Page 47

Frowning, she tucked a piece of hair behind my ear. “Technically, they hadn’t broken any laws.”

“No, but they were cruel. They reveled in others’ pain. We should’ve seen the signs and stopped them before Lux made the elixir.”

“The damage is done, mi lim. I guess I’m glad the blood isn’t on my hands, but that’s history now.”

“It would save us the trouble now if we’d done it then.”

Véa held my gaze for a few heartbeats, still frowning. “Is that what you think we should do?”

“You don’t?”

She grew quiet again. Then she nodded to the table before the window. “Let’s not have this conversation over the babies’ heads. They’ll have nightmares about us murdering them.”

Almost. Ialmostlaughed.

Carefully stepping from the bed, tucking the children in once we stood, we sat at that little table, bringing our chair so close together we may as well have shared the same one.

She took my hand and laced our fingers together. Thumbing my chin, she said, “I can understand it.”

“You can understand them killing Hana, Pa, and Venark?”

“I can understand acting in self-defense, and in defense of those they love.”

“That isn’t what happened. None of us had threatened them. We—”

“Yours, Venark’s, and Hana’s presencearethreats,” she whispered. “I… I’m at the point where it hasn’t settled in yet, and all I see right now is the rationality. Iseewhy they did it.”

“You feel they deserve no punishment?”

“I feel they deserve centuries of imprisonment. All of them. Not only the ones who were holding the blades,” she said. “But do we truly believe killing them is best?”

I scoffed.

Of course she didn’t think it was best.

That wasn’t Véa’s way. It wasn’t the way of the Fae. As a fiery, angry people, they understood tempers. They understood emotion and the vitriol response of them. Death penalties were almost never utilized by the Fae aside from in times of war.

I was half Angel, from Matriaza, where we killed as often as we pissed. Corporal punishment was practically bred into us.

I blamed it on the cold environment. Made us bitter.

“They won’t let us take them alive, Véa,” I said.

“Then we’ll kill them to defend ourselves,” she said. “But you’re looking at a very small picture, Nix.”

“And what picture is that?”

“One of rage and heartache.” She tucked a piece of hair behind my ear, voice smoother than velvet. “But I’m seeing the aftermath.”

“What aftermath is that?”

“The rest of them.” She looked out the window into the city, sighing deeply. “Lux has far more Angels in Matriax than I’d like. You know as well as I do how vicious your people are. We have twenty-two par animarum, Mum, and Dem. The humans love us, but they’re no threat to Angels. The bransgs aren’t either.

“We have to punish Lux for what he’s done. We have to punish the boys. But before, we had Matriaza’s and Morduaine’s army at our disposal. If we’d encountered a matter like this a year ago, or even a month ago, we’d be able to bring enough reinforcements in that the Angels would surrender. They’d assign someone to take Lux’s and the boys’ place in their absence. Rafael, more than likely. But once Michael and the others get them worked up, telling them we plan to kill him, all the others,andLux? We’ll be fucked, Nix. If they haven’t already spread the word, they will soon.

“Clearly, no one takes Lux seriously. Otherwise, the boys would’ve stopped when he said to. He and Rafael wouldn’t be chasing after them trying to return Hana and Venark to us.”

A long moment of silence stretched on.