Chapter 20 Tate #2
“Will proceed beautifully without you this night,” she interrupted, smiling sweetly. The whole court leaned in, scarcely breathing. “You will better serve here, I’ve decided.”
The insult was barely hidden. You are a servant and you are replaceable.
The court shifted, delighted at the addition to the feast, for gossip was revered above all.
Whispers flickered like candle flames, quietly snuffed before they could take shape.
His grandsire’s eyes were lit with something terrible, more than malice and crueler than contempt.
He made no movement that betrayed him, but his eyes . . . his eyes were screaming.
“As you wish, my love.”
The Bonfire Queen clapped again as she stepped forward, placing herself between them, positively giddy over the tension she’d created. “There we are! Gather your blades. Huntsmen, prepare your bows. Sharpen yourselves, dear hearts. The forest is waiting.”
When the horns sounded, the quarry was released. A stag and its yearling, taking off in a scuffle, followed quickly by a darting rabbit. Tate couldn’t tell what the fourth victim had been transfigured into, for the theater playing out beside him was far closer, and much more dangerous.
“You look unhappy,” the Queen pouted before Cadoc, her baby voice teetering on the edge of mockery, reinforced when her hand reached out, tapping her fingertip against the tip of his nose reproachfully. “Isn’t it nice to have a night off, sweetling?”
She turned to Tate. “And I seem to remember you not enjoying the hunt last time, dear heart. Isn’t this better?”
“I don’t enjoy being put in a cage, either.”
She laughed, delighted. “Oh, you are wonderful, truly. See?” she turned back to Cadoc. “This is why I enjoy him. You don’t make me laugh anymore, my love.”
Before them, the hunt came to life. Laughter rang out, high and eager.
Weapons were drawn, horses mounted, hounds barked and pulled.
Torches bloomed to life, one by one. When the horns sounded again, they were off.
The clearing emptied steadily, leaving the three of them behind beneath the lanterns.
Cadoc struck like a cobra, his hand capturing his Queen by the throat before Tate could so much as blink.
“Do you remember the Queen that came before you, my love?”
No sound came from her. Tate wasn’t sure that it could. The hooked talon-tip of the fingerguard Cadoc wore pressed into her temple, trailing down her cheek. Tate had frozen, too stunned to react and not knowing what his reaction should have been, in any case.
“No? She, too, was very beautiful. Are you sure you don’t remember?
I slit her throat right before you, placed her crown on your head, still dripping.
I’ve committed atrocities against our own kind for you.
I am the only thing that keeps this world in order.
Without fear of me, there is nothing stopping this horde from ripping you apart.
And you would trade on that . . . for what?
For him?” Cadoc gestured at Tate, laughing as if he’d told a joke.
Tate wasn’t sure whether he was meant to be offended or not, so he decided it was safer to say nothing. It’s still a fucking setback. This is why you don’t make plans in this place.
“Do you think he wants to be here? Do you think he will stay? Beloved, his eyes have not stopped searching for an exit since the moment he arrived.”
That was offensive. He’d done nothing of the sort.
“Do you think he will protect you from the monsters you’ve created? I created him. I assure you, he will not. I just wanted to remind you, my only love. You are a replacement. Don’t forget it after this night, when you have nothing.”
Just as quickly as his hand had found her throat, Cadoc stepped back, releasing the Queen fully, his hand dropping instead to the hilt of his blade. Casually, but with clear intent.
The Bonfire Queen stepped back, carefully, deliberately, saying nothing for a long moment.
“Well,” she began, her voice light and her smile lethal. “It will be a revelation to see who sits beside me on the morrow, I suppose. Be good, my loves. Or at the very least,” her smile hardened, her starburst eyes flashing, “be interesting. I look forward to hearing all about your tête-à-tête.”
Did I enjoy my weekend? Oh, it was grand. Crashed a wedding with the elf I love and then spent time trapped with the dysfunctional extended family as they made plans to kill each other. Nothing better.
Cadoc was chuckling before she’d even left, disappearing back to the hall in a crimson tangle of hair.
