Chapter 38
VALANCE
I woke to the smell of meat and freshly baked bread, of sweetness. Traces of poison remained in my veins, diminishing. I blinked at a familiar window full of moonlight and stars.
Night again.
“By Danu…” I groaned as I returned to the world, completely, fully flesh and dressed in the armor I’d been wearing before the iron fire explosion—restored by my magic without any conscious involvement from me.
My eyes fell upon a grand table laden with enough food to feed a city for a week. Fruit, meat both hot and cold, bread, pastries, and many bottles of red wine. A table I’d sat at many times in my life within an opulent room of pink and gold, a place for breaking my fast, for lunches and dinners.
The dining room of Summer Palace.
At the head of the table, sat in an enormous chair once reserved for my father, Lord Florent sucked on a chicken bone. Grease ran down his chin, every bite a disgusting smack of his lips.
A man of fair skin and the red hair of the Gentry fae, his curly tresses reaching his waist, he wore swaths of yellow robes piped with black and threaded with diamonds, each of his fingers sparkling with pretty rings.
His presence turned my stomach.
I sat opposite him, tied to a smaller chair my mother once occupied by heavy iron chains. The metal bit into my skin with burning teeth. My magic erupted from my fingers, enchanting the chains to break.
They dropped off, hitting the highly polished wooden floor with a heavy clatter.
Florent looked up from his food. “Do you have to be so noisy?”
I glowered at the scum, scraping the chair back and getting to my feet. “Do you have to be so stupid?”
My head swam, my chest aching. My magic was there but fractured by the poison’s presence.
“Chains will not hold me,” I said.
“But poison will keep you neutered for a little while.”
“I see you have brought the mer to your side.”
“The mer understand power, the way forward,” he answered. “They also hate you, and they know how to find sea creatures with a poison strong enough to contain a powerful Tuatha king.”
He tore into another chicken leg with his teeth.
“Such arrogance,” I said. I picked up a bread roll with no intention of eating it, somewhat dizzy from the poison.
He smirked, finishing his mouthful. “Is that all you have to say? How about your remorse for destroying Spring Keep and the forges or the terrible damage you have brought to my homeland?”
“I could ask the same of you for your attack on Winter.”
“Isn’t this your home?” He swung an arm out, sweeping it back and forth. “You are of Summer, not Winter. Oh, my mistake. Your blood is odd.” He picked up a serviette and dabbed at his mouth. The fabric still had my father’s initials embroidered in pink upon the white.
“I—"
He cut me off. “Is that where your allegiances lie now? A creature of Winter, no longer a fae of the seelie court or—”
“There is no seelie or unseelie court now,” I interjected.
“Is that so?” He leaned back in the chair. “What is there?”
I crushed the roll in my palm. “You tell me.”
He smiled, eyes on my hand. “Well, you are correct about the end of seelie and unseelie. It is a silly, ancient divide now irrelevant in this new age. You could say it has held back progress for too long.”
“Yet you were prepared to marry into royalty to continue such a tradition,” I countered.
“I was. But things have changed.”
“They certainly have.”
He regarded me for several moments as I paused halfway along the table, resting my hip against it. There was no fear in his eyes or posture where there should be. Arrogance and pride would do that, painting a shell to hide the reality within.
Somewhere beneath his facade, there was fear.
“There is no place in this world for the old ways,” he finally spoke. “I can move Faerie forward, even without Lasair by my side. I can change so much, make life better for everyone. Undo the rotten wheel your family protected for so long.”
I plucked a grape from a gilded bowl, crushing it between finger and thumb. Juice trickled down my knuckles.
“Is that going to be my head?” he asked, laughing.
“Too easy,” I responded.
He nodded. “I see your rage, Valance. Your power. That is precisely why you are not fit to rule. An unhinged Tuatha king is a tyrant, nothing more. You know the histories of Winter and the Tuatha fae, how necessary it was to have crushed them all those centuries ago.”
“A tyrant? Unlike you with your iron fire?” It was my turn to laugh. “You will rule by fear and death. Nothing more.”
“So will you.” He cocked an eyebrow, no more smiles on his face. “Your time is over, Valance Rosestar. You cannot win, no matter the greatness of the magic you wield.”
