by K. F. Breene
“Is that real gold?” I scuffed the ground with my toe, not wanting to mess with the magic in case I screwed it up. This close to the elves’ home, they’d be sure to find out about it sooner rather than later, and it would be considered a serious offense. I didn’t want to add that to their list of grievances.
“Yes,” the woman to my right said, looking off into the distance at the spires of the castle. “They like to make a statement about the wealth of the Realm. They always have.”
I slowed and scuffed at the ground again. “Does anyone steal it?”
“Why would they need to? Everyone in the Realm is provided for,” she replied.
“Number one, that’s not true and never has been,” Emery said. “Number two, they most certainly do not steal it, no. The elves would hang you for that infraction. Or kill you in some other way, probably on display.”
“Stealing is a crime,” the woman said, and lifted her chin a little.
“Sure, if you get caught,” I muttered, watching my boots tread on the gleaming gold. “What a waste. I could make great use of one of those gold stones.”
“You have all the money you could possibly need,” Penny said.
“No, Darius has all the money she could possibly need,” Callie replied. “Reagan needs to get her own money.”
Dizzy scoffed. “I can’t see a blasted thing around all these bodies. But I’m sure you could take one or two and get away with it, Reagan. If you wait until there’s no one around, how would they know?”
“They’d do an inquiry, which is a very hostile way of asking questions until they find someone to blame it on,” Emery said.
“You’re familiar with how the elves do business, Emery?” Romulus called back.
“Very, which is why I am not overly enthused about heading to their castle. If I didn’t think this was the only way to clear my name, I wouldn’t go anywhere near this place.”
“Clear your name and help out a friend, I think you meant to say.” I glanced back at him with an eyebrow cocked.
“Are we friends?” A grin pulled at the corners of his lips. He watched the side, peering out between the press of bodies. “Penny seems to think you only tolerate me because of her.”
“Well, isn’t that a little self-centered, Penny?” I glanced at her this time. “You think my life revolves around you, do you?”
“It’s not like you have a friend factory you routinely visit,” she replied. “I doubt you’d give Emery the time of day if he didn’t hang around because of me. And he’d definitely keep you at an arm’s length. Admit it, I’m the reason you guys are in each other’s lives.”
“Wow. What a big head.” I clucked my tongue. “She seems so quiet and kind, and then she opens her mouth and everyone learns what she’s really about. Quite the ego.”
“You know it’s true,” she said. “Don’t try to make me the bad guy! I’m just being honest.”
“Honestly self-absorbed, yeah.” I shook my head, seeing a cluster of elves standing to one side of the path, watching us as we passed, carefully avoiding the flowers. I was tempted to unravel the magic then and there. “Very enlightening, Penny. Should we expect you to tell the elves that you taught me everything I know? That you hooked me up with Darius and found me a place to live? I mean, is there no end to the things you’ll take credit for?”
“You have been absolutely unreasonable since I accidentally barged in on you and Darius on the island. You really have, Reagan Somerset.” I could tell she was crossing her arms over her chest. “This is going to come back to you tenfold, just you wait. Stop laughing, Emery! This isn’t funny!”
My grin faltered as the castle came more fully into view. Unlike castles in the Brink, which were built for defense, this one did not have an outer wall, a drawbridge, or a moat. In fact, it looked more like an incredibly fancy hotel made to look like a castle, with a wide, gleaming path leading through an expanse of grass, with lines of flowers to a large arch with a red double door nestled inside. The spires on the roof were made out of gold, or at least covered in it, and windows dotted the front of the three-story structure, much larger than arrow slits. I didn’t sense any magic shielding the place from attackers. They were confident in their safety.
Several elves were outside, tending to grass or flowers, one chiseling part of a fountain, the water gurgling as it ran out of a fawn’s mouth and splashed into the basin below. None of them ignored us—they all stopped what they were doing and stared. Clearly they hadn’t gotten the memo that we were on the way. They weren’t important enough to hear the news.
