Realization hits me like an arrow. I can’t speak.
No.
It can’t be.
“Hello, Mae,” Willa whispers, a smile on her face.
Chapter 37
“Willa?”
This cannot be happening.
“What the fuck did you do, Marik?” Asmo growls, now standing. His mother clings tightly to him, trying to hold him back.
“I won,” Marik says with a shrug.
“We don’t have time for this, Marik,” Willa says beside him. She’s a stranger to me. “Kill the girl and be done.”
“Oh, I think we can make a little time,” he says, a grin spreading across his face. “She needs to know the truth.” He takes a step toward me.
Asmo shoves his mother off him and jumps onto the stage. He comes to a stop when Marik holds a hand out, black flames dancing on his palm.
“Now, now, brother. I think you should listen to dear old mom and stay with the family,” Marik says chidingly.
“What did you do?” Asmo demands, his voice louder this time.
“I did what you were never willing to do. I secured the future that our family deserves, the future we never would have gotten with this joke of a court ruling. We can finally have the power and respect we deserve.”
Vasuki and Minerva make their way to Marik. He doesn’t hold a hand out to stop them. Willa nods at them as they stand beside her.
The Serpent House was involved in this.
“Come, Asmo,” Minerva says, her voice equally as commanding as his is. “It’s time to take what we deserve.”
He doesn’t move, still standing in between me and his family.
“You really want to stay with this spineless queen? She’s going to run this kingdom into the ground. The Deer Court has been ruining this kingdom for centuries. It’s time we take it and make itours,” Marik growls.
“Your plan is just to kill her, and then what? Kill everyone else who tries to stop you?” Asmo asks.
Marik shrugs, a calm expression on his face. “I won’t have to. Once she’s dead, the kingdom is mine. I’m High King now.”
Stall, stall, stall,is all I can think. I need to buy time for Luca to get more guards, get everyone out, and get as much backup here as he can.
I turn to Willa, my rage flaring brighter at the sight of her. “Why didn’t you just kill me years ago?” I ask, my voice strained from my checked fury.
“These things take time, dear,” she drawls.
“Whatthings?How long have you been planning this?”
“This was destiny, Mae,” she says, sounding exasperated. “It wasn’t personal. The prophecy states that you had to become High Queen to bring change to the kingdom.”
“What change? Why me? Why not someone else?”
She scoffs. “Haven’t you put it together yet? You’re Wrena’s true daughter.”
One day, Wrena’s true daughter will take the throne, seated beside a great stag. This will signify the beginning of a new era: one of great change.
