Chapter Twenty-Four
Jet
“Serin!” I screamed, racing down the hallway of my wing in the palace.
Mendalyn was running a foot behind me. I could hear the footsteps of two of her other women behind us. A few others were spreading around the palace, finding strategic places to stand guard.
We’d left the majority of the women back at the tree, safe to continue on Mendalyn’s mission if something happened to the rest of us.
They worked on a volunteer basis—with most of them offering to come, save for the few who were too injured or too valuable—like the healer—to put themselves into potential harm’s way.
The woods were quiet as we made our way back, pausing only to grab my crown from up in the tree, then running the rest of the way back to the palace.
As the scouts said, there was an angry mob still outside the stone walls, riling each other up.
If allowed to continue, it was going to get worse and worse as the night wore on. Eventually, some of them would get brave and try to infiltrate the castle.
I had to find Serin, check in with Vishen, then find a way to get my father off the throne, so I could handle this shit before it got any worse.
The guards knew better than to hassle me about the women, despite them being told not to let anyone in the castle.
Then we were running, up the stairs, down the hall to my wing.
“Serin!”
I threw open my bedroom door, making a small girl yelp and fall back, dropping the fruit in her hand, her eyes going huge.
This had to be the girl Mendalyn mentioned, right? The one Serin had been protecting. Which meant she was okay. She’d made it back to the palace. But where was she? Had she gone back to look for me?
“You’re growling,” Mendalyn scolded. “You’re scaring the girl.”
“Where’s Serin?” I asked.
“Looking for you.”
“Fuck,” I growled, whipping around.
Then there was Vishen, standing in the doorway to his room, blood covering his clothes, his eyes exhausted.
“Is that your blood?”
“It’s Nira’s,” he said, gesturing into his room where the female guard was laid up in his bed, head half shaved, a bandage wrapped around her midsection.
“Is she okay?”
“I hope so. Could use a healer, but it’s sounding rough out there.”
“I’ll get you a healer. And I’ll handle the mob. I just need to find Serin.”
“She was with Cora.”
“Cora said she went looking for me.”
“Fuck.” Vishen rubbed the back of his neck. “Maybe she went to see if you were with your father?” he suggested. “I don’t think the guards would have let her back out into that mess.”
He was right.
I turned and ran back down the hall and steps, making my way to my father’s wing.
I burst into the doorway, my gaze taking in everything: Tove standing there, my father at his desk, but most of all, Serin.
She’d changed out of the gown she’d worn to the tournament. In its place was the outfit she wore when training with Nira. There was a flask in her hand. The other was hovering over a dagger at her waist.
But before I could do anything but feel a rush of relief that she was here, alive, and she seemingly unharmed, there was a thud that had all of us turning toward my father, who had face-planted onto his desk.
“What is going on?” I asked.
Tove turned and walked toward the desk, grabbing my father by a handful of his hair, checking out his face. Then, dropping him back down, didn’t even flinch when my father’s head whacked onto the desk.
“That is a question for your wife,” Tove said.
I glanced at Serin, then the flask, putting that information together with what Mendalyn had told me about Grimwood.
“Who is that?” Serin asked, glancing past me as Mendalyn moved into the room, her bow out, an arrow nocked, ready to do what needed to be done if Tove or Cass posed a threat.
“Help,” I told her, reaching out for her hand and pulling her closer to my side. “What is going on here?”
“Well, your wife just made your life a lot easier for you,” Tove said, roughly grabbing a stack of papers from under my father’s face, making him smack back down on the surface again.
Serin shot me a ‘what the fuck’ look I figured I must have mirrored back.
“Put that down,” I demanded when Tove made his way to the hearth with the paperwork.
“Are you sure you want me to?” Tove asked.
“These top few are to start the work to build ten more work camps,” he said, flashing the papers.
“They’re already signed. Just not sent out.
And this one is to start a conscription for all the first sons in every fae family in the Dark.
Also signed and waiting to be given to the head of the military.
Then there is one to open government-funded brothels full of imprisoned women because Cass believes that there is a morale problem and the answer is forced prostitution.
And guess who gets nearly a hundred percent of that revenue? ”
“You want me to believe you, my father’s most trusted advisor, wants to burn all his plans?”
“Most trusted and most loyal are not the same,” Tove said, tossing one of the pages into the fire, pausing to watch it catch and burn.
“Did you know your father is naturally a neat man?” he asked, gesturing toward the desk.
“This mess drove him crazy for a long time before I convinced him it’s how he likes to work.
And it conveniently allows me to let paperwork get ‘lost’ for several weeks or months at a time. ”
“You’re trying to tell me you’ve been working against my father all this time.”
“Someone needed to step in while you took your time formulating your plan. Your father couldn’t be left to his own devices. Not when these were his plans.” Tove tossed another page into the fire.
