After this day, our life would change. I could feel it in my bones. In my ripped heart. In my terrified soul. Nothing like this would ever happen again.
My family would be protected.
No matter the cost, they would be safe.
But for this fight, I took off my crown and dropped it at my feet. Today, I wasn’t the king. The king would kill swiftly. The king would be merciful. I was none of those today.
I rolled my shoulders and stepped toward my vengeance.
“Do you not have one inkling what you speak of?” My mother shook her braided evergreen hair before her open palm slammed against my left cheek, whipping my head to the side.“If this information gets out, it will ruin your father! Ruin our king!”
Spitting blood onto the desert sand, I hissed, “Mayhap it is time for a change, Mother. He is stealing from other kingdoms. And not a little. It is much.” I pointed at the hand-written ledger she held in her less dominant hand. “Look at it! If the other rulers find out about this, they’ll hurt our kingdom for years to come. We may never recover from this.”
“Then don’t fucking tell them,” she snarled softly and leaned forward to stare directly into my eyes. “There is no change, my son. Whatever you are thinking, get it out of your head. This is not the day you grow a backbone.”
“Mother,” I pleaded. “You don’t understand. This is beyond horrible. We couldn't repay the amount he stole within two hundred years. Maybe more. This needs to stop. They’ll go to battle for this, with blood the only outcome. Our people will be slaughtered. Do you understand that?”
“And your father’s dirty deeds will one day be yours. Remember that well while you’re in the ice box.”
“What?” I took a quick step back and shook my head frantically. “I’m being serious, Mother. Truly. I feel strongly about this.”
“And I am serious too.” She fisted my shamrock green braids and started yanking and dragging me through the sand to the cook’s chamber at the back of our castle, nearly pulling out my hair. “You will reflect on your current foolishness. For a full week.”
“No,” I shouted and finally began struggling, my shock wearing off. “You can’t do that! It could kill me.”
“Do not fret, my son. I’ll throw some bread down if you don’t scream like a fool and embarrass me again.” She kicked open the door and shoved me inside, sending me flying to my knees. “Do not ever talk about change. It’s treason, my son. Use your Fae fucking head for once.”
My chest heaved as I stared down at the frozen ground. I whispered one word…just one, “Mother.”
She sighed heavily and stopped closing the door, glaring at me on the frosty ground. “What?”
I peeked up and stared directly into her eyes. “I’m not sorry.” As I held her gaze captive, my braids snapped into snakes high in the air. “I promise you, I’m not sorry, and I’ll never think of you again.”
Mother opened her mouth and screamed in agony. Little by little, her face edged into stone from the outside in, finally meeting in the middle, cutting off her shout and traveling down her body. I held her rock eyes until it was done. The snakes that were a part of me calmed as the process completed, going back to sleep and turning into braids once more.
Grabbing a square-ended meat clever from the shelf in front of me, I shoved up to my knees and walked through the cold air back into the heat of the desert sun.
Shoving the door closed, I cocked my head and looked into her eyes again, stating simply, “I always use my head. I use it correctly, unlike you or your soul mate.” I lifted the cleaver into the air, eyed it carefully, and then swung it hard with two hands, knocking her head off with one shot. It flew through the air as her stone body fell backward. I watched her head fall and slap into the sand. “It’s time for a new king. If Father cannot protect our kingdom, I will.”
One hot tear escaped as I turned and walked through the sand, holding the meat cleaver down by my side and heading straight for my father.
“They say you were born here,” Marlon whispered and looked into my golden eyes.The cobblestone streets of Jarisbur were rutted in places, making standing straight quite the problem right now. “Do you believe it’s true?”
Swaying side to side, I laughed throatily and stared at the elven tree. “Traevon says I look like one all the time—it’s the hair—but I doubt I was literally born from a tree. That doesn’t even make sense.”
“Shh.” He pressed his pointed finger to my lips and then drunkenly leaned away, wobbling back and forth on his feet. He placed that finger to his mouth and mumbled against his digit, “We have to be quiet, don’t you know? It’s late.”
I snagged the bottle of sweet shifter wine back out of his hand and chugged down three mouthfuls. Wiping my lips with the back of my hand, I grumpily said, “I never have fun anymore. I’m in Jarisbur! I should go out and party the night away. Not work on business that tears my heart out.”
Marlon threw his head of silver braids back and chuckled in hiccups while he stared at the stars above. “Many elves wish they were you.”
Mayhap…but…
“She died in my arms, Marlon,” I breathed shakily and took another long drink. “Do you know how long I’ve known her? Since she was a little girl, just like my little girl. I helped raise her here. I gave her a roof over her head. I gave her a purpose like I try to do will all these mouthy fuckers. But…she died.”
“That wasn’t your fault.” Marlon waved his finger wildly into the air, trying to aim it at me. “You know it wasn’t.”
“She died,” I said again—because he didn’t understand. She wasdifferentthan the rest. She was just on the cusp of happiness. I’d almost gotten her there. A few timid smiles were thrown my way when she felt she was accomplishing something meaningful. Almost…there…and gone. She never got to feel that genuine warmth. It had been right at the tip of her fingers before her life was taken away, before she could tell me to go fuck myself and lead a life of her own, as the rest eventually do, as I wanted them to. Build them up…and let them fly like a pretty Fae-gift, strong and happy and soaring high, high, high. I sniffed hard and glanced back to that tree filled with blue apples that were ready to pick and eat and savor. “If I was born from this tree, then I want her reborn from this same tree.”
