18. So… Small Problem
18
So… Small Problem
Aliza
F or a heartbeat, my brow furrowed in confusion, quickly replaced by cold, creeping horror. Idris had shown his power. Did Bryn know the twins’ secret? Well, he did now. Idris stiffened. Anwir, meanwhile, was incensed to the brink of tears. His eyes gleamed through the darkness, his face twisted into something far from beautiful.
“Now look at what you’ve done!” He aimed at Bryn, closing the distance in a few short strides, his intent clear in his bared teeth.
Idris moved again, but not fast enough.
Bryn’s fist cracked against Anwir’s nose, sending blood spraying. A din of incomprehensible voices rattled around the mausoleum as Anwir staggered backwards, crashing to the floor in a heap. Idris wrenched out of my grasp, and something bright and gleaming sailed through the air.
The tip of Idris’ sword aimed at the hollow of Anwir’s throat as the bloody-nosed twin fought to rise, shock and fury warring on his face. Anwir fell still at the first brush of metal against his neck, his furious eyes lifting to his brother.
“Don’t,” Idris snarled, then he managed to both raise and soften his voice as he said over his shoulder, “Get out of here, Bryn. ”
“Is that an order, Your Majesty?” Bryn asked pointedly. Idris’ shoulders stiffened.
“Mother above! I have known toddlers with more composure than fae males!” Sage barged into the fray, knocking Idris’ sword aside before turning her disapproving glare on Anwir. “You will not harm a valuable informant over some petty, childhood game of pretend. It will not matter which of you was the heir when we are all dead.
“If we cannot put our differences aside,” Sage went on, hands on hips, “then we are all doomed. Anwir, clean yourself up. Idris, control your friend. I am tired, and I am trying to think of a way to prevent an unimaginable catastrophe. I can do without this.” She gestured to the carnage with distaste, and all three males had the grace to avert their eyes and look guilty.
“You’re right, of course.” Anwir clambered to his feet, spitting blood onto the floor. His eyes slid to me. “Both of you. Maelgwyn must be defeated, and to do that, I need my people to fight for me.”
Oh, here we go.
“Has this meeting helped you come to a decision?”
I shook my head. “I know what you’re asking, and it’s not going to be enough. You think me holding your hand at a few parties is going to make the slightest difference now?”
“Yes,” Sage said. “Perhaps we are beyond the stage of public events, but you are a symbol of hope to many. Mostly a faceless concept at this moment, but word has spread of your deeds. Give yourself credit. You broke the curse. Many came before you, Aliza. They all failed. You succeeded. You are different. You are the promised one. Hope is already spreading through the realms. Imagine what will happen when the people see that you have risen from Maelgwyn’s flames. Let them see you, and then they will believe.”
Anwir added, “My people are scattered and enslaved–”
“Whose people?” Bryn scoffed under his breath.
Both Idris and Anwir shot him warning glares as Anwir continued, “Unite them, Aliza. Stand with me, and bring us all together, so we stand the slightest chance in the coming fight.”
“But I’m useless,” I protested. “Sure, I can stand around and smile, but that’s it. When it comes to it, what good will I be against Maelgwyn? I can’t fight. I don’t have magic—”
“Of course you do,” Sage interrupted, mine and the twins’ eyes snapped to her. Only Bryn looked unsurprised. Sage rolled her eyes. “Oh, honestly. Really? You fae are useless. Do you know nothing of your own kind?”
My ears heated. I’d been trying to learn about my new form when I’d been interrupted by one of her witches.
“What do you mean?” Idris’ voice simmered with impatience.
Sage tutted. “You truly know so little of your own gift? Don’t you read?”
My mouth dried up. What was she saying?
Sage heaved a sigh. “Records show that gifted humans take time to settle into their new bodies. If I’m not mistaken, Aliza, your new powers will manifest within a few weeks.”
There was a ringing in my ears, drowning out everything but one word.
Powers?
Was Sage right? Could I really have magic lurking beneath my skin, waiting to wake up? So far, being fae didn’t feel much different to being a human, but I’d witnessed first-hand the strength and power of these creatures. I was alive because of it. I was one of them now, but I’d assumed it was only superficial. Pointy ears and a fancy new lifespan. Could I really become as powerful as them? Did I want that?
I lifted my eyes to find Idris staring at me as though he’d never seen me before. I blinked rapidly, as though it would undo the illusion, and I’d just be ordinary, boring Aliza again.
“Will I get Idris’ power?” What if I started throwing lightning bolts all over the place? It was a disaster waiting to happen.
“It has been known to happen like that, but more often than not, it’s unrelated.”
Oh, thank god, some good news at last. Maybe I’d become a healer, the magical equivalent of everything I’d worked for in my old life. Yes, that would suit me, and it would be an excellent power to have, with or without a looming war.
“You see?” Anwir gave me an encouraging smile. “You won’t be useless for long. You can learn to control your magic while we rally the people.” He spoke to the room at large, “Our first task should be moving to Tir o Gaeaf. From there we can bring the free fae to us, and raise our forces. We need to move quickly.”
I barely heard him. This was all too much. My brain felt like a waterlogged sponge. I needed a notebook, a good pen and silence to process all of this.
“This is what you meant earlier,” I said slowly, and Idris slid his eyes to me. Was it apprehension or outright fear that lurked within the golden green? “When you asked me to pretend? ”
He licked his lips, and I knew I wasn’t the only one remembering how that conversation had ended. “Yes, but if you won’t do it for us, do it for your people.”