I picked up another grape. “Oh, Florent. My once future husband. How delusional you are. There is no stopping me. There is no future for you. Your keep is broken, and this palace is about to come down on your head.”
“The place you once called home?”
“Yes.”
Still no fear. “Such is the will of a tyrant.”
And the will of the betrayed… I didn’t give him that response.
“Haven’t you committed enough murder?” he added.
“Clearly not while you continue to steal the air from this room.”
This comment restored his smirking. “Such a wicked tongue. But pointless. There is no winning this war you have started, Valance.”
“My war?”
“You marched your troops to—”
“To meet your waiting troops,” I cut him off. “Do not try and lay blame at my feet, you pompous bastard. You wanted to get inside Winter. Don’t try to pretend otherwise.”
“I suppose you’re right.”
“That isn’t a supposition but a fact.”
“Though you made the first strike, did you not?” He picked up some cake, slavering it with butter. “I may have marched my troops to your borders, but you unleashed your dragon’s fury upon them and killed my dear queen.” He took a bite, seemingly unbothered by Lasair’s death.
Just as I thought.
“And you sent your spies to kill me with your guns,” I returned.
He spent a long time chewing the cake, bobbing his head as if to music. Seemed alarmingly calm for a man who’d lost his seat of power. Although, Summer Palace appeared to be fulfilling that role for him now.
Where is that fear?
Kill him now…
“Were you impressed with our new invention?” He dabbed at his mouth with the same serviette as before. “
Time to die. “No.”
“Because you have no vision, that’s why.”
“I have plenty of vision.”
“For destruction.”
Maybe he was right.
“Your mother is still alive,” he said, completely changing the subject, twisting my stomach into wicked knots.
“She—”
“She sleeps still,” he added. “Please don’t worry, Valance. I have no interest in hurting her. I’m more curious to see if she will stop breathing one day. Or will she spend her Sidhe immortality trapped in whatever world it is she finds herself within?”
Mother…
I unleashed my magic on him, holding him in an invisible grip. Silver ribbons slithered around him, his eyes wide.
There is that fear…
“This is where you end, Florent.”
My grandmother hurried into the room suddenly, crashing through the doors and dragging something in with her by a leash.
“What are—”
I stopped, stunned by the sight of the jinn I’d sent west now on the end of that leash. An iron collar around his neck, his blueish flesh covered in red rashes and welts.
“Say it!” Florent squeaked as my magic relinquished its grip.
My stomach roiled at the sight of her. Staring at me as I stared at her, reunited once again.
“Grandmother…” I said.
Seeing her here, being under the command of Lord Florent felt so wrong, no matter my hatred for her.
“Valance…”
The jinn didn’t even struggle, painfully subservient. I noticed bruises on his face and arms, a cut under his bottom lip.
Jinn. Why was the jinn here?
“I…” My grandmother hesitated.
“Say it!” Florent screamed
“I wish for the magic of King Valance and for him to be returned to his previously cursed state!” she cried, breaking out of the daze we’d both stumbled into.
No.
No.
No.
Was this real or some effect of the poison?
“As is wished, so it shall be done,” the jinn responded, offering me a sorrowful gaze.
This was real.
“You stupid bitch!” Florent roared. “It was supposed to be mine!”
A wish for him—either from his mouth or from hers.
But she’d betrayed him as she’d done me.
The former queen always schemed, always looked for weakness.
She may have bent the knee to Florent, but she would’ve searched for a means to destroy him.
It gave her the ruthless reputation she wore with pride even after she abdicated the throne to my father.
Her laughter raked across my soul as silver magic began to leave me. It drifted across the space between us, glittering rivers in the air.
Florent yelled for his guards, slamming his fists into the table, cursing my grandmother with every expletive he could muster.
As soon as the first drop of magic entered her, Queen Dovelar cast her first enchantment.
“Be seated and still, Florent,” she commanded.
His body slammed into the chair. He wailed, unable to move.
“And silent,” my grandmother added.
No.
No.
No.
“At last, I return to power,” she said. “Power I never should have lost.”
Her pretty blue eyes flooded with shadows.
