I raised my arm just as Carmen yelled for the king to turn around. I brought my fist down with such force into the king’s back that the stake pierced his heart and he was thrown forward, onto the mat just beside Luka.
The crowd took a collective gasp and Luka sat up, looking at me in surprise.
‘I had that,’ he tried to assure me.
‘Mmm hmm,’I replied.
I glanced at the king, whose skin was starting to shrink and turn to ash. But before it did, I caught a good look at his face. He was … smiling.
“You set me … free,” he whispered and then turned to ash.
What. The. Hell?
‘He was crazy,’Luka told me.
Tink had killed the vampire who’d tried to attack me, and now came to stand at my side, as if waiting for direction from me.
“She killed the king!” someone yelled, and the crowd started to press forward.
I gulped and Luka stood, stepping in front of me and Tink.
“My name is King Luka Drake!” he bellowed, and the crowd fell silent. “I rule the vampires in the magical enclave in Idaho. King Constantine was mad. We were invited tonight as his guests, but he just wanted to steal my wife. I’m sorry we’ve caused trouble here, but this was self-defense.”
The crowd didn’t say a word, they didn’t move. They seemed in shock.
One old fey stepped forward, her pointy ears sticking out of the top of her hair. “He’s been king for over five hundred years. What do we do without him?”
Five hundred years!
Luka pointed to the cage of trolls and werewolves. “For starters, you can cut off their collars. All supernaturals should be treated equally. Then you can vote and have a quorum led by one representative from each race. Live in harmony.”
Without waiting for a response, Tink shifted to his naked human form and stepped forward, ripping the fey blade out of Carmen’s hand. He then started to cut the collars off of all of the slaves in the holding area.
A murmur rose up behind us as the people realized that this would change the entire way their world worked.
By the time they had even given the idea much thought, the trolls and werewolves were all free, and now stood behind us, almost challenging the crowd to disagree.
An older fey woman nodded. “Everyone go home. We will meet here again tomorrow and vote on the next steps.”
Tink stepped forward. Thankfully he’d found some pants. “And the werewolves and trolls will be a part of this vote, right?” His tone was laced with threat.
The fey woman’s nostrils flared but she nodded. “Moving forward, I think it’s best everyone is involved in the decisions we make for Night City.Equally.”
She looked at Luka and I.
Luka grasped my hand. “We are happy to serve as … consultants … as you build your new world. Give you information on how things work peacefully in our world.”
The fey woman nodded. “We will be in touch, then.”
Luka pulled my hand.‘Let’s go before this unravels.They are still in shock, but it will wear off soon.’
I looked back at our driver. He was grinning ear to ear.
He was going to be okay … they all were. Even Milika. It was the best case scenario. Somehow, in all this mess, we’d gotten a good outcome.
“But she killed the king!” someone shouted as we made our way for the exit.
‘Maz is trying to stop Ruby and the breeders from escaping,’Luka told me.
