will.
That new information tempted me to put his heart back in his chest just so I could cut it out again.
“Your son brought this on himself,” Vaughan said, matching the king’s calm, firm tone but adding an edge of warning. “He brought Felix here against his will. He messed with our world and he paid the price.”
“He fucked around and found out,” I added helpfully, though I couldn’t be sure they used that expression in the fairy world.
The king’s expression remained tight. “Be that as it may, it is my right, as his king, to determine his punishment. As long as that heart beats, he’s not dead.”
“Only as long as you can get to it,” Evalina announced before dropping to her knees. For a second, I thought she’d collapsed, but instead, she reached beneath the bed she’d just been sitting on and pulled out a metal box. Holding her hand over the lock, a faint glow emanated from her fingers before it clicked open. She held it up to me. “Put the heart in here.”
Though I had no idea what she had in mind, I followed her instructions immediately, dumping the heart into the box along with the few other items already inside. Evalina slammed the lid shut and held her hand over the lock again. Smoke drifted out of the lock, accompanied by a burning, bitter scent, and she raised her head in triumph.
“It’s locked inside and the lock is destroyed. No one will ever touch it again. The prince of Etta is dead, Your Majesty, and I won’t waste a single second feeling sorry about it.”