Twelve - Evangeline
For how much he hated me, he sure didn’t mind the kids. He was actually kind of sweet with them, making sure they were flying okay, carrying them for short breaks when they got too tired so we could make good time. That was a kindness to me too, but I didn’t point it out in case he stopped doing it.
The next few days were going to be a madhouse of nerves for me, and I wanted to get at least some sleep tonight.
We flew through the trees rather than above their tops even though it was slower. Birds of prey liked to eat us. Animals inside the forest did too, but they had a much harder time of it.
Not every tree we passed was occupied by us fairies. We left a few for the wild birds to land on so they didn’t try to use our cities, causing havoc with their bulk and appetite. The raven steeds of merchants and high-class travellers mixed with the clouds of fairies flying from one city to the next. A few wild small colourful birds streaked between the branches, singing popular songs like: I’m Horny, Are You Horny, Do You Want to Fuck Meeeee?
A few hours later, we flew near a meadow housing one of the many Brownstons in the kingdom of Brownston, which was home to brownies – fairies that had long ago lost their wings. When they had split from us roughly two thousand years ago, they had created a cult town called Brownston. When their numbers had grown, they’d set up a second town. But not wanting to upset the first town by creating a better name, they had decided to stick with Brownston. Not Brownston Two or New Brownston. Just Brownston. And every city they founded from then on was also called Brownston.
If that didn’t tell the world they were whacked, then their three hundred and eighty rules about how to be ‘polite’ definitely would.
A good brownie could not leave a party before they’d been there for two hours. (Fuck that).
A good brownie could not critique their partner’s sex performance. (Fuck that).
A good brownie could not name their city something other than Brownston clearly. (Double. Fuck. That).
Luckily, I didn’t have to be in Brownston often, but when I did, their naming system made it really hard to sort through information. Was the person I tracking at this Brownston or that Brownston or just somewhere in the kingdom of Brownston? Just looking at the damn meadow made me want to scream.
“Oh, look!” Ziny shouted, pointing towards the brightly coloured mushroom-shaped houses of Brownston. “Isn’t that where the queen is from?”
“Yes,” I said, not even lying about it. There wasn’t another Brownston around here for kilometres, the rest having been squashed by various large creatures having sex over the years. The brownies loved their orgies, and one of their ‘don’t be rude’ rules required them to invite everyone to every party. Not just every brownie. Everyone in the entire Seven Planes and the three underworlds.
I’d gone to one once.
Absolutely fucking regretted it.
“Can we stop there for a break?” Ziny asked excitedly.
“Hel no.”
“Why not?”
Looking him straight in the eye, I asked, “Do you want to watch a play about how a whole family died by being sucked up into an ogre’s vagina?”
He looked like he was going to be sick. “No.”
“There you go then.”
“Don’t listen to her,” Redric said. “They don’t do that.”
“Oh yes they do. And that is not something I ever want to see again. They use the actual corpses they fish out and everything.”
“They do not,” Redric repeated, each word heavy and clipped. He glared at me, clearly wanting me to be quiet.
“They do,” Dee, the girl, chimed in. We’d exchanged names before taking off, and I absolutely loved that their last name was Mons. “That’s how Queen Morningstar’s family was killed.”
The look on Redric’s face made me laugh. As a Vylian, he hadn’t grown up hearing all the horror stories that came out of Brownston as his kingdom was much further north, but to a Razian, they were a staple at every evening meal.
Brownies were fucking whacked, and that was coming from a full-on crazy person.
Looking at the kids, I grinned. “What’s the weirdest thing you’ve heard about them?”
As Dee launched into a tale about how a man had gone on a date looking for women to kill by politely asking if he could (and succeeding quite often because it was rude to say no to anything), I studied Redric. His face was very expressive, and with every word the children uttered, a movie of emotions played across his face.
Horror. Disgust. Bewilderment. Unwanted fascination. But no anger. No harshly slanted eyebrows or dark eyes of vengeance.
A pain settled in my chest with every passing second. Aurelia wrapped me in her arms but didn’t say anything. She didn’t tease me about wanting to be looked at with something other than rage for once.
I liked it when people were angry and frustrated at me. It let me see the truth in their hearts.
Her arms squeezed tighter around me, combating the pain.
Lifting his head, Redric looked at me, but I looked away before I could see the change of his emotions.