“What do you mean?”
That something in his eyes turned to pity. “There’s more. Bryn tells me that humans have started to come through the rifts to Tir o Haf. Maelgwyn has hunted them down and slaughtered them all.”
The night chill turned frigid, dousing me in goosebumps. My brain stalled. It couldn’t be true, could it? I’d worried about vampires, but there were worse things out there. Evil things.
“It’s true, I’m afraid,” Bryn said softly.
“I’m sorry, Aliza,” Idris added, and I knew he meant it.
The things he’d confessed to me in the moonlight, the things he’d hinted at… He wanted to explore whatever was growing between us just as much as I did, but he needed me to pretend I was going to marry his brother. What sort of cringy rom-com had I stumbled into?
I would rather die than marry Anwir. Judging by the news I’d heard tonight, I was likely to die either way, and if I was heading to the Evermore, it would be as a free woman. But that didn’t mean I couldn’t help. It didn’t mean I couldn’t lie to save the world. That I couldn’t try .
“Before we go any further,” I rasped, and I cleared my throat, trying to ignore my racing heart, and the roaring inside my head, telling me this was wrong. I turned away from Idris, finding Anwir’s stare instead. “There’s something you should know.”
The prince widened his eyes slightly, an indication for me to continue. I licked my lips, took a deep breath and said, “When Maelgwyn captured me, he told me that ever since I broke the curse, that the throne has rejected him. He said it-it’s mine. It will only answer to me.”
All the blood fled my head, leaving me cold and woozy. I’d barely had a moment to spare to think about my supposed promotion to the rightful heir, but now the implication hit me like a charging rhinoceros.
Apparently, Anwir felt the same way. He said nothing, staring at me with a dazed, vacant expression. I couldn’t exactly blame him. I’d whipped his coveted throne right out from under him.
I glanced at the spy, who looked like he’d been smacked in the face with a frying pan, and then turned to Idris, apology furrowing my brows. Not that he wanted the throne for himself, but it didn’t feel right that I should swipe his inheritance out from under him. The fact that I’d kept this to myself for so long felt infinitely worse.
He stared back at me with a strange frozen expression. No emotion seeped through the bond, nothing to hint at what he was thinking or feeling. I dropped my eyes to my stupid slippers–fluffy yellow sliders I’d brought from home.
“This is good news,” Sage insisted, filling the pregnant silence. “If the throne considers Aliza its rightful occupant, Maelgwyn’s power will be weakened.”
“Until he makes another deal with the gods,” Idris supplied, his tone dripping darkness. I didn’t look at him. Didn’t want to see his expression, which I suspected would confirm that I had been in the wrong to nurse my secret.
“That’s why he kidnapped me. He gave me a choice; I could either marry him, letting him rule through my claim, or die. ”
“The blood laws do not extend to you,” Sage mused. It wasn’t a question. She was merely weighing this new information.
But Idris, his voice low and brimming with pained emotion, asked, “You chose death?”
I shot him a brief glance and found him staring at me. His brows peaked, and his alabaster face had lost what little colour it possessed.
I shrugged one shoulder, wrapping my arms around myself. “I wasn’t exactly overwhelmed with choice. I couldn’t just hand him all the power.”
“But he would have gotten it either way!”
I didn’t appreciate the anger lacing his voice, not when he’d been jaunting around Tir o Haf all day, putting himself in danger without a word to anyone. “Not necessarily. It could have passed back to one of you two now it knew you were back in the running. How does a throne know anything, by the way?” I asked the room at large in an attempt to steer the conversation into calmer waters.
Anwir had other ideas. “This is impossible! You are not a descendent of Queen Claudia!”
“She is the Human Queen,” Sage said.
“Through me! Through marriage to me!” Anwir’s face reddened as he balled his fists.
“Perhaps the stories are wrong,” Sage reasoned. “Perhaps it was only ever an incorrect assumption that she would inherit through marriage.”
“This is preposterous.”
“It doesn’t matter either way.” I sighed, dragging a hand over my face. I was exhausted and scared and, quite frankly, I had bigger problems than a dispute over a chair. “Whichever one of us is the heir, it doesn’t change the fact that we’re all a million miles away from the throne. Maelgwyn and his followers stand between us and it, so it really doesn’t seem like any of us will be sitting in it any time soon.”
“Aliza is right,” Sage pressed, directing her level gaze to Anwir. “This is a problem for another day. If we cannot defeat Maelgwyn before he unleashes the gods, none of this will matter. Let us focus on the fact that he is weakened by this rejection. This will be our best hope of displacing him.”
“Our best hope,” Anwir said, raising his voice slightly, “still lies in rallying the people. Without an army, we haven’t the slightest chance of defeating anybody. None of this talk of gods and successions leaves this room. Fear does not make a rousing motive in war. The plan hasn’t changed. We move to Tir o Gaeaf and assemble our armies.” His eyes landed on me. “Will you stand at my side?”
Dread settled like oil in my stomach as I held his hateful gaze. What choice did I have? Even Idris wanted me to agree.
Whatever I said next, whoever the throne waited for, one thing was certain; Maelgwyn would come for me. He would not allow my survival to go unpunished, not when it meant he was weakened. As far as I could see, I had a bigger stake in this fight than anyone present.
My mouth dried up, refusing to form the word. Instead, I gave a single nod of my head, sealing my doom.