Page 13 of A Fate of Ice and Lies (Fated #1)

At his words, bile rose that I gagged on with Nalari’s magic blocking my throat. She released her hold enough to let me vomit, but no matter how much I expelled from my stomach, that sinking feeling of failing Teddy settled heavily in my gut.

“We have to do something,” I pleaded to Nalari.

Because I couldn’t let our burdens go through the veil. None of the humans were equipped to deal with our creatures. As it was, we were barely capable of arming ourselves against them.

Nalari peered down at me with pity in her golden eyes but remained quiet.

If Nalari wouldn’t help me, I’d do it on my own. I let go of all restraints, allowing my primal instincts to edge closer to the surface. It no longer mattered if I went mad with power since I was already half mad with grief.

“Elias,” Nalari sighed, her voice deep with anguish. “Let us hear what the Elder has to say and know I will help you however I can. But if you continue to summon your instincts, the Elder will kill you before you can do anything of worth. What will become of your mate then?”

Mind swimming, I weighed Nalari’s words as I pulled back my instincts. While my Guardian and I rarely agreed on things, I trusted her.

The Elder eyed me with malice, which I ignored. What he thought of me meant little as long as I could still be of value to Teddy.

Knowing Nalari was right, I bowed my head and tucked my more brutal side away, where I could think more clearly rather than letting my emotions control me.

“ Hudson,” the Elder said, “ speak on behalf of your family, but do not waste any more of my time on stupid pleas.”

Alarmed, I shifted my attention to my uncle but felt the weight of Nalari’s magic pushing my head down.

“Why would—” I started before Nalari interrupted.

“Shut up.” Her sharp tone was demanding. Gone was the patient, caring dragon of mere seconds ago.

“My father speaks for our family,” I argued.

“Fine, keep talking and get yourself and your family killed,” she said, patronizing me as if I were an ignorant child. “I’m growing tired of fighting your immaturity.”

“Elder Guardian,” Uncle Hudson began again, “as your loyal servant, I apologize for our disrespect.”

“You’re wasting my time.” A sense of revulsion crept through the joined connection .

The magnitude of it grew. It surprised me that whoever’s emotion I was feeling didn’t try to hide or mask it. Nausea rolled as the feeling strengthened.

“I’m disgusted by you right now,” Nalari seethed, still keeping my thoughts boxed in so only she could hear me.

“It’s not your disgust I’m feeling, though, is it?” I countered.

“Keep your head down and mouth shut, Elias,” she growled.

Maybe she was right in the way she was treating me. Maybe I was acting like a petulant child, but I knew it wasn’t Nalari who was disgusted. She was more annoyed than anything. Annoyed with me and annoyed with her fear for my safety.

“Although deserved, death would be a mercy to the young prince,” Uncle Hudson continued. “His human mate rejected him, and I’ve erased her memory, per his highness’s request.”

I held back a snort. Not once in my 127 years had my uncle ever called me by my title or done anything I requested because of that title. But he knew how to play the game and strategize to win. I couldn’t fault him for that. And if I survived this, I’d have him and Nalari to thank for it.

“If you send him back to the human realm, back to the female to live a life where the female does not recognize him as his mate, that, Elder Guardian, will be a far greater punishment than mere death,” Uncle Hudson said.

The Elder hummed in what I thought was contemplation.

Time stretched with nothing but the sound of snow falling. It did little to cool my heated skin.

“Strip him of his magic,” Uncle Hudson added roughly.

Strip me of my magic?

My uncle eyed me, a sad smile on his weathered face. “Make him helpless in helping the female through the chaos he caused. ”

Defeated, my posture deflated.

Helpless to help her? How could I live with myself? But I suppose that was the point.

“Elias of Thierry, only son of the reigning king and queen and heir to the Niev throne.” The Elder stood before me.

I looked up and up and up until I reached his black and gray head. Reptilian yellow eyes stared down at me, and saliva dripped from his open mouth.

“You are stripped of your title as heir to the crown...”

My chest heaved, but it was the glimpse of my mother’s anguish that I fought to ignore.

“.. . and sentenced to live in exile in the human realm with your companions,” he snarled.

“ Commander Hudson will lead an army of his choosing in teaching the humans how to survive their new reality and fight against any of our darker creatures that make their way to the human realm. You, Elias, will oversee the female’s region.

