A Veil of Blood and Bravery

1. Delphine

I was born cursedby a fae mark, hair the color of sun-bleached bones and eyes so dark even the night sky could get lost in them. Though I knew now that the only curse that truly tainted me was the faerie blood that ran in my veins, never before had I felt that curse so heavily as I did in this moment.

If only I were not fae, then the choice that lay before me would not be mine to make. The fate of my world, of all the worlds, would not weigh so heavily on shoulders that were prepared to bear it.

I might know that I am fae now, but I was not born fae. The blood that ran through my veins, inherited through the lost line of Starlight kings, though little more than a few drops, had been enough to draw fate to me. But it was not enough to give me the stamina I needed now—that I knew.

More than that, Deimos knew it too, and that was why he was here.

The high king of the Afterworld stood before the throne of the Sand Court. His voice still echoed between the massive pillars, the last syllables wrapping around the stone caskets lining either end of the room. The latest of these tombs—the final resting place of the brother Armene was forced to murder in order to take his rightful place as prince—still remained open, compelling us to once more look upon his unfortunate face. As much as I’d tried to avoid it, I’d been unable to. My gaze was drawn to him like a moth to open flame. No, the draw was stronger than that. It pulled me in with chains of iron, forcing me to bend and face the immortal death brought on by me. Armene might have been the one to wield the blade, but I might as well have been the one whose fingers were wrapped around the handle.

Evander, the last of Armene’s brothers to die in the bloody battle for his court, lay with eyes open, face downturned, brow furrowed in a deep line as if, even in death, he looked upon his brother with disappointment for how he chose to run his court.

He, who was not just born with the blood that granted him the right to sit upon the throne he soon would take, but who had been raised to rule it. He’d had the guiding of his father. He’d known his fate, prepared for it, no matter how much he’d dreaded it.

Armene already ruled his court like a natural, but there was nothing natural about what was now expected of me.

If Evander understood the choice I was about to make, part of me thought he might rise from his death to try and stop me—because it was not just my own court, the Starlight Court, that would suffer because of it. It would not just be my realm. Not just humans. Not just fae. It would be all of them.

There were too many shadows in the throne room between Deimos and me. Even when they weren’t reaching out, threatening to strangle, they were there—waiting. I didn’t understand the true power of my own shadows, not really, not beyond their ability to pull a faerie creature from Avarath into the After, but if there was anything more to those powers, then what I felt emanating from the high king before me was evidence enough. There was only one of him, but I stood now with three princes by my side, and still I felt my breath shake as I drew it in.

Beside me, I felt Armene and Caldamir as they fought not to reach for me, knowing that would only be seen to the high king of the Afterworld as weakness. I was a high king too, though—like my powers—I didn’t exactly know what that meant for the fight ahead. I did, however, know what it meant now.

For whatever reason, this decision—the shift of the balance towards the ever-more-inevitable war that was sure to follow—fell on me.

I tilted my head back, refusing to bow even the slightest to the manipulator that stood before me. The fae were tricksters. I knew that, I’d always known that. Of course, now would be the time that Deimos chose to show himself. Now, when he viewed Avarath and the other courts as weak.

When a fae who had been born human stood before him, ignorant of the power she now held.

All I knew for sure was that the deal Mordrigal had offered me was not one I could take lightly.

Either Deimos and his court would stand by my side and fight with me, or he would stand with Mordrigal and they would fight against me, against all of faerie, together.

The price to pay was my own court, my own life, to leave faerie forever in favor of the human throne, to leave Avarath and Elysia and all the faerie realms to Deimos in my wake. But in return, he’d give me the one thing I desired most, the one thing I couldn’t easily turn away.

He’d give me back my brother.

My brother’s freedom in exchange for not just mine, but all of faerie.

It sounded simple enough, but things with the fae were never simple.

He’d demanded an immediate answer, but if there was one thing that the fae were known for, aside from their trickster nature, it was their delight in a bargain.