How easy would it be to get them to rebel?
“They do their own landscaping, huh?” I asked, connecting eyes with one of the gardeners. The onlooker’s brows pinched together, its eyes rounding in surprise. I had a feeling it suspected who I was and why we were here. “They don’t hire out to other creatures?”
No one responded to me, and I wondered how many of the people in my vicinity had ever actually been to the castle.
A sinking feeling filled my gut as we drew ever closer. The insanity of what we were doing pressed down on me. I didn’t want to bet my everything on Karen and the Red Prophet.
“It’s probably wise if we nix this whole idea and just go into hiding,” I murmured as I drifted back between Penny and Emery, just in front of the older dual-mages. Halvor glanced back with a scowl. I waved him away. “You do you, bub. I played your game on the way here. Now I’m looking for a safer bet.” I lowered my voice and said out of the side of my mouth to Emery, “But seriously, probably better if we peel off now, run for it, and spend our lives in hiding.”
“I would never do that to Penny,” he said. “It’s no kind of life for a person like her. Or you. You remember that island—you were going stir-crazy. We all saw it. If Cahal hadn’t been there to train you—to challenge you—you would’ve swum out of there just to get a little action.”
“Don’t burst my bubble.” I felt my magic thrumming within me, responding to the mounting stress. More eyes found us as we approached the wide double door at the end of the path. Elves lurked by the walls, their hair as still as their bodies, watching us silently. They didn’t have weapons strapped to them, which wasn’t reassuring. They clearly thought they were weapons enough.
At the double door, one of the elves stepped forward, cloaked in a green tunic and purple breeches.
“Second, you have come to visit,” it said.
“I am now the First,” Romulus said, and I barely saw his bow through the thicket of people around us. “My mother is in good health, but she has decided she would prefer to stay within the Flush, governing the people there, than join the rest of us in resuming our duties.”
“Ah, I see,” the elf replied, and it didn’t seem like he really did. That, or he was relaying some subtle context that I wasn’t programed to pick up.
“Emery,” I whispered, and Halvor glanced back with a hard stare, no doubt to shut me up. Emery glanced over. “You’re going to have to start thinking things at me so I know what’s going on. I’ve gotten used to it, and now I’m flying blind. No one wants me to get bored.”
He nodded, and his thought message popped into my head. Can you hear me?
“Yeah. Good. What—” I zipped my lips as the elf continued.
“Your wing has been prepared, of course.” The elf fell silent as Roger made his way up the side of the procession with a confident swing of his shoulders and a commanding bearing. He was being professional. “Ah. And Roger Nevin. Yes, I had heard your two factions…connected once more.”
“Yes, it has been a remarkable pairing,” Romulus said, pretending the elf’s words didn’t drip with disdain. “Very effective.”
“Quite.” The elf paused, and no one rushed in to fill the gap with words. “Well. I’ll show you to your wing. Roger Nevin, your rooms are always available, as you know. My associate will show you the way. Romulus, you have some…guests with you, do you not?”
“Yes, a
s a matter of fact, we do. We will be presenting them, in person, to the king and queen. Rooms within our wing will be sufficient for them.”
“Yes, except for the fugitive, of course. He’ll need to come with us.”
Penny shoved me out of the way and slipped her hand into Emery’s. “They won’t take you. If they try, we’ll resist.”
If they take me, make sure she stays safe, Emery thought, and I opened up my brain to all the voices around me. Thankfully, the shifters had taught the fae how to shield their thoughts, and I didn’t have dozens of voices battering me. Don’t let her try to rescue me. If they kill me, look after her. She’ll feel like dying. Don’t let her.
“If you die, we all die,” I said with zero sentimentality. It was a fact. Penny would resist, I’d help her, and we’d either all live and walk out, or all die for our efforts.
But if we were going to die, I intended to take as much of this castle down with me as I could.
