Morris shoved me forward, and I stumbled but didn’t fall. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. Around us, the court watched with hungry eyes, nobles and mages and hangers-on who fed on cruelty like parasites.
“Do you know why you’re here?” the king asked, his voice echoing off the vaulted ceiling.
I stared at him through my lashes, memorizing his face. The weak chin hidden by a carefully groomed beard. The pale eyes that had never seen a moment of real hardship. The soft hands that had signed death warrants for thousands.
“No? Allow me to explain.” He leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “Tonight, you’re going to help me solve a little problem. Some rebels in the northern territories have been… resistant to my rule. They’ve hidden themselves away in caves and forests, thinking distance will protect them.”
My blood turned to ice.
“But you, my dear Wretch, are going to show them how wrong they are. Your magic will burn them out of their holes like smoke. Every man, woman, and child who dares defy their rightful king.”
The magic under my skin turned violent, pressing against the iron chains hard enough to make them smoke. Several courtiers stepped back, and I heard someone whisper a prayer.
“Oh yes,” the king said, noticing my reaction. “I know exactly what you are. A daughter of the Veil-touched line. The link to powers that once almost destroyed our world. Do you have any idea how long I’ve been searching for someone like you?”
Too long, apparently.
"The ritual chamber is prepared," he continued, settling back on his throne. "The targeting crystals are aligned. All you have to do is let that pretty magic of yours off its leash, and by dawn, the resistance will be nothing but memory and ash."
I closed my eyes and thought about children sleeping in hidden caves. About mothers holding their babies close, singing lullabies to keep the dark at bay. About fathers standing guard with weapons they'd never used, hoping against hope that tomorrow would be different.
They were going to die because of me. Because I was too weak to fight, too broken to escape, too afraid to let the magic loose in ways that might actually matter.
"Take her to the chamber," the king said. "We begin in three hours."
Morris grabbed my arm again, his grip tight enough to bruise. As we turned to leave, the King called out one last time.
"Oh, and Wretch? If you're thinking about being difficult..." He gestured to something behind his throne, and my heart stopped.
Four Fae children, not even ten years old, hung by their feet.
They hung from chains just like mine, their young faces bruised and swollen, clothes torn and bloody. The King had given me a choice. Kill the children you can’t see or save the ones you can.
After I witnessed my mother being burned at the stake, I spent a few years clawing for survival as a slave. When I was able to escape, I moved forward without looking back for months. My body gave in near a small village on the outskirts of the kingdom. I was discovered by Mira, someone I thought was my friend, and others. I thought I had found a new family.
I was both right and wrong. Mira had sold me out, and the others who had helped me were taken and executed. Becausethey brought me food when I was hiding in the forest outside their village. Because they showed kindness to a monster.
"They all die if you don't cooperate," the king said casually. "Slowly. Creatively. I have such talented people working for me these days."
One by one, their eyes met mine across the throne room, wide and terrified.
I wanted to scream. Wanted to tear the muzzle from my face and burn this whole place down around us. Wanted to unleash everything I'd kept locked away for seven years and watch it reduce the king and his court to nothing but shadow and smoke.
Instead, I nodded.
Because that's how monsters become what they are, trying to protect those around them.
Morris dragged me from the throne room, and the door slammed shut behind us with a sound like thunder. Or a coffin lid closing.
Three hours.
In three hours, they'd come for me, and I'd burn people I'd never met to save the four innocents that were right in front of me. I'd become everything my mother had died to prevent, everything the kingdom already believed I was.
I was going to become their weapon.
But as they dragged me back down into the dark, one thought kept echoing in my mind like a promise:
If I was going to be a monster, I'd be the kind that chose who deserved to burn.