So, bargain is what I did.

“I know you want your answer now, but I need time. One night, that’s all I ask.”

My voice didn’t echo quite like Deimos’ when I spoke, but I was just proud of the fact that, somehow, it didn’t shake.

The high king of the Afterworld considered me, even if he tried not to look like it. He stood tall, skin so gray a pallor it was impossible to tell if it was his natural tone, or if millennia spent in the cold and dark shadows of the Afterworld had molded him into the sallow creature before me. There was no glittering spark of power like the one that had emanated from Seren when we met, but he was no less powerful. His power leached out of him, oozing and creeping along the floor as it reached out towards us with greasy fingers. He was testing the air, teasing my resolve, searching for the sweet taste of fear.

I resisted the urge to take a step back, to retreat even further into the shadows that clung to me like a second skin. I had to show him that I was not afraid, that I was not weak, that I was high king of my own court—even if I’d only just been made aware of the fact. I imagined what Seren would do, the only high king I’d met before this. I knew that he’d show no weakness, he’d show no sign of surprise, of backing down, and so I did my best to do the same.

Though, as much as I might have taken his title from him, I knew I didn’t compare. Seren’s very being was high king to the core. I was barely fae, barely fit to lead a court—let alone an entire realm.

To my left, Armene stood like a statue, matching Caldamir to my right. The absence of the other two, of Tethys now bound to the god of the sea, and Seren lost to discover the fate of his court on his own, was made all the stronger now. I’d felt, already, the peeling away of them as painful as if it was my own skin. Now the wounds were made fresh, stinging with a pain that could easily blind me.

If I let it.

Even Nyx stood among us, beside us, his head bowed so that his ruddy hair fell over his eyes in soft curls that refused to tangle, no matter how roughly the guards dragged him. Somehow, his ethereal beauty made even the missing hand lend to his charm, rather than detract from it. He was maimed, and somehow, that imperfection made him even more beautiful for it.

All the more shame that he’d chosen to betray me in the one way that I’d never be able to forgive. It was because of him that I faced this decision now, that despite the fact that I asked for more time to make it, there was only one decision to make.

I’d entered faerie, willingly gone with Caldamir to face this very fate, to save my brother. Despite everything, it was always to save my brother. All of it. Now, I had the chance to do it again, to right the wrongs that he’d faced because of me and the fae now standing beside me. If I did nothing right in this life, I had to do this. I had to save him.

Because no one had ever bothered to save me. Even if he didn’t bear the fae mark that had gifted me a life, he was branded with it now. He didn’t look like the Starlight Fae, but he was fae now. All it took was one glance at him to know that, like me, there was no drop of humanity left in him. At least I’d had the choice to give mine up. His, like his life, had been stolen from him against his will.

I liked to imagine that if I’d known what would befall my brother, I never would have agreed to let the Starlight Fae save me from that altar…but I couldn’t be sure.

I was a different woman then. Not a woman, only a girl. A half-fae, half-human chimera who didn’t know how much hung in the balance.

I was not that girl anymore. I couldn’t continue to let Sol suffer because of my mistakes.

Deimos continued to stare at me, his expression unreadable. For a moment, I wondered if he’d heard my thoughts, if he knew what I intended to do. But then, his lips twisted into a smirk, and I knew that he was simply enjoying watching me squirm.

“One night,” he repeated, his voice dripping with contempt. “You have one night to make your decision, and then you will come to me with your answer. War isn’t just coming, war is here. You get to choose now whether you fight it alone, or with me by your side.”

As he turned to leave, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of relief wash over me. One more day to figure out how to save my brother without having to bow to another high king’s will. One more day to make things right.

Or, at the very least, as right as they could be.

That relief didn’t so much as have time to settle before Deimos paused. The mere sound of his footsteps faltering caused my heart to flutter and something deep inside me to twist bitterly.