“I am quite appalled by the lack of communication within your establishment, I must say,” Romulus said. “On our way out of the Flush, we left one of your smartest foot soldiers alive explicitly so that he might tell you our position on young Westbrook. I really dislike repeating myself, and I have had to do it far too often with your faction. Once and for all, he merely played a trick. Hanging does not fit the crime, not by a long shot. Moreover, anyone that is to be executed must have a trial with a high-standing custode present. Given he has not had a trial, he will not be executed, per the laws set forth long ago. I have brought him here in good faith so that he might have that trial, and I will stand up at it and wager his punishment, as is proper. Until then, he will remain in my care.”
“I understand, First, it’s just that… Well, that’s not how we do things anymore. Since you and yours walked away and left your positions empty, we’ve had to come up with other means by which to police our lands. The sun has set on your usefulness, something your kind brought on themselves.”
He just laid out exactly where the custodes stand in the Realm, Emery thought. On permanent vacation. They aren’t even going to pretend to honor the original agreement.
Darius had anticipated that, but he also believed Romulus would try to force the issue. I was safer with the warrior fae than without them, so said the Seers, but I’d be safer still with a big host of them away from the elves, in a place we could defend against Lucifer.
I just hoped I didn’t get kidnapped before any of that could happen. We were entering the belly of the beast.
Twenty
“We have come in good faith,” Romulus said to the elf, who had not budged. “We will keep Mr. Westbrook to his room until you can see him.”
“I think I’ll just take him with me.”
“We both know that isn’t wise, just as we both know what happened to the war parties that tried to do exactly that. I assume that message was delivered?”
Despite myself, I felt a smile budding on my lips. Romulus was pretty bad-ass. Those manners really shone when he was issuing threats.
“You have a girl in your vicinity,” the elf went on. “We wish to question her.”
Romulus won that round, Emery thought, his shoulders and arms relaxing slightly. I won’t be killed today.
“Yes, so we do. And we will present her and the Second Arcana at the same time. Until then, she will also stay to her room. Have no fear—she cannot fly. She’ll be quite safe until the king and queen can fit her into their schedules.”
Silence met his words again.
This elf doesn’t have the authority to force the issue, nor does he want to lose his head for trying. It’s interesting they haven’t tried to charge the fae themselves with murder. I wonder if the king and queen will bring that up.
“Yes. Please, follow me,” the elf said.
And then we were moving, passing a stone-faced Roger. His dual-colored gaze caught mine for a moment, and I heard, Watch yourself, Reagan, before I was swept through the doors and out of his sight.
No Darius, and now no Roger. Another of my protections stripped away.
“When you give up the solitary life, it turns out to be no fun going back to the solitary life, especially when danger is mounting all around you,” I murmured.
Halvor dropped back beside me again, leaving Penny and Emery directly behind me.
“Why are we in formation when we won’t be fighting?” I asked him.
“You never know when you will, or will not, be fighting,” he replied, and regardless of Romulus’s hopeful outlook, it seemed Halvor was no dope. He expected the worst. He probably didn’t understand why we were here any more than I did. Except it was obvious the fae trusted their prophet, drug habit and all.
The wide, curving staircase took us up to the third floor, and no, I would not be flying out of the window at this height, but it surprised me that no one had suggested that I could hover my way down. Maybe they didn’t realize I had that talent. From what I’d been told, the other heirs of Lucifer hadn’t possessed the full range of his magic.
A red carpet cut down the middle of the wide hallway, chandeliers dotting the way, sparkling in the orange light from the windows. Large oil paintings hung on the cream walls, elves in battle dress, or picking grapes, or tending odd-looking animals I’d never seen while passing through the Realm.
“I see you have redecorated,” Romulus commented flatly.
This hall used to be full of paintings of the fae fighting beside or working with the elves, Emery thought, glancing first at the paintings, and then at the window across from us. This is quite the statement they are making.
