Chapter 26 #3
“Radicalized groups like these tend to see that as a necessary consequence,” Lady Velentia said. “If ordinary folk die for the common good, well, so be it.”
Tamerlan snorted with derision, and several nodded in agreement.
“That may all be true,” said Leita pensively, “yet, it’s hard not to see a sort of logic in their motives. The fae are tethered to a Queen, to her whims and wants.”
“Yes, but that’s true for most folk,” argued Lady Eilean. “There are human monarchs aplenty, and new Savrakae and orcish ones now, too.”
“And there have been plenty of rebellions against each,” Leita reminded them.
Unable to help the rumble in his voice, Attalus knelt beside his mate.
He implored her, “My father was as much a cruel tyrant as Amaranthe and deserved to be overthrown. If we were discussing these radicals in such a context, I might have sympathy for them. But we’re not.
They tried to kill you, Leita, and that is unforgiveable. ”
“Hear, hear,” chorused most of the council.
A tendon ticked in her cheek, her jaw working as she stared at her lap thinking. Attalus wished to reach out to her, to unknot her fingers and smooth her worries, but something about the angle of her shoulders made her appear…brittle. As though the slightest touch would cause her to break.
He hated taking an opposing position, even in a debate such as this. Banter and flirting were one thing, but those were meant to please, to stimulate. Here, the wrong word might hurt his mate even more than she already had been.
“I’m not saying they’re right,” she explained, her words coming slow, deliberate, as though she considered every one.
Her hand lifted to rub at her chest, and his attention latched onto the movement, his mind spinning to think she might be in pain.
“I’m not completely bonded to the faelands’ magic yet, but I understand that without a keystone, the weight of it would be too much. ”
“Indeed, that’s why your line was selected to rule,” said Lady Idrisil. “Only the strongest amongst us can bear that burden.”
Leita nodded, though her hand still pressed against her sternum. “I can understand wanting to be rid of a bad Queen, to not want to tether one’s fate to the whims of one person. But, an outlet is needed. The wheel must have its center.”
Her words struck him as profound, but perhaps not in the way they did the elders.
They nodded their approval, as though Leita had made some great breakthrough, but Attalus heard the sadness in her voice.
Her hand at her chest disturbed him, and he wanted to pull it away, to place his own hand there to ensure her heart beat.
“Without a Queen, no one fae could handle such raw power,” Lady Idrisil said. “You do all of us a great service, bearing that weight.”
Leita nodded, although she seemed neither relieved nor appreciative. Something weighed on his mate, and it wasn’t just the assassination.
Charis cleared her throat. “I hate to add oil to the fire, but there’s more news. While our inquiries in the Droplets go unanswered, dragons have been spotted along the border. They seem to be…testing it.”
One then both of Attalus’s hearts skipped, and his hands and feet went cold. He stood suddenly, tail lashing behind him.
No. Absolutely not.
He would not bring more trouble to Leita’s door.
“I will deal with them,” Attalus declared. “Araxos must be made to cease.”
“No!” Leita cried, hand snapping out to grasp his forearm. “You can’t let him know you’re here.”
“The fae know—he will, too, soon enough. If he doesn’t already.”
“I won’t let you expose yourself to danger like that.”
Her words left a stunned silence in their wake, and Attalus gritted his fangs to keep from growling. The council looked on, not even breathing, as he and Leita stared each other down.
“Is that an order, agae?”
Tears glittered in her eyes, anger and sorrow both. “A few tests at the border aren’t worth endangering yourself,” she said instead. “I’ll strengthen the border and…”
And then? She didn’t have that answer, or at least wouldn’t admit it.
There wasn’t a scenario where Araxos didn’t eventually find out where Attalus was and who was harboring him.
He’d hoped there was a chance, even a slight one, that this could be solved diplomatically.
Attalus as the mate of the Fae Queen could be a political boon rather than an existential threat.
However, he wasn’t sure Araxos’s temper was flexible enough to see it that way.
She kept rubbing at that damn spot on her chest.
“I won’t be a burden to you, Leita. I’ve brought this to your door, and I will drive it away.”
“Attalus, you’re not…” She bit back whatever else she meant to say. With a sigh, she said instead, “There’s no use flying headlong into anything. Let’s see what they do.”
He inclined his head, acquiescing at least in theory. But Attalus intended to do all he could to keep his mate and her lands safe. If he couldn’t rend his mate’s assassin limb from limb, a few gorgoroi or even Araxos himself would do.