He frowned at her flippant tone. He lifted his hand and beckoned her to him.
She walked over in her muted tones and bowed gracefully. “Your Majesty.”
“What is different about you, Halla?”
She straightened. “This body has not contained Halla for twenty-nine years. Not since the day her husband, Enmar, murdered her.”
“Who are you?”
“I am the dark star. I fell to earth, and my original host didn’t survive, so I had to find someone on the edge of life or the edge of death. Enmar had stabbed Halla and was upside down in her car. She had been there for hours, and she was looking forward to death. It would take her away from him. He had already beaten her for years and used a sabre on her in a drunken rage. She was done. So, I helped her with the pain, and when she slid away, I moved in.”
The king paled. “And that is when...”
“When I got out of the hospital and returned to my marital home, he tried to hit me again, and he died. Very sad. I have a psychic recording if you want proof.”
The king blinked.
Her mother-in-law shrieked about her son being a good boy; her sister-in-law pitched in more of the same.
She felt a strike to her back, another to her arm. A punch in her ribs. Elodie smiled and turned around with the dark energy wreathing her. “Ah, I see where he got it from. Use your words.”
Her mother-in-law was frothing at the mouth, and the monarch lifted his fingers, sending two guards to hold the women.
He looked at Elodie. “Show me.”
She smiled, pulled her power around her, and showed him. All of Halla’s memories of abuse leading up to his fist raised and Elodie crushing his windpipe with dark energy.
The king blinked and said, “Why did you wait to show this?”
“Oh, I needed my friends to be in the right place. They are there now, and I no longer need the concealment of this court. I am a star, not an elf, and not subject to your will.” She grinned.
He looked at her, and she felt the weight of his power on her. She pushed back, and there was a heavy, thrumming pulse that spun out from the point of contact. They were both standing tall.
“They will come after you.”
She grinned and took on her full form of rainbow-coated black and turned to her in-laws, who had tormented her for nearly three decades. “Mother and sister of Enmar. Halla died in a car accident, and in his grief, Enmar got drunk, stuck his cock in a knothole, ripped it off, and bled to death while cursing the throne. He is not missed, and no one speaks of him.”
There were two more blasts of power that sent a shiver through the ground they stood on. The women looked at her and curtsied before wandering off to pick up the garment bags.
Elodie turned to the king and smiled. “There. Solved. Now they have a story they won’t want to talk about, and the treason at the end means they can’t.”
He chuckled. “You have been planning this.”
“Yes. Now, I will leave all the items they have provided behind and be on my way.”
“Wait, you are a member of this court.”
She enhanced the dark wave over her skin and shook her head. “No, the member of the light court died twenty-nine years ago. I came here to avenge Halla and help those who loved her to heal. They did, and now my own people are near to me, so it is time for me to rejoin them.”
He paused. “You are remaining in the area?”
“Of course. This is where my people are.” She handed him her phone. “This belongs to the court.”
He took it. “Don’t you need it to get where you are going?”
“Nope. I have feet, and I know the neighbourhood. I will get where I need to be without trouble.” She chuckled wickedly. “And if trouble finds me, I will deal with it.”
She bowed. “It has been interesting being in your court, and while she was grieving, I noticed that no one stopped her abuse of me over the decades. I will not forget. I will not forgive, but I will leave. Consider this a kindness. You would not want to see me feeling unkind.”
