Fight for the Crown

by Emilie MacCauley

  “You look horrible,” Solana points out.

  “Thanks,” she rolls her eyes. Leave it to Solana to be brutally honest.

  “Is something wrong?” Pepper sits next to her while still dressed in her bejeweled costume.

  “You guys wouldn’t have happened to have seen Shadow at all today?” Lola asks.

  “No, we haven’t,” Pepper speaks for both her and Lottie.

  “He wasn’t at lunch or dinner—much like you two,” Solana points out.

  Rowan doesn’t have the heart to explain the situation to them. Instead, with permission, Lola tells them the entire story from Rowan and Shadow’s growing closeness. The kiss and how they spent the night in each other’s arms. The conversation Knot and Blade had with Rowan about Shadow not being the male she thought him to be. She also explains how Melani and Shadow are both missing.

  “Do you really think we can believe those two idiots?” Solana rolls her eyes talking about Knot and Blade.

  “I’m not sure, but what they’re saying sort of lines up. I mean Shadow has never really been forthcoming with anything. He disappears and doesn’t say where he’s going. He doesn’t disclose anything—I mean we don’t even know his real name,” Pepper notes. “No one else knew about Melani and if she wandered off on her own she would still be in the camp.”

  “Yeah, but they easily could’ve kidnapped her before talking to Roe,” Solana adds. “Or maybe she really did wander off and Shadow is out looking for her.”

  “There’s many possibilities,” Lola sighs, “but you can’t deny that it is strange. Shadow left her in the morning, Melani is missing, and both of them are nowhere to be found.”

  “She also was stuck in a dungeon all her life. Who would do that if she weren’t dangerous?” Pepper remarks.

  “Shadow said their father was doing it to keep her safe,” Rowan whispers while fidgeting.

  “So, keeping her in chains, locked in a deep underground tunnel was keeping her safe?” Pepper raises a brow. “I don’t believe it.”

  “Shadow can’t be a bad guy,” Lottie voices her opinion. “He is nice and he saved me! He brought me new clothes and gave me a home,” her eyes begin to well up with tears.

  Rowan walks over to hug her. “It was very nice of Shadow for doing what he did. The fact is Shadow and his sister are missing. The rest is just...speculation.”

  And if her speculating is false, she’d have gotten emotional over lies. She can feel her power rumble through her veins as her distress grows. Madame Tallulah warned her that she feels her emotions much stronger than the average fae. She thinks back to what her father wrote about thinking of a purpose, instead of what makes you upset. She realizes that she has been pushing her destiny away since she found out she is the Lost Heir. She denies her rightful place on the throne as though it is a joke. Her mind is not looking at the big picture, that this isn’t about ruling or power, it’s about unity and freedom for the oppressed low bloods.

  It’s righting the wrong for the low bloods who have been treated awfully by Shevka. Everyone at Cirvka is here because they have been forced to leave a community that has been terrorized by high bloods who want nothing to do with them.

  The low bloods have suffered and they have lost.

  Rowan shifts her worries from Shadow to a new goal. Her goal is helping her kind. She is the rightful queen and from this day forth she will be brave and nothing will get in her way. She is scared, but with her friends by her side she will never be alone and they will be the hands to help her up when she falls. She is fierce and she will live by her father’s advice; to rule with compassion. She will take back her father’s throne that was ripped away from him unjustly and that is a promise.

  “We’ll figure it out. Tomorrow’s a new day,” Lola says optimistically. “There’s no use upsetting ourselves yet. We all know Shadow is prone to disappearing.” She sits next to Rowan on the mattress wrapping her arms around her in support. “I believe we can forget our problems with a little wine,” she leans over and underneath the desk is an unopened bottle. “I almost forgot I had already stolen this from the dining tent three days ago.”

  “You know drinking is not a solution,” Pepper crosses her arms. “Not to mention we’re being bad influences,” her eyes dart to Lottie who still seems upset over Shadow.

  “Oh come on, Pep,” Lola hands the bottle to her. “It’s not like this is strong stuff, we’re not drinking ourselves into oblivion.”