“What about the laundress?” Serin asked, making it clear I’d missed a chapter or two.
“Like I said, I didn’t hire her. Simply found her.
Asked her a few questions about why she was imprisoned.
Not much goes on in this palace without me knowing about it.
Though your more ramped-up security lately has made it more difficult.
That dog was a pretty inspired addition. He grumbles if he hears anyone nearby.”
“He’d rip your throat out if you pushed it.”
“Indeed,” Tove said, tossing another paper into the fire.
“Why should I believe you? That you’ve been working against Cass this whole time?”
“The whole time? Perhaps not. I believed at some point that he was doing what was best for his people. Back when I followed him blindly instead of gathering my own information. But after your sister’s visit… we both know how much of a turn your father took.”
“He wasn’t right before then.”
“And I wasn’t seeing it. But it became too obvious to ignore after that. Then his spiral…” Tove stopped, shaking his head.
“Why would you step in then? Why not let it become clear how unstable he was?”
“Because you were too young and too green and not nearly ambitious enough yet to take over. And your father had a lot of men ready to take what was rightfully yours.”
“And why would you have any loyalty to me?”
“I have loyalty to the people. And who will serve them best. That’s not Grimwood. Or Carver. Or Thistlegreen. Men just as greedy and selfish as your father.”
“And you think I’m not?”
“Greed has no appeal to you. You were born with everything you could want. There is nothing left to aspire to own.”
“And selfishness?”
“You think I don’t know how work camps have been liberated when you’ve traveled?
The people who have been let out of the dungeons?
That you were perfectly capable of giving the true death to the redcaps your father kept on your heels.
You threw rocks at them or let them fall off cliffs of their own stupidity.
“You married a woman you knew wasn’t Gemma Grimwood. You sent out your guards to get her lake water when you realized she was ailing. You had gardens set up so you, your guests, and the staff could eat without starving your people.
“I’m not saying you’re perfect, Jet. But I am saying you could be a good ruler. If you keep your morals. And you listen to your advisors.”
“Meaning you?”
“No one is more experienced,” Tove said, shrugging as he tossed the last of the pages into the fire. “But not just me. Your wife. Vishen. Nira. Hell, even Mendalyn here.”
Mendalyn’s brows rose.
“Yes, I know about you, your women, and your mission.”
He knew.
But didn’t tell Cass.
Didn’t act on it.
Because if my father got wind of that, he would have sent in the military to torture and drag those women back to work camps. And Mendalyn to the dungeons.
It was another bit of proof that he was telling the truth.
“He didn’t stop Cass from drinking the Stillwater I put in his wine,” Serin added.
“It was a solid plan,” Tove said. “Especially after Grimwood collapsed. Grimwood, who was the frontrunner for the one to take control of the throne. He’s been lobbying hard against the other wealthy and powerful families.
If both Grimwood and Cass are out of commission, the other families will be scrambling and fighting.
It gives you the chance you need to take control. ”
“But Stillwater won’t last forever,” Serin said.
“How long?” I asked.
There was a talk to be had about steeping poisons, about keeping it from me. But now was not the time. And never in front of someone else. If we were going to take the throne, we had to be a stable, united front.
“The redcaps are starting to stir,” she said. “But the poison I gave Grimwood and your father steeped for longer. And they each had a lot more. I can’t say for sure, but I think you have a few days at least.”
My gaze slid to Tove.
“It’s not long. But it could be long enough if your plan is solid enough.”
I looked to Mendalyn next.
“It can be done. Once you have the rioting outside the palace contained and take the throne without objection from the people, the other families will fall in line and pledge their loyalty.”
“They will continue to be a threat,” Tove added. “But that is nothing new. It’s part of leadership. The best thing you can do is have your people behind you. Then the powerful families will be more skittish.”
“Or,” Serin said, making everyone turn to look at her.
“Or?” I asked.
“No, never mind.”
“No, tell me. I’ve clearly been underutilizing you. What is your idea?”
“Get ahead of it,” she said.
“How do you propose that?” Tove asked.
But Serin ignored them, focused on me.
“Send the military to round up known threats to the throne. The men like Grimwood. And the agitators outside. Not all of them. Just a few to make an example of.”
“Imprisoning them will only fuel resistance,” Tove said.
“No. Not imprison,” Serin said. “You line them up. And you take something from them,” she said, looking at me, knowing how I felt about using that power. “Not all of it. Just a chip. Enough to feel it.”
“And?” I prompted. “And you tell them that they can earn it back by proving their loyalty. And you do this in public.”
“What am I missing here?” Tove asked.
I glanced at Serin, something spreading warm and bright through my chest.
“I think you just heard Serin show herself to be an extremely capable Unseelie Queen.”