32. Keira #2
She just laughs.
I clutch at the threads of my magic, calling upon that Autumn power of earthly decay that has never failed me before.
I allow it to build and build within, dragging it up from my chest through my body into my throat, then my chin where she touches me.
I want to watch while the cracks form across her smooth, creamy skin.
While her flesh turns to nothing more than dirt and floats away from her face in delicate tendrils.
I want her to scream with the agony she has inflicted upon so many other people.
Instead of Titania dying, the two guards behind me wail in agony, removing their hands from my shoulders and throat.
The scent of rotten flesh fills the air as they thrash at my feet, slowly decomposing.
A single flick of my eyes reveals black cracks across their exposed skin, but not the full, quick decay my power would normally give me.
The impact to my head and body was too much when I fell from the sky. I can hardly feel or hear my bond with Aldrin.
Titania gives me a predatory smile as the halo of golden light around us flares brighter. “You can’t harm me, remember?”
Then she stabs me.
The needle-thin dagger sinks in where my neck meets my collarbone, the metal scraping against the edge of my chest plate.
I cry out at the sudden jolt of pain, trying to push her away from me, but my muscles go slack and my reservoir of magic is almost completely cut off.
Only trickles of magic escape, not enough for me to do anything with it.
Why the fuck can she harm me ?
That blade was poisoned.
I try to remember how Aldrin was taught during his time with the assassins to find each particle of a toxin in his body and slowly destroy it, but I don’t have the energy or the concentration.
The balcony shakes as dragon after dragon lands upon it.
They are so immense that I wonder if it can support their collective weight.
Titania’s guards rush into motion, forming a protective circle around us.
She pulls my body in front of her as a shield, holding the tip of a thicker blade to the side of my throat.
My eyes find Aldrin’s across the space as he lands heavily, standing on Ezekiel’s back.
He looks every part the brutal fae king, perfectly polished armor encasing his body and the spikes of his shoulder guards making his form seem even broader.
Those dark eyebrows slash down over his face and his amber eyes promise death.
“You will release my queen and send her back to me!” he roars, pulling his sword from his back. “I will kill you, Titania.”
“And why would I do a thing like that?” she croons.
“It seems like I have the advantage here. This is why you never let another person get too close to your heart. They only become your weakness.” It is so fucking sad to hear a mother say such a thing.
The fact isn’t lost on Torin, who flinches just beside us. “Call off your attack, Aldrin.”
“It is not I who ordered the attack. This was a peaceful demonstration before you shrieked for your followers to break out in violence. I will not say it again: release Keira or I will fucking kill you.”
“Oh, Aldrin, we all know you don’t have the spine for what it takes to win here.” Her fingernails slash across my cheek to make a point. Sharp, red-hot pain floods me from the cuts. “Call off the soldiers. Send them out of the city. Or I will toss Keira from this balcony.”
Aldrin loses his mind at the sight of my blood.
He launches himself off Ezekiel’s back, his boots landing hard on the balcony and his sword glowing with the raw power he pumps into it.
He charges toward us, and with every bounding step he takes, the branches of the wisteria tree become animated, expanding, elongating, then sharpening into spikes.
The other dragon riders leap down and flank him. They launch into an attack on the entirety of Titania’s guard, smashing through their wards and thrusting blades into chests. It all happens within the blink of an eye.
The weaponized branches of the Wisteria of Mythanar reach us before Aldrin does. They swarm over our feet and the lower halves of our bodies, but Titania digs the tip of the blade into my skin. Gods, she might actually kill me if he doesn’t stop.
Multiple branches drive sharp stakes right toward the spot between her eyes.Aldrin exposes his teeth in a snarl as he shuts his outstretched hand into a quick fist and commands the tree to make the killing blow.
Every single branch stops half an inch short of meeting its target, glowing with golden light. Aldrin’s racing steps toward us slow to a crawl. His face pinches with fury as he tries to push through the magic thrashing around him.