We arrived at the barracks in Kholar just as the rays of the sun softened into twilight. The light flickered through the branches of the large tree, creating moving shadows between the lanterns filled with blue luminescent moss.
Hundreds of soldiers of all ages sparred within their squadrons. Some rushed at each other in large groups. Others stood in a circle with only a few fighting while their comrades stood around them, cheering them on and waiting their turn.
Heavy grunts mixed with ragged breaths and screams of pain. Weapons clashed, some of which were dulled, others sharpened depending on the squadron. Blue magic shields were erected and red bolts of energy thrown. Fists met faces. Taunts kissed the air. Some poor guy’s dick went flying, and I grinned as I spotted Queen Morningstar getting her ass kicked by kids much younger than Dee and Ziny. Her pale pink hair had been tied up in a bun, but a lot of it had come loose, and one of her opponents didn’t hesitate to grab it. The boy yanked her around. The queen punched him in the stomach, not even hesitating.
Brownies never trained for combat. They didn’t even have an army; despite spanning two kingdoms deep at war with each other, they lived a peaceful life. So Arienna, our recently crowned queen, was now learning the basics in her late twenties.
As much as I wanted to hate her for giving Richard (the actual Richard responsible for Aurelia’s death and not one of my marks) any sort of happiness, I couldn’t. She was too unapologetically her, and crazy respected crazy… even if she was more: let her rabid pet monster eat a whole room of hostages, and I was more: kill said room of hostages myself.
I watched as she dodged a foot to the face, then shifted my gaze to the crowd surrounding her. It took less than a second to find King Morningstar and Jace, his bodyguard, within it given the rest of her squadron was made up of small children.
My chest tightened at the sight of the two people I hated the most in the world. Jace, with his short blond hair and an easy smile. Richard with his curly black locks and his concerned eyes on his wife.
My magic boiled beneath my skin like it always did in their presence. Magic liked causing pain and misery, and I wanted to release it on them so fucking badly. My hands itched with the urge to curse them, to strip away their happiness.
Turning his head, Jace looked directly at me. For some annoying reason, he always seemed to be able to sense me regardless of what face I was wearing.
He whispered something to Richard. The king looked up, his gaze sweeping the skies before finding me. I turned towards one of the barracks, the kids and Redric following me, and landed in the front of the door.
My skin buzzing, I shook out my wings. Dee stared at the warriors in awe while her brother jumped up and down, pointing at everything as he turned.
“That guy just got stabbed in the dick!” he shouted as Redric walked towards me, concern in his eyes. For a moment, I pretended it was for me and my pain.
But I knew it wasn’t.
“They’ll be safe here,” I told him. “New recruits don’t use weapons, and there are multiple healers on site.”
He nodded without a word, then turned to Dee and Ziny.
Exhaling softly, I waited for King Morningstar and Jace to arrive. They appeared a few seconds later, the crowd splitting to allow them passage.
“King Morningstar!” Ziny shouted.
Grabbing the kid with a hand on his shoulder, Redric held him in place. He bowed his head as he greeted him.
“Wariq Redric Dahy. It is a pleasure to see you well.”
My eyes widened. Wariq? How in Hel’s name did he make wariq? That was the highest level of a noble. He had been a mere protector, the bottom rank, when I’d left the front lines. He sure as hel didn’t fuck his way to the top...
King Richard’s eyes shifted to me, effectively cutting through my thoughts, filing that mystery away for later. “And this is…?”
“His wife Elana,” I said, bowing my head. “And these are our two children, Ziny and Dee.” Despite being in the barracks, one never knew when spies were listening.
He inclined his head. “And what can we do for you?”
“I wish for them to be enrolled in the guard. They could use some discipline.”
Ziny was piratically vibrating in Redric’s hold, his face red with excitement. His sister stood a bit behind him, more nervous and uncertain. King Morningstar looked at both of them. “Are you here willingly?”
“For fuck’s sake,” I muttered beneath my breath.
Jace grinned at me.
Thankfully, the two kids confirmed I hadn’t kidnapped them, even though we had actually kidnapped them, and Richard called one of the recruits over to show Dee and Ziny to Echo.
As they started to walk away, Ziny stopped, then spun on his heels. Rushing at Redric, he threw his arms around him and squeezed. “Thank you,” he said, then released him and ran off to join his sister.
