10. Chapter Ten
“The prisoner will be executed at dawn.”
I choked on my cry. Eero was standing alongside me, utterly still—quiet. Sapphire and Evander were still away, and there was nobody to speak up for Julius except me. I don’t know what he could have said to warrant such a reaction from Eero, but my entire body ached. My mind. My heart. My bones. I wanted this to stop. I knew in my chest that he was not an evil man.
A prick, sure. But evil? No.
“Evange—” I rasped.
“I am queen, Aurelie Cane. Do not forget your place,” Queen Evangeline spat before rising from her throne. “Is it not a silent, justified solution to our problems?” I wanted to recoil into myself, but I knew no monarch would respect me if I let my emotions win. “He pledges loyalty to a greater threat than I could have ever imagined.”
I didn’t know what she was talking about, but when I looked at Eero, his sunken glare told me everything I needed to know—for now.
So, I rolled my shoulders back and, despite the tremble in my lip, I threw my venomous words right back at her. “There is something wrong with him. I can…I can…”
“You can what?” Evangeline countered as she descended the shallow steps. “You can guess? My judgment is not based upon guesses. It is based upon facts, and the fact of the matter is that he played a part in the most violent night the Spring Court has seen since the war between the two realms.”
My mouth clamped shut. That was my fear—the logic. Sound, just logic that validated any monarch’s decision to execute. Julius was a traitor. He was not a thief, a liar, or a beggar. He was treasonous.
He’d encroached into the fae realm, and he’d pay for his crimes.
“Queen Evangeline,” Eero said quietly and took a step forward. The queen gave him a wide-eyed stare, lips parted. “If I may. Julius is…wicked. Cruel. Even so, I don’t doubt something larger than his elevated sense of self is at hand here. I…well, to put it plainly, I lost myself down there. But he’s dealing with dangerous people.”
“It’s all allegations,” Queen Evangeline said with an exasperated sigh, lips curling into a scowl.
“Allegations that I have been a victim of, firsthand.”
I stared at Eero, the lump in my throat growing. I was enraged, but he was giving Julius a second chance. The queen wasn’t convinced, though. As she shook her head, part of my heart shattered.
“Let me reverse this,” I snapped quickly, stepping forward. Eero grabbed my wrist before I made it too close to the queen, her guards already readying their hands over the pommel of their swords. I stilled, holding up a hand in retreat.
The queen, however, appeared unfazed. She merely glared.
“I was the one who cursed him, Queen Evangeline,” I said quickly. I hoped my hesitance wasn’t evident in my tone—I didn’t believe it myself. I know I imploded in defense when Julius first found me outside town, but whatever was inflicted upon him was like a curse. A plague.
I couldn’t do that.
“Let me reverse it,” I added, hushed.
“Aurelie,” Eero whispered. I tore my hand from his hold and held them up out of pure desperation.
“I am a halfling, Your Majesty. You know this. By the gods, I wouldn’t be surprised if half of the realm knew there was another novice halfling running amuck. I have the same potential as Yenira, as Sapphire. There are others, too. We can fix this.”
That hard exterior started to crack. Hope gleamed through the gaps, in her eyes, in her frown.
“And how do you plan on fixing this?”
“If there was anything I learned in my time at Novus’ castle, it is that many envy whatever power I have in my blood. Even more fear it. It is why you sent Evander to the courtship ball even though he is all but spoken for, correct?”
Ah-hah. That plucked a nerve. Evangeline frowned and shook her head, spinning toward the throne and approaching it with hastened steps. “Battles have been lost over the rumors of halflings, Aurelie. My father put an end to that madness, and I do not intend to pick it back up. Their bond, or lack thereof, is irrelevant to Evander’s duties.”
“But our magic can be the reason you protect this place one more day.” Another step forward, and my arms fell back to my side. “Sólkon is a cruel man, and if his involvement has anything to do with what’s happened to Julius, it won’t stop there. He will tear apart all his foes. He will find secrets tucked away in dark places. Let me reverse this. Let me see if he is able to be saved.”
“Saved?” Evangeline repeated. “These are brave words for a girl who can barely control her magic.”
“Aurelie is capable,” Eero chimed in. His tone was distant, mildly disapproving, but he was there. A weight lifted from my shoulders—slight, even if the relief was monumental. “More than capable, Your Majesty. She just needs time.”
Evangeline sunk into her throne and braced her fist beneath her chin, scrutinizing every inch of me. A wave of terror pleaded with me to succumb to her judgment. Her word was final, and there was no use fighting it.