He turned his head to the side, so that I could only see his equally twisted expression in profile, as he said, “Remember this, Delphine. Whatever you choose, war is death, and death always wins.”

He was right, of course. Even as he started to turn, the promise of his disappearance this time brought none of that initial relief flooding back in.

The war between the courts was coming, and I had to be ready. I had to be strong. And I had to be willing to make sacrifices.

Even if it meant giving up everything that I held dear.

It wasn’t the first time I’d been offered a deal, but depending on how the next days unfolded, it might very well be my last.

That should have been the end of it.

Deimos should have left us then, but another fae stopped him. It was not the first time Nyx had betrayed his word.

When Nyx lifted his head, he bought me a choice, a real choice. He did the one thing that could actually make me able to forgive him. Or, it could have, if it didn’t betray my heart in a new way.

“Wait.”

The hollowness of his voice was unrecognizable at first. I didn’t realize who had spoken until it was too late. So empty was the sound of the words that came from him that I had no time to stop them.

“Let me change places with her brother. Let me take his place.”

Silence fell, deafening in its weight.

There had been many stupid deals made in faerie.

But none so stupid as the one that Nyx made, now.

Nyx’s voice, as broken as he was, didn’t hold the power Deimos’ or even mine did, but it outdid us both with its resolution. It caught me off guard as much as it did Deimos, but only one of us was practiced at this strangest magic of all.

The Woodland Prince took his chance and broke away from the guards so he could throw himself at Deimos’ feet.

“I mean it,” he said again, his voice beseeching. I was still so dumbfounded that I had no idea what to do or say. By the time I realized what he was doing, he was already out of my reach. “I want to make a deal. Take me, instead,” he said, chin lifting to look the high king of the Afterworld in his sneering face. “Take me in exchange for her brother.”

By the time the words were out of his mouth, Caldamir was finally at his side, one hand grabbing the back of the prince’s collar to drag him back.

“Shut up, Nyx,” he growled, but it was already too late.

The offer had been made, and before Nyx could retract it, Deimos had accepted. Deimos answered the deal before I even had the chance to realize it had already been sealed.

“Very well,” Deimos said, head bowing slightly. “One life for another.”

I felt it, the surge of glamour that accompanied his words.

Still, something inside me refused to register the scene that played out before me.

Maybe it was exhaustion, maybe it was simply the endless series of these things … these moments that endlessly fractured any semblance of normalcy that I had managed to find in this already broken world, but I looked on in silence as a sweep of dark glamour wrapped around the high king and the prince now bound to his court. It didn’t matter that Caldamir had hauled him back from the feet of the fae that now enslaved him. The deal was done.

The bargain made.

The many halls of the Sand Court were no stranger to deals.

More deals painted the halls here than millennia had passed, and yet they all paled in comparison to the one Nyx now made. The others might fade away and be forgotten, but his would not.

He’d just bought more than my own freedom with his words.

And still, all I felt as Armene paled and Caldamir growled in anger, was numbness.

“You fool,” Caldamir hissed to the Woodland Prince. The Mountain Prince’s hand tightened around his collar, pulling Nyx closer until he choked. “Do you have any idea what you’ve just done?”

Nyx didn’t fight him.

“I’ve done many unforgivable things in my long life,” he said, “but none I’ve regretted more than what I did to Delphine. I know there is nothing I can do to make her forgive me.”

“Why?” Caldamir asked, my voice still refusing to return to me as I continued to stare on in silence. “Why then, Nyx?”

Nyx ignored him and instead twisted in the prince’s grasp to face me with tears glittering in his eyes.

“All I ask is that one day, when you think of me, it won’t be hate that you feel in your heart.”

Behind him, Deimos had already forgotten Nyx, even if he wouldn’t forget their deal.

His eyes were on me, and only on me.

“One night,” he reminded me.

It hit me then, and only then, as the high king left us.

My brother’s life had been bargained for and won, but I loss was all I felt.