“You should let me go,” Tate blurted. He was careful in Faerie, and care was the only thing that had kept him alive, but now he was running out of time. “Let me go. Kill her, take the crown for yourself. Give me back the coin and you’ll never hear from me again.”
“I do believe that’s treason, dear heart.”
“What is it that you want from me?” His voice carried a note of desperation that he normally would keep hidden, especially here, but time was ticking down.
There was no managing Faerie, there were no checklists he could make, no schedule he could perfect that would help him here.
The only thing he’d ever been good at on this side of the veil was surviving, and that wasn’t going to assist him in this.
It wasn’t going to save Silva. Tick, tick, tick.
“Why won’t you just let me go? What’s the point in any of this?
I’m worthless to you. You’ve been clear about that from the start.
How are you helping yourself by keeping me? ”
“Do you think your presence here is meant to be a punishment for you, sweetling?”
Tate swayed. He had been brought to court as an adolescent and given leave to go home for the first time by the Queen.
Fetched back. Permission to leave once more.
Over and over again. Each sentence he fulfilled in Autumn was a bit more bloody than the last, his grandsire’s desire to hurt him increasing, and for each new scar he acquired, the Bonfire Queen seemed more delighted with his presence.
Cadoc had begun walking, he realized. Tate scrambled to follow. They were moving away from the hunt, toward the woods before the pavilion hall, and it was clear the forest was listening.
“Do you know, I almost did, once? Let you go.” Cadoc paused, turning back to Tate, who felt as if he were scrambling to keep up. “Back in the beginning. You were so annoying. You always have been. So maudlin. Crying, complaining, such a self-involved little prat. That’s never changed.”
“Then why didn’t you?!”
He ignored the insults. Gravel gave way under his feet, and Tate nearly slid down an embankment in an effort to keep up.
He had longer legs, should have been able to keep pace with his grandsire easily, always did.
Now, though, it was as if the forest itself were helping Cadoc glide along, his feet barely touching the earthen pathway, too focused on fighting against Tate instead. He struggled to keep pace.
“Why didn’t you just let me go?!”
Cadoc had resumed walking, laughing as he did. “I’ve already told you, sweetling. You are a toy. One she hasn’t yet grown tired of playing with.”
Tate stopped again, nearly falling as a root sprouted up in front of his toe.
He had the appalling clarity that this wasn’t about him at all, and likely never had been.
He had been the punished and the punishment both.
Favored did not mean safe from retribution.
A fact he knew well. He was nothing but the horse she’d bet on.
It was a poor gamble, and not one he would have made. Now I am fucking offended.
“This would be faster if you ran,” Cadoc called back curtly.
“It was all for nothing,” Tate choked out, furious that he was being forced to jog through this forest that was actively attempting to impede his progress as he simultaneously learned his entire life had been cut to ribbons because the rulers of Autumn played power games with each other outside of their bed.
“Is that what you mean to say? You ruined my life. And this is all just a bleedin’ game for the two of you?
You don’t have fucking therapists on this side?
You ruined my family’s lives for nothing. You took everything from me—”
“Not everything, sweetling.” Cadoc was suddenly right there, swinging around, blade at Tate’s throat.
“Not yet. You were worthless to me from the day I found you. An orc on the throne of Autumn? Not possible. I would swallow all of Faerie first. And you have no idea how many times I’ve wanted to kill you since.
” His eyebrows shot up, the moonlight making his honeyed eyes dance like flames as they widened, emphasizing his point.
“All of them. Every time. I can’t stand the sight of you.
Every moment spent in your company is a punishment.
So truly, beloved, who do you think has suffered more? ”
“You didn’t have to listen to her!” he exploded, violently kicking the rock that had been steadily attempting to roll beneath his foot. “You didn’t have to obey, errand boy. You could have let me go. Why didn’t—”
“Because you belong to me.” Cadoc’s voice shook the earth, stilling it for a moment.
Tate could hear the horns, the pounding of hooves, the baying of the hounds. The hunt was getting close, but he was being gripped by the shirtfront, those teeth and the blackness behind them inches from his face.