“There must be another way,” I say through my teeth.
“There is.” Estel’s voice is raw, quiet. All eyes turn to her. “We shift our tactic from violence to protection.”
Nyxia cocks her head to the side, skepticism clear on her face. “And how do you suggest we do that?”
Estel sighs. “Before my sister shared her plans to destroy the Parvanovae, she’d had ideas to transmute the energy of the bomb to fuel an enchantment that would make the wall between Faerwyvae and Eisleigh impenetrable, keeping all humans from crossing over to our land. That, of course, went against the treaty.”
Flauvis scoffs. “She should have done it anyway.”
Estel ignores this. “If she discovered a way to use the Parvanovae to protect the wall, then I can figure it out too.”
Aelfon stomps a hoof. “What good is a wall when warships could surround the isle and attack by sea?”
“We extend the wall around the perimeter of Faerwyvae as well,” Estel says.
Nyxia rolls her eyes. “Yet another idealistic suggestion that sounds pretty but lacks execution.”
“Nyxia’s right,” Aspen says. “Even if we could get the strongest earthen fae to begin construction at once, we can only do so in our own courts. How are we to ensure the wall gets built around the courts belonging to the Renounced?”
“I have a better idea,” Flauvis says. “We destroy the wall, free our magic to flow over the entire isle. Then we kill all the pathetic humans and bomb the mainland.”
I open my mouth to argue, but Tris speaks first. “How many times must I remind you I am seelie? I will not condone annihilating the humans on the isle!”
Flauvis ignores this. “In fact, Evelyn should leave for the mainland at once to detonate it.”
“Excuse me?” I shoot the wolf king a scowl, hand on my hip. “You do know that would kill me too, right?”
“It’s for the greater good.” A malicious, teasing grin lifts the corners of his muzzle.
“It could kill more of our kind too,” Estel argues. “The Parvanovae is untested technology. There’s no saying how far the damage could reach, even if detonated solely on the mainland. If the blast radius reached the isle, only the fae with ethereal forms could survive.”
“Then the rest of us burrow underground, just in case,” Flauvis says.
Aspen puts his hands on the table and leans toward the Winter King. “Evelyn is not sacrificing herself to use the bomb.”
Flauvis shrugs. “Then do it yourself.”
Aspen growls, but Nyxia lifts a hand, shadows writhing around her shoulders and darkening the room for a split second. “This conversation is getting way off course.” The royals quiet, but Aspen and Flauvis don’t take their eyes from each other. “Estel understands the Parvanovae more than any of us, and if she says it isn’t safe, then we cannot rely on it as our first course of action. I agree we must keep it as a last resort, at the very least as a potent threat to hold against the humans, but let us first consider the idea of extending the wall.” She turns her gaze to Estel. “What is your plan?”
The particles on her face rearrange, shifting from worried to composed. “I’ll need at least a few days to go through my sister’s old blueprints. I know she recorded her original findings regarding the Parvanovae and the wall. In the meantime, Aelfon will organize builders to erect the stones around our courts.”
“That still only gives us a partial wall,” Nyxia says. “What do we do about the Renounced?”
Flauvis reveals his teeth in a chilling grin. “Let’s turn those vile iron weapons on them. If they want them so badly, let’s deliver them. We’ll bury them right in their hearts so we need not concern ourselves with them any longer.”
“No,” I say. “We’d have to sacrifice our own—”
The wolf king bursts into maniacal laughter. “Our own, the human queen says!”
Aspen takes a forbidding step toward the wolf. “Evelyn is fae. She has proven herself worthy to the All of All.”
“Ah, something not even you have done, little king.”
Aspen clenches his fists, tensing as if he might leap across the table, but again Nyxia stops them with a flash of her shadows. “Enough with the alpha ego measuring contest. We can see they are both large indeed.”
Aelfon snickers, but Aspen and Flauvis again stand down. I’m starting to think the wolf king lives for baiting others. He’s worse than Franco.
I steel my nerves and take my opportunity to finish what I was trying to say. “I’ve seen what it’s like when the fae are forced to use iron weapons. It’s cruel and we cannot stoop to that level.”
