Grabbing a healing crystal off the stall beside me, I throw it at a Vylian’s face. He stumbles back with a cry as his nose breaks.The man he was kicking on the ground stumbles to his feet, then tries to tackle him.
He misses –probably suffering from a concussion– then trips and falls onto his face. With hate in his green eyes, the Vylian charges at me. I step inside the range of his punch and kick him in his balls. His arm forgets to swing for me as he cups his groin and groans. As he writhes on the ground, the Razian he was kicking finds his feet again. He takes one step before he gets hit in the face by Raychel’s dragon dick.
Dropping into a crouch, Megan slams her fists into the ground. A dark-blue, curving line shoots across the space in front of her. It circles my Royal Guard and the six Vylians we’re protecting. Rising, she nods as she looks at me. If anyone tries to cross it, they’ll be knocked unconscious.
“What are you doing?” a Razian shouts, her face flushed red, her green eyes heated. “The Vylians are the ones who bombed us!”
“He killed my child!” A man lifts a broken table leg, but three others pull him back, knowing that if he takes a step towards me with a weapon, he will be executed for treason.
Not wanting to be forced to take even more lives –I’ll have to take too damn many after today– I lie, “They were the targets.”
“No, they –”
“I was briefed on the threat this morning by FI-9.” Even the people who hate me respect the neutrality of the Fairy Intelligence. They know they can trust the information that comes from them; FI-9 has charged royalty with crimes before, and it’s no secret that Evangeline Sinclair, the head of it, loves nothing more than taking down corrupt nobles. FI-9’s responsibility isn’t to the crown or the Court. It’s to Raza’s people.
“And you didn’twarnus?” His voice breaks as the table leg slips from his hand. Sagging against the people holding him, hecries. Thick tears roll down his cheeks. “I brought my children here! Sias – I told him he had nothing to worry about! That we… That the Vylians… Peace…” He shakes his head wildly. “I was supposed to show him peace!”He rips his arm free from the woman holding it, then slugs the person trapping his other arm. He starts to twist free when a person tackles him from the back. Their arms wrap around his waist and lift. His feet kick the air as he screams.
“Apologies, Your Majesty,” the man holding him begs, his voice muffled by his exertion and his friend’s cries. “He is not thinking straight.”
“It is unnecessary,” I say as three others grab the grieving father and spread their wings. Taking to the air, the four of them carry him between them as he kicks and screams.
I watch them fly away from the trunk of the tree, down the branch towards the suburbs of Prisin District. Making a note to figure out who he is, to put him on a list to watch, I turn my gaze to the rest of the people standing before me in silence.
“I swear to you that I will use every resource needed to find out who was responsible for the bombs that went off here today.” My vow soothes the agitation flowing through the crowd. A fairy’s promise is magically binding. I’ll either see it completed, or I will be horribly cursed by the gods.
A woman steps forwards, her eyes darting around my guards warily. “Will you let us take our fist’s share?”
It’s one of Raza’s oldest laws, brought into existence by Queen Raza, our first queen. The victims of a serious crime have the right to carve one fist-sized chunk out of the one who wronged them. If that victim is no longer alive, their emotionally closest relative or friend can take a chunk in their place. They use a clawed device called a justifier.
Holding her eye, I nod. “The closest friends and family to those killed today will be allowed to take their fist’s share on everyone who is charged for the attack.”
“I lost three months of wares,” she spits. “I should –”
“Death victims only.”
Her jaw clenches, but she doesn’t say another word.
“If you’ve suffered any material losses from this attack,” I say, addressing the entire crowd again, “report them to the Royal Treasury, and they’ll pay you double what you would have made.” Turning before anyone can voice any other complaints, I look at the Vylians.
The one I kicked in the balls is now sitting up, though pain still lingers in his eyes. The others are battered and bruised but only one looks to be in critical health. Blood is pouring out of his skull, and his eyes are closed. “Go find a healer,” I tell Megan. She’s a battle witch and cannot do it herself.
Turning to Raychel, I say, “Find Saragese.”
She nods. As soon as Megan ends her magic circle of protection, Raychel spreads her wings and launches into the air. As she takes off away from us, I pray Saragese can be healed, but death comes all too quickly and suddenly in our world. She was on her knees when I last saw her, holding her intestines inside while she looked up at her assailant. A knife slashed across her throat just as I rose into the air with my queen.
Arienna will be devastated.
Although she’s only known Saragese for a few days and brownies do not mourn the dead, I know her heart is too big not to grieve. She might have hidden it under laughter and smiles back in Brownston, but I’ve seen her mask start to splinter and crack.
Her choked laughter ringing in my ears, I sweep my gaze across the wreckage in front of me. Across the hateful stares of my people. This world will break her piece by piece. How longwill it be until I see her in that crowd? Looking back at me, accusing me as much as they are?
I took her from the safety of her world. Brownston might be a cult, and she might not have ever truly belonged there, but she was safe. She did not know the horrors of war, of revenge. Not until she met me.
My chest tight, I turn towards the trunk of the tree. My eyes lift to Aurelia’s Library, carved into it above the castle. Her sanctuary has been the only salve on my wounds for the past twenty-one years. But now it feels like a curse. A prophecy of the past coming back to haunt the present.
Aurelia, a fairy born into this fucked-up world, wasn’t able to cope with the monstrosities of our people. She took her own life through my hands. How long will it be before Arienna does the same?
After today? After being told about Saragese’s death?
