“You have few tattoos,” the king observes. “Yet you are a stable boy?”
Silence.
“You may speak.”
“Y-yes, Your Magnificence,” Benji stammers. My heart splinters.
“Why do you have so little debt? Surely you inherited some. Go on, speak.”
“M-my brother.”
I cringe.
“Is he alive?”
“Yes, Your Magnificence.”
“Point to him. Yes—you must.”
More movement. Tears drip onto the marble.
“Blink,” the king commands.
I do. The exhale of breath around me, the tiniest relief. My vision clears, throat straining with a trapped scream at the horror before me. Jeremee was right.
The grout is pink.
“I want everyone’s attention!”
My head snaps up, as do the heads of everyone else in the room in unison.
The executioner stands before the king, a gloved hand on the nape of Jeremee’s and Benji’s necks. Two of the most powerful males of the realm holding on to my boys.
My family,my mind weeps.My family.
The king waves at the crowd. “Blink again. I want everyone to see.”
My cheeks dampen.
“You have so many debt rings, and yet your brother has so few?” the king says to Jeremee.
“I took on all of our parents’ save one, Your Magnificence.”
“Why?”
“I wanted to protect my brother.”
The royal’s face twitches. “You should’ve given him more. It would’ve taught him respect and courtesy for the fae.”
Jeremee and Benji don’t move. With my eyes still trained on the dais, I cannot find Kassandra or Briar or Glenn. No one is stepping in to help. No one can.
“Hector,” the king calls, and his advisor rises from his spot near the front. “What would my father have done?”
“Whipped them, and if they survived, sent them to the mines to work until death.”
“But I am not my father,” King Maxian says. “So I will be swift. The punishment will be dealt tonight, then no more.”
Something glints in the candlelight, movement like a snake uncoiling from the king’s side. Benji starts to sob.
