Chapter 19 Prophecy Fulfilled #2
As if knowing what the prophecy is has changed a thing.
“Yes,” I reply evenly. “You took someone I love.”
She snorts then, soft and dismissive yet still undeniably feminine. “Love. You demons cling to it like it’s some sort of gift. A virtue.” Her gaze flicks briefly toward my mate. “And yet,” she continues, “you stand beside a fae who has never known it.”
“He didn’t know it before me,” I correct. “And that’s your fault. You broke your realm,” I say quietly. “You cursed it because you were hurt.”
Celeste’s grin—no longer friendly, but cruel—sharpens. “I freed it from the shackles of a bond thrust upon them they may not want. And look,” she adds, “I allow them the chance to purchase the bonds they choose. For the right amount of gold, any noble fae female can have your demon friend.”
Not as long as I’m alive.
“You will give him to me,” I say.
She raises her delicate eyebrows. “Careful, halfling.”
No.
“I didn’t come here to beg,” I say. “And I didn’t come to be bought.
I’m certainly not paying any gold for the male who’s been like my kin all my life.
” Sensing my resolve, the butterflies launch upward, spiraling in a whirl of orange and black.
Binx chitters a warning—for the queen, not me—and my shadows start to thicken around my boots as I proclaim: “I came to take back what you stole from me.”
A hint of fear touches the corner of her eyes as she glances at Thane. “Thandriel. Come stand by my side.”
Thane shakes his head. “No.”
Her eyes flash, glowing almost as bright as mine. “I call you by your true name. Obey me. Thandriel, come.”
Thane’s fingers brush the top of my hand before throwing his cloak behind him, altering his stance so there’s no denying his defiant report. “You don’t have power over me any longer, Celeste. Not since I accepted Alana as my mate. Not since she gave me the great pleasure of taking me as hers.”
“You would defy me for her?” the queen asks coolly.
“Yes.”
His answer is simple. Final. Even better, he means it.
She sputters, and I do what I can to draw her attention back to me as I say softly, “Your reign ends today.”
Pity she’s not about to go quietly…
“Guards!” she shouts. “Grab my nephew. Bring him to me now!”
I almost shout out that he’s not her nephew. That he never was. That she stole him… but it hits me then. It’s not just Rafe I need to rescue.
I need to rescue Thane.
I need to rescue all of Noctavara.
The four guards all lunge for Thane. Obviously.
The queen ordered them to bring him to her, and despite my being the demoness spoken of in the prophecy—or that she, at least, believes I am—I’m a twenty-five-year-old halfling who let herself be caught and chained by slavers when she was taking a pee. I’m not the threat, obviously.
But that’s only because they underestimated Alana of Sombra.
I defeated King Yelios when I was four months old.
Who knows what the doppelseers saw me do in Noctavara, but now I’m going to eliminate Queen Celeste now.
Whether he meant to give me access to his sword belt or not—and, knowing Thane, I definitely think he did—I reach for the hilt jutting slighting from its sheathe. When the guards caught us in the halls, they took my sword.
They didn’t take Thane’s.
He was the queen’s… something. They didn’t want to offend her, I guess, but that was their mistake.
Before anyone can realize who the true threat in the gold throne room is, I channel my Mom, remembering how the other human parents tease about the time she stole Glaine’s sword from his belt, and snatch Thane’s.
In one practiced motion, I unsheathe Thane’s sword. Then, remembering all of those practice sessions on our journey to the Gilded Court, I run at Queen Celeste and swing.
It’s not pretty. I’ve only had, like, seven lessons, but give a determined halfling a sword, some rage, and an enemy and, wow, you’d be surprised how easy it is to just go chop, chop, chop.
Queen Celeste’s head goes one way. Her body topples on the floor.
A hush falls over the entire hall.
I jab the gold blood-covered blade into the malleable metal of the floor. Binx scurries right over to me, standing like a guard ungez at my side.
I grin. “Anyone else want to threaten my mate?”
I’m ready to do a little more decapitating. Later, I’ll have to tell Thane how exhilarating it was, but for now, I dare anyone to come at us. The guards must realize that I’m serious, too, because they immediately release Thane.
