Well now. This just won’t do.
Tranquility transfused the blood running through my veins as I whispered so very softly, “Mother, end anyone here who has knowledge of my daughter. Make it ugly, and leave Mamue for me.” My eyes followed the diviner’s back, making sure he didn’t escape. “And keep the troublesome water pixie for now. She’ll be needed.”
Mother’s shining translucent body instantly appeared in the air above the woodland sprites. They didn’t notice the wraith at first, too busy calling for the death sentence my daughter would be given for daring to have children of her own with someone not of her kind. Only when Mother turned dark and shadows bloomed and curled from her body, with a few of her dangerous tendrils swiftly leaking outside the room, did they look up.
It was the last thing they saw.
Terriblescreamsfilled the room.
I kept my attention on the diviner, smiling to myself when the bastard tried to run before the shadowed wisps overtook his body.
Fae after Fae dropped like so much rain falling, screaming out their agony, with black spider webs of veins pushing against the skin on their faces. I cracked my neck to the left and then to the right, watching while they tumbled and broke and sobbed.
I began walking toward the altar, leaving my silent and horrified companions behind. I stepped over bodies still squirming and convulsing on the ground. I used the head of one woodland sprite as a step up to the stage where Mamue had put on her production, so proud of herself and her findings.
I stared directly into her overlarge eyes that were no longer proud, no longer smiling at deaths she wanted. She stared at me as if I was the monster—and, right now, I was for her. I stopped walking to stand before her and ordered, “Hand over the key to the shackles.”
Her hands shook as she looked from me to the carnage behind me, her overlarge eyes dancing over her people dying before her eyes. “Please. Stop this madness.I’ll let them go if you stop.”
My head tilted as I looked over her terrified, pleading Fae features, and, eventually nodded. “I can agree to that.” I raised my shackled hands before me. “Get rid of the shackles first, Mamue, or there will be no mercy.”
Fumbling in her pockets for the key, Mamue pulled out a white skeleton key and hurriedly worked at my shackles as fast as she could, her trembling hands hindering her efforts—all while the Fae behind me continued to suffer and scream. The locking mechanism finally clicked, and she yanked the cuffs off me and tossed them aside, wiping sweat off her brow and pointing a shaking finger at her people. She wheezed, “Now call off the wraith, King Traevon.”
I rotated my wrists, the bones cracking and my skin warming. Lifting my right hand, I jerked the skeleton key from her hand and stated evenly, “I lied.”
She burst into flames as I released my royal firepower right at the woodland sprite. I stared into her eyes as she screamed in pain. “There was never going to be any mercy for you, Fae. You don’t deserve it.” With one last push I melted her down to ash, and then I turned away and looked up at my mother. “Finish it.”
Mother didn’t waste time. She ended their lives within a second. Blood oozed out of their eyes and their ears where they lay perfectly still and perfectly dead.
“While I release them, find the water pixie, Mother.” I jumped off the stage and jogged to my companions—where they hadn’t moved, three gazes utterly blank as they looked back at me. I cracked my neck again and helped my soul mate first, peeking up at her and gauging her true reaction through my Fae-spark. When I had her released, I murmured softly, “Will you be all right, love?”
She trained an army…
But this was something else.
Her nose crinkled as she looked down at the fallen dead. “This was your plan all along?”
“It was escalated by the diviner…but, yes, ultimately this was the plan that would protect all of us.” I leaned down and kissed her jaw—carefully whispering at her ear so no others could hear, “Don’t leave the cuffs behind. I want all of them.” With one more gentle kiss on her cheek, I released the gorgon king next and then the dragon king, watching as they tossed the cuffs to the ground—while I pocketed the key. “We’ll be able to leave here without fuss.”
Mother returned to the room with the water pixie, her translucent form back to light, but she was staring hard at the Fae.
“I would say so.” King Elon hissed in his throat.
King Ula glared hard into my eyes. “Allof them? Truly?”
“It was not as if I could pick and choose,” I muttered and turned away, marching toward the stage again. “If we can’t get these two awake, we’ll need to carry them. Come now, King Elon, King Ula. Let us get this done.”
The two kings followed behind me, while my lovely soul mate did her job behind their backs. When I jumped back up to the stage, I covertly shoved the cuff I had been wearing behind the altar. I flicked my fingers at the water pixie and demanded, “Get over here, pixie.” I stared brutally into the Fae’s little eyes when she flew and buzzed over their bodies. “I will make you a deal. If you wake them without harming them further, the wraith will leave you alone. Understand?”
A soft bell chimed in the air.
I blinked and asked, “King Ula, what did she say?”
“She said you can go fuck yourself.” The Dragon King snorted when more chimes escaped the pixie. “She…does not like you. The rest of the pixies are dead.”
Winking my right eye, the pixie burst into flame like a tiny ember in the sky. “I may have actually grown to like that pixie.” My emerald gaze dropped to where the shifter king and my daughter lay. “Does anyone have a clue how to wake them?”
Mother cleared her throat and griped snippily, “It was water that took them down. What in the Fae fuck do you think he needs to counteract it? Use your head, my son.” She sniffed down her nose at me. “And I told you to be careful of the pixies. Mayhap, you’ll listen to me this time.”