  “You’re right, we’re just drinking until the name Shadow is no longer a name and just the blank outline of yourself that follows you around,” Rowan smiles taking the bottle away from Pepper and sipping until her screeching mind goes to a steady hum.

  * * *

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  The entire place is in disarray. A fight has broken out in Cirvka and there is no way to calm things down. Punches are thrown left and right, booths are being destroyed, items demolished, and glass everywhere.

  Rowan whirls around trying to find Lola, they were torn apart by a crowd. The ones who aren’t fighting are screaming and stampeding, kicking up dust from the dry dirt ground. Everyone is running for the exit, but it doesn’t seem like anyone is actually leaving.

  Rowan doesn’t know what started this and she doesn’t know whether her friends are okay or not. Little kids are crying, parents are yelling, and victims are sobbing hurt on the ground. Everyone is running pushing and shoving, bodies fall from getting hit and then run over. Rowan doesn’t know where she is, her mind can’t focus long enough to find something that looks familiar.

  The entire place is in ruin.

  Booths are dismantled. Both high and low bloods are knocked down. Tents are wrecked and torn. The damage is devastating. Rowan searches each and every face that passes her hoping to find either Lola, Solana, Pepper, or Lottie. Everyone is moving too fast and she can’t fight against the crowd to move through them. Someone hits her shoulder with theirs, she grabs it in pain feeling as though she dislocated it. Her worry soon turns into something she can’t control.

  Her hair singes and her hands light up with a blazing flame. They finally move out of her way clearing a path. Screams continue to erupt, they’re scared and they’re staring. A few halt to look with horror and realization in their eyes. The high bloods stand with a shocked expression, her flame makes them flinch.

  He has risen again. They shout.

  They look upon her, making the comparison of her to the king they overthrew. The king who was her father. Those who don’t run, call her a monster. The high bloods are looking at her like she is the one who started this mess.

  She doesn’t have time to acknowledge any of them, her only worry—her only mission—is to find her friends. Her flame is meant for her to get through the crowd, but she realizes she can’t fully control her powers. With her panicking and dwelling on the worst case scenario, her emotions are running high and that makes her flames unpredictable.

  “Roe!” Someone yells amongst the crowd.

  She twirls around in a circle scanning to see who is calling her name. Nothing.

  “Roe!” The cry comes again.

  Glancing over her shoulder she sees Lola running toward her waving her hands in a frenzy. Rowan’s flame is creating a cloud of black smoke high in the air, which leads Lola to find her. With a heavy sigh, her fire extinguishes and she wraps her arms around her friend. She winces because of her shoulder, but pushes that worry down when she hears Lola wince as well. She pulls back to see Lola clutching her ribs. Her face is covered with dirt from falling on the ground, and blood from a split lip and a few other minor cuts.

  “Are you okay?” She raises her voice to talk over the frantic crowd.

  Lola nods her head.

  “Can you run?”

  “Yeah,” Lola responds and Rowan snakes her arm around her waist, leading her away from the crowd.

  Toward the back of Cirvka, where the restricted section is, there is virtually no one. Rowan and Lola pause to
collect themselves before they head back into the commotion to find the rest of their friends. They fall to the ground tired, their bodies sore and heavy. Their ears are ringing from the sudden silence, but in the distance they can still hear the pandemonium. She wonders what had started all this.

  They had just finished lunch. Pepper left to get to her afternoon show and brought Lottie with her. Rowan met Lola at her booth briefly to go over a spell she wanted to perform, one that could possibly help her control her emotions better. Solana was heading to Madame Tallulah’s where Rowan would meet her after the quick meeting with Lola. And Lola was in the middle of a spell when they heard screaming.

  At first it sounded like nothing, a single scream. Guests scream all the time at Cirvka—mostly out of surprise and delight from the performances, but this had sounded frightened. Then there was a crash. Rowan grabbed Lola’s hand as they walked out of the booth. A large crowd started running by forcing them into the frenzy and separating them.