He is not the only one. My father is a figure of flames a step behind him, and my sister is the same.
Cyprien, Klara and the others are off their dragons, trying to reach me, but the bargain stops them, because they are far too intent on trying to pry me away from her.
To save me from the oaths I made and pull me from my kidnapper.
We made a huge error of judgment in not bringing Valentine or other assassins with us to confront Titania.
Anyone who does not truly give a damn if I live or die, and purely wants Titania off the throne—they are all down below with our army.
The dragons can’t even attack her with their fire and venom without killing me also.
Titania cackles like a madwoman. “You see, Aldrin, your problem is that you are far too intent on pulling your little mate out of my clutches. On helping her escape me and the immediate threat I pose, but the bargain won’t allow it.
I recall she used those exact words: ‘without trying to escape.’ If you just forgot about her, you might be able to attack me. Now, I am going to kill her.”
Titania tosses me backward without a glance.
The thin branches around me snap. I stumble until a tall, lean form wraps his arms around me and pins my back to his chest, holding another dagger to my throat.
Torin leans down to speak in my ear. “Watch how a real leader wages war. See what you are truly up against.”
I thrash, trying to strike him with my elbows, but the poison makes my movements far too sluggish.
My heart thrashes wildly as multiple enemy fae charge Aldrin, swords raised high, while he is stuck motionless and helpless, as if within a thick gel created by the magic of the bargain.
The moment he takes his attention off myself and Titania, his muscles unlock and he flows into fluid motion, warding off the attack.
A cruel smile splits Titania’s lips. “Someone bring me Senator Ash.”
A confused noble I do not recognize is brought from the palace to her.
The entire party of guards moves with Titania as her hand wraps around the man’s arm and she leads us to the edge of the balcony, where Bartholomew destroyed the railing.
The noble tries to protest, but a guard puts the tip of his sword at the man’s unprotected back.
My heart stops, because I suddenly know what she is going to do.
“You will not kill my mate!” Aldrin commands, throwing men and women off his back and taking painfully slow steps toward me. “The bargain will not allow it.”
Titania whips back to him. “And what do you know of bargains?” she screams. “I have made it my entire life’s work to understand their intricacies.
How to find loopholes within them. How to break their bindings.
The most interesting thing I have found is that if there are two contradicting terms, the latter cancels out the former.
For example, when I agreed to the term that I cannot harm Keira, then swore to treat her like any honored guest in my court, those conflicting terms mean that I can harm Keira, so long as I do it in the way that I have already harmed one of my guests, abiding by the second term.
” Titania grabs the noble by the arm. “Senator Ash here has been taking refuge in my palace as a guest since you took his regiment from him.”
With more force than I thought she was capable of, she throws him off the balcony.
His scream doesn’t stop all the way down, until he meets his doom.
I forget to breathe, my throat clamping tightly.
“Titania, you will not touch her!” Aldrin screams as the High Chancellor’s fingers run up my armor and settle at my elbow.
He looks like an enraged beast, amber eyes wide, nostrils flared and a crown of horns on top of his head, but potent fear rolls down our bond and chills me to the core. “You will not TOUCH HER!”
Aldrin stalks so slowly toward us, his every movement meeting resistance, his muscles shaking. One arm is outstretched before him, trying to reach out for me, but he is too far away to grab me.
“I will kill you, Titania! I will kill you!” Aldrin roars. It is not lost on me that he has the presence of mind to drop the wield articulating his voice across the city before unleashing his threats.
Titania makes no such adjustments, probably because she doesn’t hold the magic in place and has forgotten about its use. “Not before I kill your queen!” she snarls, wrapping her arms around me and leading me to the edge.
I fight every step of the way, but I am so damned weak. Within heartbeats she holds my body over the drop, my feet scrambling and failing to find purchase on the tip of the balcony.
I cannot breathe.
My throat tightens painfully as I fail to drag in a single gulp of air. All thought flies out of my head as I stare down at that drop. We are so high up that thin clouds hug the foot of the palace.