I was so terribly tired of fighting.
But this was greater than me. My childhood home had shattered in a matter of months. Azalea was locked away, Yenira was seemingly against me, and Julius was…evil? Cruel? No. No, I refused to accept that every person in my life was against me or gone.
“One month, Aurelie Cane.”
I heard the breath catch in Eero’s throat. My heart was clawing up my chest, tightening to the point that it hurt. One month to cure him of his…ailment? One that I may have caused? During a rebellion—
Oh, no. I looked at Eero and started sputtering, but his focus was stuck ahead on Queen Evangeline with unrelenting severity. He nodded once. “One month.”
“No more,” Evangeline said with a stern nod. “If you have not figured out what plagues him and how to fix it, we will execute him. If he can be saved, then we will send him home peacefully. Do I make myself clear?”
Eero shifted his gaze to me. I couldn’t take my eyes off him. When he nodded, I realized it was I who had to answer. I breathed out shakily and faced the queen of Spring. Her judgmental wrath was a thing of nightmares. I would never know how Sapphire survived this, even with the little time she’d stayed here. Was this sort of treatment worth a mate, after all?
“I understand.”
Was it the fact that we were half-mortal, or was it because we were only half-fae? Because after my interaction with the Spring Queen, I had no doubts that this court was violent—nasty, mean, and fierce. Queen Evangeline did not lay down her sword because she was weak.
Perhaps she did it out of mercy, because a world that faced her wrath was a world that faced misery.
And then we were dismissed. It was silent and harsh, but I needed no other excuse to break through the throne room doors before scurrying past the dozens of guards who tried to guide me toward the exit. I could hear Eero’s frantic steps as he raced to keep up with me, but I kept onward. I needed air.
Actually, I needed to get rid of the air stuck in my throat. It was suffocating, and by the time I’d found a set of doors that led outside, I gasped and looked up at the sky before closing my eyes and letting the sunlight bleed onto me. Eventually, I let my gaze fall onto the rose bushes ahead of me.
I was selfish, stupid—
But then something moved in the shadows between rose bushes. It was a dark figure lingering, faceless, soulless…but I knew who it was. It was in the shape of man—one I’d barely escaped just days prior.
“I’m sorry.”
When I exhaled, clarity forced me to blink, and the shadows lost their form. I twisted around, Eero’s calm stare making me want to recoil into a ball even more than I already was. I was losing my mind. I couldn’t let him know that, though—not right now.
Two guards stood behind him at the doorway, eyeing us hesitantly. Nothing kept them from grabbing hold and yanking us toward the exit, but they luckily waited.
I wasn’t sure for how long, but I found solace in knowing I could breathe, if but for a few moments.
“Sorry?” I repeated quietly, quickly. “I. Well. You should be.”
Eero’s lips cracked into a half-smile. There was a certain tiredness that lingered beyond his stare, though. Defeat. I’d made a mistake, speaking so rashly. But I didn’t want—no, I couldn’t let Julius die without knowing for sure he deserved his sentence.
“I am sorry, Eero,” I said with a frown. “I shouldn’t have…” I paused, lowering my stare to the ground and gesturing wildly. “I was too quick with my tongue and made promises I am uncertain I can fulfill, all while understanding you have bigger things at play than some…sick need for closure? Answers?”
Eero had inched closer to me throughout my babbling apology, eventually stroking some of my ginger strands behind my rounded ear. He traced the shape absentmindedly, gaze hung on me as he patiently waited for me to finish. By the time I dared to meet his stare again, my heart had leaped back into the top of my throat again.
I was stuck inside my head with no way out.
“I have made my decisions, and you have made yours. Do not be sorry for your passion, Aurelie. Besides, I think it’s me who owes you some answers, but not here. Let us go back to Magyn Manor and wash the stress away. We have some planning to do…and decisions to make.”
I nodded slowly, parting my lips to respond to him. Visions of his wrath in the dungeon were replaying repeatedly in my head like a twisted painting, each icy assault making me cringe. I knew Eero was not an evil man, but I had no doubts he would have killed Julius had I not heard his screams.
Had I not said Eero’s name.
Julius had to have made some boisterous claim—but, even more, I wondered if I was ready to hear it.
I fluttered my eyes closed when he pressed his lips to my forehead, a hand slipping into mine. In the darkness behind my eyelids, I had nowhere to hide from the violence I witnessed. It both thrilled and terrified me.
I just hoped Julius was undeserving of it in the end.