Swallowing, he raised his gaze to meet my fox’s. “I thought coming here, killing the Queen … I thought I could right my wrong.”
Astraea smirked. After all this, Kaius’s murderer had been hiding in plain sight, had been falling asleep in Evera’s arms, had been in my shadow and at my side. Had become my family.
No. If he did this, it was because he had no choice in the matter.
“Calix.” Evera’s voice was gentle, quiet. “Why?” A single word, yet it told me her thoughts had settled in the same place as my own. She’d asked the question I was unable to while in this form.
Calix sucked in a breath. “She told me it was the only way to save my friends.” His voice came out as a whimper, a plea for understanding. “She told me you were leaving, Neirin, and that the only way to keep you here was to have you imprisoned. If you left the capital, my friends would all go mad. They would kill each other in their rage. They would have to be confined. But in the end …” He cast his gaze down again, and a tear ran down the length of his nose and fell to the floor.
“This is true?” Harlan asked. “You gave the order for that boy to kill Father?” He took a step back, and when his mother turned on him, he moved back again, falling into the protection of the soldiers. It wasn’t a brave move, but it was the correct one. Harlan was not a fighter, not yet at least, and Astraea was acting unpredictably.
The Queen curled her lip and threw the dagger to the ground in her frustration. It skittered across the floor, metal clashing against stone. “You’ll be twice the King he ever was,” she reasoned, voice shifting in tone sporadically. “I’ve only ever wanted the world for you.”
“Not like this.” Harlan’s eyes watered, but he sucked in a breath, holding the tears back. His hands flexed into fists at his sides, and his nose scrunched. “Guards, arrest her,” he said, turning his eyes away and shielding his emotions from those in the room.
It was in that moment, as the soldiers moved on Astraea, that I detected the glow of light in her chest. It started small, then exploded into fragmented starlight, shooting out toward the soldiers advancing on her. Three men fell in an instant. A hum filled the air. Harlan covered his ears.
The castle guard, undeterred, grabbed the Queen’s arms, restraining her. She hung her head, laughing under her breath, and raised her eyes to my fox. Words were not needed to decipher the expression she bore. She would make one final effort to destroy me. As she’d taken the life of my father’s mate to control him, to bring an unfilled void to his life, she would do the same to me.
I would not be quick enough, even in this form, to reach Astraea. To cut off her life before her magic took everything from me.
The words from Evera’s book of lore came back to me.The ability to perceive magic and to manipulate it.
Gods, please let this work.
Searching within myself, I gave all my trust to the fox as the light within Astraea bloomed like the many tendrils of a ruined tapestry. Only my fox could save Evera now. I put my faith in him, in his magic, in his abilities.
Like a snake striking, one of the strands of light shot from Astraea in a sharp line toward Evera’s heart. Time stilled.
My fox’s growl reverberated through the room; Astraea’s light trickled down like icicles melting. The drops of starlight shattered on the floor like glass and dissipated. A breath filled my fox’s lungs, and then time moved forward at its own pace again. Everything happened at once.
Evera gasped. The soldier holding her back released her and joined the castle guard in restraining the Queen, his priority shifted, knowing Astraea was now the largest threat to the King.
Astraea screamed. It was not a sound of anger or even pain. It was the same cry I’d heard from her chambers so many times as a boy when she’d lost another of her unborn babes. It was a sound of complete and desolate devastation. Of loss.
Her light, her magic, remained confined within her chest, a spinning orb held under my fox’s control. Its blinding white,however, had dulled. It broke and rumbled like lightning in a stormy sky, the visible form of a life marked by hurt, desperation, and heartache. For a moment, I held her eyes as Evera’s words came back to me.A part of me believes that in her mind, she sees herself as helping those children. In a way, I suspect ‘helped’ in a similar manner when she was young.
With a howling moan, Astraea’s light dissolved, and she fell to her knees. The two men holding her arms stumbled as her body went limp and she hung her head. The only sound was the Queen’s choked sobs.
It was over. She couldn’t control me anymore. She held nothing over me, would hurt no one else. Yet as I took her in, broken of soul and mind, I was humbled by the bitterness of the victory.
The Queen mumbled incoherent words. The light within her flickered once more and died, finally, as she fainted.
In the next moment, Evera’s arms were wrapped around my fox’s neck. Her scent soothed him, calmed his ridged muscles, and brought me back from my trail of thoughts. Evera was safe, Calix was safe. With his muzzle resting on Evera’s shoulder, my fox caught Harlan’s eyes. He nodded once, and his throat bobbed. He did not look at where his mother lay on the floor, as if he could not bring himself to do so. A part of me hoped that somehow he could save her from herself.
Released from the immediate threats, my fox offered control back to me. I took it, even as the shift left me naked on the floor of the Queen’s chambers, holding my knees to my chest. Evera held to me, wetting my neck with her tears. In this form, her scent was less prevalent; I nuzzled into her hair to breathe her in deeper, to draw comfort from her.
Distantly, I was aware of Harlan instructing the remaining two living men to bring Astraea to the dungeon, to restrain her where no one would be near enough for her to harm them withher magic. Then, as an afterthought, he instructed one of the men to send for a healer. It was something I suspected he’d already attempted—finding a way to relieve her of her magic. The guard in me knew that a strong King would have the woman killed for her treason, executed in front of the people. But Harlan … he was still just a boy wearing a crown atop his head that did not fit, bearing the burdens of responsibility that were much too heavy for someone his age to carry alone. I pushed the thoughts aside. Harlan would rule in his own way, taking a path of empathy where Kaius had taken a strategic. Perhaps it was what this kingdom needed. My eyes fell to the Queen. Perhaps it was what she needed.
I would help Harlan, offer guidance in matters of the kingdom if he wanted it, if he could find it in his heart to trust me again. He would need to find a balance. I had faith that in time, he would. At least he knew now that I had played no part in Father’s death. Calix, I hoped, would receive forgiveness too. Regardless of what had happened, of what he’d done. He was a child, and he’d been manipulated, forced into a situation he’d felt he had no other option but to fall in line with.
“Calix,” I said, my voice sounding unused, raspy.
He stood back in the corner, eyes downcast, though he was no longer restrained.
“We all have unforgivable truths,” I told him, understanding the guilt and pain he bore. “I do not judge you for yours. You have a place in this family, should you still want it.”
EPILOGUE: NEIRIN