“Not a good statement,” I murmured.
No.
“What?” Dizzy whispered, pushing through Emery and Penny to get closer. “What’s up? Is it just me, or is everyone tense? It’s making me nervous, Reagan. Thank God we came, huh?”
I didn’t know about that. I was certainly glad for more firepower—I was sure we all were—but I didn’t want them in danger, either. I hadn’t trekked through the Underworld to spare them just so I could force them into a similar situation down the line.
My heart thumped wildly as we reached a wide archway with a heavy wood door I would definitely try to kick in at some point. I had a feeling it would be a serious challenge. The elf stopped at the door, the procession stopping with him, and I was forced to do the same.
“If you need anything, just ring for assistance,” the elf said.
“Yes, of course,” Romulus replied.
We started up again, the fae pushing in tighter around me as we neared the entrance. Not many could fit at a time, however, and when I passed through, I got a good look at the tall, slender creature with the magically flowing white hair and hard, nearly black eyes. Its power pulsed, like needles prickling every inch of my body. Halvor hissed through his teeth, and my magic swelled, ready for action.
Do not respond, Emery thought, the words barely registering beneath the rush of magic.
“I will see you soon, Rogue Natural,” the elf said softly as Emery passed it by. “It will be a pleasure to watch you swing.”
In that moment, it took everything in me not to kill the elf on the spot. As I continued on, it wasn’t his stare that stayed with me, or the threatening pulse of his magic. It was the elf’s assurance that Emery would die, sooner or later.
I sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly.
It didn’t help.
“That will happen literally over my dead body,” I ground out, red tingeing my vision. “We’ll burn this place to the ground if they go after you, Emery, don’t you worry. We’ll leave a pile of rubble with all those nasty bastards trapped under the stones.”
“See?” Penny said to Emery. “Told you.”
The solid door closed behind us, and one of the fae slid the metal bar into place, securely locking them out. Halvor sighed, and it was the first time I’d seen him react to stress.
“Well.” Romulus looked over the finery around us, the gold
filigree on the trim, the solid and artistic woodworking, the plush rugs underfoot. “This is much, much worse than I thought.”
“The king and queen are going to charge you for something,” Emery told Romulus, looking out the window in the grand sitting room. Down the hall, several doors stood open, clearly leading to the bedrooms. “They’ll offer you the option to be punished, or to head home and stay out of their business. It’ll likely be an offer you can’t refuse. I’m not positive, but that’s my guess.”
“What sort of offer?” Romulus asked as the fae spread out, some heading down to the bedrooms, some peering out the windows as Emery was doing. They were getting their bearings in case of attack.
He pulled back from the window, his eyes shadowed. He was worried.
“I don’t know. I was never given one.” He smiled humorlessly. “I’ve just heard that’s their way of doing things. It won’t look good to the rest of the Realm if they kill you. Of course, they can’t let you police them either, even if they’re the ones who made the rules you’re trying to follow. It’ll look like you had to come out of retirement because of how bad things have gotten, which is true, and everyone will know it. They’ll want to pass it off like you came, you told them about Charity, delivered me and Reagan, and you left. Amicable. That’ll look best for them. They can use your attack on the foot soldiers as a reason to work you around.”
Romulus stood with his hands behind his back for a moment, staring out at nothing. “In our position, my mother would certainly leave. And I might have once been tempted, simply to save our people. But seeing the shifters carry out their duty has inspired me to do the same.”
“Your people do not wish to be saved, sir,” Halvor said, and bowed. “We wish to fight. It is what we were born to do. It is in our blood. In our heritage.”
“Yes, yes, I realize that.” Romulus stepped away from the window. “And we cannot just hand over two innocent lives. Because no matter how grievous they thought your offense, you merely played a practical joke, Emery. What an absurd overreaction. I cannot believe they are so up in arms about it. What a lack of humor this place currently possesses.”