No.
No.
No.
I collapsed to my knees, empty of silver magic, returned to the Valance I’d been before reaching Winter. Did that mean… Oh, Danu. The berserker curse. It returned, a thick, terrible thing created by shadow magic.
“No…” I breathed.
“Yes,” my grandmother said. “How wonderful to see you on your knees where you belong.”
“Why…” I struggled to speak. “Why have you done this?”
“We could all ask similar questions, Valance. Such as why you think you deserve this power. Why you think you have the right to govern Faerie above a woman with skill such as me.”
“You had your time,” I countered. “The rules—”
She hurried toward me, striking me hard across the face, the force throwing me to the side. My left shoulder took the brunt of me landing hard on the floor. My teeth slammed together, face burning from her attack.
I pushed myself back up to my knees, looking up at her.
She grabbed me by the chin, squeezing hard. “Look into my eyes, dearest grandson. See the power within them. Feel the power in my touch.”
“Stolen power…” I breathed.
I expected another slap. It didn’t come.
She smiled, the swirling darkness in her eyes a terrifying storm. “Words cannot harm or hinder a queen such as I.”
I’d failed Winter. The promise of victory was now dead from one simple wish. Because of my actions, because of the cruel nature of fate.
I’m sorry…
I’m sorry, Kormac.
Kormac. I had to be with him, to have him near to fill this hole in my soul. Too far away, hurting too much to not have him by my side.
The soul bond had returned, and it called to him.
My previously cursed state…
Tears rolled down my cheeks, my pining for him overwhelming. But he was in Winter, so far away.
No. He wasn’t. He was coming. Coming closer, closer, closer.
“Kormac…” I said, not meaning to give his name voice outside of my thoughts.
“The human?”
I kept quiet.
“Oh, my poor Valance.” She released my chin. “You cry pretty tears.” She flexed her fingers, glittering specs of silver falling from her long, elegant nails. “Do you mourn his cock?”
I refrained from responding, calling to Kormac deeply within.
I need you…
I need you…
I need you…
I had to get out of here.
But my grandmother had other plans. With her new magic, she cast an enchantment on me. It struck me in the face, forcing my mouth open for a few seconds.
“A gift for my darling grandson,” she intoned.
“I…” The curse, the rage. It rose to the surface, taking me over. The room around me began to spin. Waves of sickening dizziness overcame me. My skull filled with terrific agony.
Shadows drowned my vision in nightmares, dreadful horrors swimming in my blindness. I clawed at them, wanted them dead.
Potent fury.
No…
Yes…
Kill the nightmares.
They have to die.
Blessed Danu. Please save me from this or send another angelus to aid me back to myself.
Kill.
Kill.
Kill.
My pathetic prayer wasn’t answered.
“As you succumb to your berserker rage,” my grandmother continued, “I want you to think about this palace, about those who live within it. Your family, our family. The servants, the elf guards, the human guards, those you have slept with who remain here, every single breathing soul you can think of. Kill them.”
“I can’t…”
“You can and you will, my darling grandson. Kill. Them. All. Crave their blood. But above everyone else, think of your mother. Think of tearing her flesh from bone, of offering her the same fate you bestowed upon your poor father.”
No.
No.
No.
“While you clean this royal house, I will head for Winter to meet my new subjects. They will see what a real leader is. The grandmother, not the vile grandson. Farewell, Valance. I’m sure someone will stop your rampage well before you reach your mother.”
All she ever wanted was for me to suffer.
“You will make a pretty corpse,” she added. “I’m sure the stench of your decay will be as perfume.”
If there was anyone so cruel, so evil in this world, it had to be her. More than Lasair, more than Florent. Only my late brother matched her in such dark stakes.
Florent.
The berserker rage finally pushed me into a pit of fury, a crimson curtain falling across my reason, obliterating my mental strength. I saw the shape thrashing in the chair, trapped in place. Screaming. Nothing but a nightmare out to get me. I had to kill him, tear apart this realm of fear.
Blood.
Blood.
Blood.
Kill.
Kill.
Kill.
I surged forward, and blood and death and screams followed as I ran and ran and ran, screaming, tearing the nightmares away.