  Still, she doesn’t know what caused the chaos.

  The sound of clattering metal grabs their attention. Prince Arlo stands in his royal attire with a clad of amour and a couple of palace guards at his side. He doesn’t give a passing glance to them sitting on the ground on restricted property. He and the guards enter the mayhem, hands clutching the swords sheathed on their belts. Rowan and Lola follow them hoping to find their missing friends.

  The majority of guests have cleared out. All that’s left are low bloods picking up pieces of rubble that fell on other performers and some are tending to each other’s wounds. Everyone looks dazed, exhausted, and still in a state of shock. The damage isn’t as bad as she thought, but it’ll still take a day or two before Cirvka is up and running. Some of the booths just need a little rebuilding and the poles holding up tents need to be repositioned. There is debris all over the ground, a combination of food, flyers, and articles of clothing that have fallen off like hats and shoes. She thought the screaming was worse, but this silence is eerie as everyone mindlessly walks around trying to figure out what had happened and what to do next.

  They find Solana at her booth. There’s minimal damage but scattered on the ground are her vials; broken. This doesn’t seem like an accident, someone had ransacked her booth on purpose. Amidst the crazy, was unnecessary destruction and vandalism. Solana stares long and hard while Rowan and Lola comfort her as best as they can.

  “Did you find Pepper and Lottie?” She asks. Solana isn’t one to display her emotions. As upset as Rowan knew this made her, she wouldn’t display it.

  “No, we haven’t seen them yet,” Lola bites nervously at her nails. “Maybe they’re still in the performance tent.”

  Solana shakes her head. “That’s where it all began.”

  The three of them venture off to see if they can find them anywhere. They check back at their tent, Lola’s booth, but it isn’t until they check the dining tent—where all the wounded are being treated—that they find Pepper.

  Pepper is sitting at their usual table looking pale and thoroughly beat up. Her costume is ripped in many places and her hair which is always so neat is out of place. She has a black eye, broken claws, and too many cuts to count. What shocks them the most is half of Pepper’s left horn on her temple is cut off leaving a stump.

  When she looks up her eyes are bloodshot and her entire body is shaking violently. Lola reaches for her but she flinches, shaking her head. She’s in too much pain to be touched anywhere. “Where’s Lottie?” Her voice is scratchy.

  “We don’t know,” Lola frowns. “We were hoping she was with you.”

  Pepper tries to shake her head but winces, “I don’t even know what happened. I was going to perform after the fighters but they never finished. When I looked, the crowd was out of their seats and everyone was in the pit with the fighters. It was like a brawl. There was so much going on. So much screaming, half were running scared and others were joining in attacking low bloods. I lost Lottie when they came for us. I told her to run while someone held me down and cut off my horn,” a tear falls in her lap.

  “We’ll find her. She’s got to be somewhere,” Rowan looks around the dining tent. She doesn’t know if she believes her own words. Lottie is Shevka, it’s entirely possible that one of the guests saw her alone and helped her exit Cirvka thinking she was separated from her parents.

  “She’s going to be scared,” Pepper stands and her knees buckle underneath her. She falls to the floor. They rush to help her up, she’s breathing heavily and whimpering in pain.

  “We will find her. You need to be treated by a healer,” Lola says concerned. “Once we have her, we’ll bring her here. Okay?”

  Pepper is quiet for a moment. “I don’t want to scare her. I’m not in good shape right now and she’ll worry. Have someone tell me she’s safe, that’s all that matters.”

  Solana decides to stay with Pepper while Rowan and Lola check every tent, every booth, and along the premier of the gate to find Lottie. They enter the main performance tent and that’s when it hits both of them that whatever happened was more serious than they thought. There is blood on the ground next to abandoned weapons.

  The tent is nearly destroyed. There’s rips in the material of the tent letting in a draft. “This place looks creepy,” Lola mutters and it echoes.

  Rowan can’t agree more.