I watched them disappear into the barracks, wondering where the hel my thanks was.
“So are you two a thing?” Jace teased as he sidled up to Redric, his eyes on the man’s crotch. “She seems to have fixed you.”
Scowling, the Vylian crossed his arms. “No.”
“No she hasn’t fixed you, or –”
“Jace.” The command in King Morningstar’s tone had his bodyguard laughing and stepping back.
“How are you finding Raza?” Richard asked, turning to Redric in a show of respect. Redric smiled tightly, but it still looked a lot nicer than anything he’d pointed at me. It seemed that despite Richard, Jace, and I having all picked on him during the war, he' saved the purity of his hatred for yours truly.
Preening, feeling special, I grinned. “He’s loving it.”
“Certain aspects, yes.”
“Like fucking after twenty-odd years of not having a dick?” Jace asked, looking pointedly at the bruises on my neck.
“Jace,” King Richard warned, but his face had stilled completely – a look he’d learned so he could hide his true feelings. There was a smirk behind that mask; I just knew it.
Grinning, I started to tell them that Redric had slept with fifty people and hadn’t made a single one of them come, but as soon as I opened my mouth, Aurelia said, “Don’t.”
My lips closing, I frowned. She was always telling me not to do something, and that normally made me want to do it more, but this time… My gaze went to Redric. His lips were tight, his eyes shuttered.
“What was that?” Jace asked, his teal eyes lighting with a childhood of knowledge. We’d grown up together, had suffered Echo’s training together, had been damn good friends who’d snuck out at night and got beaten for it in the morning. Richard had been with us too, and I’d ended up engaged to him at one point, thinking I could trust him with anything.
I hated that Jace could still read me.
I hated that I missed what the three of us used to have.
“How do you think Jace feels?” Aurelia asked. “Richard asked him to help kill the woman he loved.”
My jaw tightening, I shook my head. “We have to go,” I blurted.
Coward, my inner voice said.
Survivalist, I corrected. I could withstand months of torture. I could let myself get killed and resurrected over and over again, but being near these two always broke me so damn quickly.
“I’m certain we have time to –”
“No,” I cut in, yanking on Redric’s arm. He turned to me, his eyes flashing with annoyance, but I didn’t care if he wanted to make sure Ziny and Dee settled. I needed to get out of here.
As if taking pity on me, making me hate him even more, Richard inclined his head at us and then he and Jace left, making their way back to his wife.
“I want to meet Echo,” Redric started, “and –”
“They’ll be fine.” Snapping my wings open, I flew up. He would be forced to follow if he wanted to find me again. I didn’t let him catch me, flying faster, working my body hard to try to get rid of the memories now chasing me.
But it was no use.
I could outfly Redric.
But I could not outfly the worst memory of my life, the one that always clawed its way free whenever I saw Jace or Richard.
Richard came home from his holiday with his family, his eyes void of emotion. But there was a stillness in his shoulders, a pain he couldn’t hide behind his mask. Not from me.
Straightening from my crouch, my body slick with sweat as I’d worked it through various forms of martial arts, I asked, “What is it, love?”
He looked at me – No, through me. Not seeing me. Not existing in this moment. Detached from his own body, his mind off who knows where.
My heart thundered, and I braced myself, knowing whatever he was about to say was going to break him.
But I hadn’t known it would break me too.
Break us.
Clenching my hands into fists, I flew faster until I was forced to concentrate solely on breathing and staying the right way up as my body screamed for a rest.
I did not rest.
I did not let up.
I worked myself until the memory was beat back down under sheer exhaustion.
Finally slowing to a normal pace a few hours later, I stopped in the city of Lyrtre. The streets were dark and empty. Quiet. Private.
Redric landed beside me, collapsing in half with his hands on his knees. Ragged breaths shook the both of us, but it seemed he still had the energy to glare at me.
Locking my hands on the back of my head, I looked up at the sky. A few stars twinkled in between the branches. My muscles burned with a beautiful pain. As soon as our breaths started coming in kinder rhythms, I spread my wings again. I didn’t want to rest long enough for the thoughts to come back.
Redric took a step forward as if he wanted to kill me, so I smiled. “It’ll be a slower pace, I promise.”
His jaw tightened, but he stopped where he was.
My grin spreading, I launched into the air.