Because of me.
Oh, yeah.
Alana of Sombra, total bad ass.
As one, the guards drop in front of Thane. “King Thandriel.”
It takes a second, then every other fae gathered in the room does the same. “All hail King Thandriel.”
Hang on.
What?
I’m not the only one who doesn’t understand. He holds up his hands. “What’s going on?”
“You are the only kin the queen has. By blood or not, she claimed you as her ward. As her nephew. Now that the Gilded Throne is empty, it is yours, King Thandriel.”
He blinks for a second before a small, slow, irresistible grin tugs on his lips as he walks around the genuflecting guards so that he can stand next to me.
I wonder if he’ll have regrets that I, you know, killed his ruler/queen/aunt in front of him, but then I remember: this is Thane Aurex.
They may call him the king, but he’s my mate, and I’ve seen him chop off so many heads this week.
In fact, when he nudges her fallen body with his boot so he can get closer to me, I know for sure that he’s still the male I mated.
Even if Thane swoops his hand around my waist and says with a cheeky tone: “Not bad for a bandit, huh?”
I lean into him, holding tightly to the sword, just in case.
He drops a kiss on my horn. “You know what that means, don’t you?”
“That you can order to guards to release Rafe from the cage?” I ask.
The shadows around him began to unravel as soon as Queen Celeste lost her head.
It takes a moment before they’ve vanished enough to reveal the rest of Rafe.
The ones surrounded his mouth seemed even darker—probably because Queen Celeste or her guards didn’t want to hear the way that Rafe had a tendency to chat your ear off—and they’re the last to go.
Once his mouth is freed, he lunges to his feet, grasping the cage bags between his claws.
“Alana? Alana! It is you. I can’t believe you found me. I…” His eyes go wide, words suddenly failing him.
Ducking out from under my mate’s hold, I hurry to the cage, laying my fingers over his knuckles. “I know, Rafe. I’m here. I’m gonna get you home.”
“Home?” His expression turns stricken. “Our moms are going to end us!”
I laugh. Maybe it’s not the most appropriate time to bust a gut like that.
Rafe is still in a cage, even though a gesture from Thane’s newly royal finger has one of the guards rushing forward to unlock it, and I just, you know, committed regicide in front of her Court, but… hey. She messed with my butterflies.
No one messes with my butterflies.
While I step aside and wait for them to unlock Rafe so I can finally reunite with my friend and make sure he’s alright… and maybe introduce him to my new mate… Thane sidles over to my side again, tugging me up against him. Lowering his head, he places his lips right by my ear.
“What I said before… it means something else, you know.”
I tilt my head closer to him, enjoying his warm breath against my skin now that’s obvious we’re both keeping our heads… for the moment, at least. “Oh? And what’s that?”
“If I’m king of Noctavara now…”
“Mmm.”
“That means your Queen Alana.”
I straighten, and blurt out, “No, I’m fucking not!”
That’s a curse word in Human. I don’t know how it translates in fae, or if it’s my outburst that has the nobles talking amongst themselves, but the room fills with chatter.
I couldn’t help it, though.
Queen Alana… thousands and thousands of years ago, Queen Alana was the most fearsome, most fair, most respected demon queen in all the realms. She was Sombra’s, though, our people adored her until she died in battle.
Her mate lost his mind because of the loss, and all those years later, believed that I was his mate reborn.
I wasn’t. I’m no Queen Alana… but here, in a realm where I toppled the wicked, heartless queen on the Gilded Throne, maybe I can be.
Still, he saw my expression. Through the bond that I stopped guarding once we walked into the Gilded Court together, he felt my panic, too.
“Don’t worry, my demoness. We’ll talk about it.” Another kiss, this one to my temple. “Later.”
Much later.
I know we’re going to have to. There’s a lot we’ll have to do.
After all, this is only the beginning of our happily-ever-after.
But, for the moment, I fulfilled one prophecy, hopefully dodged another, and I found Rafe. With the queen dead, I can open a portal to bring Rafe home, and if I choose to stay in Noctavara and be the queen alongside Thane… well, he is my mate. And Binx will make an awesome prince.
Not bad for a halfling, huh?