  There is a tunnel where the performers walk through to enter the main arena. Down the tunnel and through the flap is a smaller tent that is connected to the main performerence tent. It is where the performers change into costumes, do their makeup, and get ready before showtime. It’s where Rowan waited before her fight with Knot.

  As they get closer the smell is horrible. There is a puddle of blood followed by a trail leading towards the tent flap. Rowan’s hands are shaking scared to find what is on the other side. With a deep breath, she quickly pulls back the flap.

  It’s dark.

  She snaps her fingers illuminating the room. Lola plugs her nose as the smell gets worse. Then, a gasp, Rowan turns to see Lola standing over the source of the smell. It’s the same source from which the blood is coming from.

  Lottie.

  Her lifeless eyes are open, blood is pooling out of both of her ears. You can see the network of her veins all over her pale skin, but the most distressing thing about it is they are not blue like they should be—they are dark black.

  Lola cries while Rowan has to look away. This wasn’t done by the Shevka. She lights her flame brighter as she checks the entire room until she finds something she hopes is just a hallucination.

  Can it really be a delusion?

  Can her eyes deceive her?

  In the corner is Shadow with blood on his hands, his eyes are a dark void as he stares over Lottie’s body and then slowly meets Rowan’s horrified gaze. His shadows are radiating off his body like smoke.

  She takes a staggering step back, horrified. “You did this.”

  He clenches his fists. Before Rowan can order Lola to run, the tent flap opens and in charges Prince Arlo and two royal guards. They glance over at Lottie before taking their swords out and stepping toward Shadow. Arlo pokes the tip of his sword at Shadow’s throat. His eyes slowly return to normal, his expression angry as he holds up his hands in surrender. She notices deep cuts on his arms and face, his outfit is soaked in blood and his posture is weak as if he’s exhausted from fighting and fending off attackers.

  She wonders if he’s the reason for all this or if his sister caused this havoc.

  “Guards,” Arlo barks. “Tie him up and throw him in the castle’s dungeon. He will be tried for the kidnapping and murder of this Shevka girl.”

  Rowan wants Shadow to say something, but he doesn’t. He doesn’t deny his involvement nor does he protest his innocence. She doesn’t think she could loathe him more. Any sadness turns to hatred. Knot and Blade were right, they were right about everything they told her yesterday. Frustrated, she wants to scream and cry and curse the gods above. She reac
hes out for something, someone, feeling light headed.

  But he loved Lottie. It is impossible for her to wrap her head around how he could do something so heinous. She thought he loved her, too though. The betrayal stings but the thought of Lottie gone makes her stomach feel hollow. Her heart feels as though it’s been twisted and torn in half.

  Shadow is taken away leaving her and Lola in shock standing over Lottie’s small, dead body. Lola starts to cry. Her voice breaks as she says, “I didn’t want it to be true. I thought maybe it was Shadow just being Shadow and disappeared for a day. He-he did this. They were right...we didn’t know him at all.”

  “If he did this,” she stares at Lottie’s blackened veins, “What else is he capable of? And his sister, too?”

  “What can they do together?” Lola gulps.

  “How are we going to tell Pepper?” she whispers.

  Out of all of them, Pepper cared the most for Lottie. They went everywhere together. The Shevka girl looked up to the half-hybrid like the mother she never had. Pepper naturally took on the responsibility of caring for her and keeping her happy and safe.

  She’ll think she failed Lottie, but this wasn’t her fault. If it was anyone’s fault, Rowan blames herself. She took the key from The Overseer and naively let Melani out and unleashed the havoc that happened today.

  “What should we do with her body?” Lola wipes her tears. “We can’t just leave her here.”

  She nods. “We should bury her, but first, we should tell Pepper. We will bury her together.”

  They find a blanket on one of the couches and place it over her body. It seems like the respectable thing to do so no one stares. They take their time walking to the dining tent dreading the inevitable. Lola avoids eye contact when they enter through the flap but Rowan catches Pepper who struggles to stand from the table. Her eyes worried but filled with hope. Rowan presses her mouth together and closes her eyes taking a deep breath.