You will live out your sentence dictating her and her people, enforcing our rules and punishing any who step out of line.

She will never come to see you as more than the fae who lords over her.

While I will relieve your friends of most of their magic, yours will remain intact.

Where others will suffer, you will not. That is your punishment.

” He paused. “And should our creatures cross into the human realm, know their demise was your selfish doing.”

Heat rose over my throat and face as I balked at his words.

I couldn’t let my friends suffer. Couldn’t let Teddy or her people suffer.

While I’d hoped I still had a couple of hundred years before I ruled, if I had to lead Teddy’s region, I would do everything in my power to ensure she didn’t suffer.

My friends, though. . . A fae without magic was unfathomable. It was an emptying of one’s soul. A silent torment that few were strong enough to carry. Worse even than my fate as a rejected mate .

“Elder Guardian,” I protested, bowing my head at the giant beast.

Smoke fumed from his nostrils. “Your refusal is not up for consideration.”

Heat flickered in my veins, and a part of me yearned to let my primal instincts take over and lay waste to this Elder Guardian.

“Worry not,” the Elder continued. “I will leave them with enough magic to keep them alive.”

“Control yourself,” Nalari warned, “and remember who you’re speaking to.”

Like I could forget after his show of strength with his black magic.

My nostrils flared, but I made sure to keep the anger from my voice. “My friends, without their magic?—”

“We accept our punishment,” George said, interrupting me.

The Elder’s slitted eyes turned toward my friends, who fell to their knees and bowed so that their foreheads rested on the cold ground.

“I don’t require your acceptance,” the Elder snarled, baring his teeth .

“I will go with him,” Nalari said before I could say anything further.

My brave, faithful Guardian. Despite my failings, she stood beside me.

The Elder nodded, and a few long beats passed between them as they spoke privately. My parents’ Guardians eyed them while Uncle Hudson’s Guardian’s body twitched.

They remained in what seemed like a heated debate. When the Elder turned his back to us, dismissing us with the flap of his mighty wings before he flew into the air, the tension around us dissolved.

The judgment and sentencing were over, and we’d all survived.

I took that time to peer back at my friends, who were no longer kneeling but standing with their shoulders back and attention faced forward, waiting for my parents to speak.

Brenton turned around to grin at me, his way of showing me that he wasn’t angry and didn’t hold his exile against me.

George elbowed Brenton on the side but gave me a quick nod of acceptance before he focused his attention forward once again.

Breath held, I waited for Everly, and when she finally looked at me, the absence of anger in her expression made a tiny sense of relief flood through me.

The relief sat right next to the guilt that lived inside me. While they may not hold this against me, it was another strike against me.

Another way I’d failed the most important individuals in my life.

The woods outside Teddy’s town looked more like a crystal grave. Snowflakes dusted the ground with icicles hanging from the branches.

Hours after traipsing among the trees, we still hadn’t seen a single living creature. How would the humans fare if their animals had already died a mere day after the snow started to fall?

How would Teddy fare?

At least I’d found a space to build our cottage, where we placed the herbal plants my mother insisted we take, not just for us but for humans to help them with minor ailments.

We had to start small, though, living in tents for however long it took to build our new home.

“The lake is frozen,” Nalari told me from where she flew. “ So are the rivers.”

I felt her hesitation through our bond and knew she was withholding something. While I could press her for answers, I knew she wouldn’t tell me until she was ready. And I was cowardly enough not to want to know what a Guardian could possibly fear.

I wasn’t sure even the Guardians could have predicted how badly the human realm would react to our temperatures. The snow was colder here. The wind more bitter. At least with my magic intact, I could ward myself against the worst of it, but my friends were helpless against it.

“Are any fish still alive?” I questioned.

She grunted. “ Not that I can see, but there are a few caves. There could be small animals hiding in there.”

“Come pick me up, and we can check it out together.”

“Pick you up,” she complained. “ I am not a pet to do your bidding.”

“No,” I agreed. “ I’m your pet. It seems all of us lesser fae are nothing more than pawns meant to obey.”

“You are meant to obey us so that we can protect you.” Her tone took on an icy challenge.

“We can fend for ourselves,” I argued.

“As evidenced by your near extinction.”

I hated her words as much as I hated the truth behind them.