Page 17

Chapter

Seventeen

I ran after him, leaping over fallen fairies until my wings snapped out and I flew. So fast, but not as fast as those infernal lines dragging him to the far side of the ballroom, towards the long, sweeping stairs.

I saw her, gloriously golden, like the sun rising in the east, drawing Max towards her with cords of fate. It was my aunt, Dawn, standing on the steps like a gleaming beacon of hope. She’d dared to come to my ball, my coronation, and steal my werewolf? She was going to die.

I spread my arms and darkness flowed to me, filling me with the destructive magic that I’d used so devastatingly on Malamech’s army. Max came to a stop at my aunt’s feet, where he struggled to stand, but those red lines of power were in her hand, binding him, like she’d bound Shotglass.

“Release the wolf,” I commanded, the sky roiling around inside of the ballroom, the moon throbbing beneath my skin as I hovered over the monster who had betrayed her people so thoroughly.

She smiled at me and then tugged on the cords, making Max writhe and twist until it was his beast. He panted and struggled against those bindings, but they ran through him like cords of fate, tied to his soul.

“How could I be so cruel as to allow my queen to fall prey to the destroyer?” Dawn tsked and shook her waves of pale golden hair away from her face. She smiled a glorious smile at Max. He growled at her, tried to lunge, but then was ripped and stretched again into the dimensions of the monster I’d lost myself trying to destroy.

He stood, taller than the beast, smooth features, nose, sharp jaw, glittering red eyes, with magic runes in infernal red burned into his dark skin, war marks over his face, curling around his temples like horns, while my aunt’s red lines wrapped around and around him, through him. Was it Malamech? He’d been bald, and I’d personally eaten his heart. Max wasn’t Malamech. Dawn was playing games with my mind.

Rage swirled around me, streaking the world with trembling destruction. “Deceiver!” I cried, pointing a finger at my aunt, refusing to believe my eyes or anything else she showed me. “You created Pixie Dust. You betrayed our people. Nothing you show me is truth. You are the festering rot at the core of our world! You will pay for your crimes.”

She laughed, so sweet and delicate, light and good. “You turned our people into monsters, but I’m the destructive one? Look at her!” she said, turning to the crowd. “This is the death fairy you’ve heard stories about. Will you allow her to be your queen? She who is so evenly matched with Slaughter, Malamech’s second?” She placed one claw under Max’s chin, forcing it up. His eyes burned red, just like Malamech’s had done. She stood two steps above him and still had to look up at him. “Slaughter. The wolf she seduced, using him in ways no civilized creature would, but there’s nothing civilized about the death fairy.” She met my eyes and smiled as she drew her poisonous claws over Max’s throat, spilling his blood.

I hovered above her, destruction and chaos flickering at my fingertips. I was so close to destroying everything, everyone, but I struggled to be reasonable. Mostly because she had him bound with those demonic threads and could kill him too easily.

“Release the alpha of Singsong City, Traitor. He saves our kind.”

She laughed and again drew her claws over his throat while the red lines around his jaw tightened, stretching his face back so the blood could fall more freely. “Do we need a witness?” She glanced over her shoulder and gestured at Vervain, who’d been creeping towards her with a very good knife, cloaked in shadows as he’d been. He froze, bound in golden lines instead of demonic. Could she bind everyone? I was going to kill her for so many things. “Do tell your precious death-fairy who helped you behind enemy lines. Tell her what you told Slaughter when you went to see him in his city, the deal you gave him so that he’d help your dark queen rise to power.”

I blinked at her. What was she doing? Why would she come here, where I would kill her? She wasn’t stupid, or I would have realized her treachery before now. I sought Vervain’s mind, mostly to find out what her intentions were, but instead of thinking about her motives, he was in a boxing ring, punching Slaughter, whose face was drawn with the red lines he always had when he was in battle.

“I will not go to her,” he growled at Vervain, then punched him three times.

Vervain just blocked, then spun out of distance. “You’re too proud to beg for what you love?”

“I won’t deceive her any longer.” He lunged forward with a punch that knocked Vervain out.

I blinked the ballroom back into focus. It had only taken a blink to see that, to see Max in Vervain’s mind as Slaughter, Malamech’s second. He was playing a game with us. All of us.

I stared at Max and saw a flicker of his eyes as he looked towards me. Raw. Hunted. Enraged. Trapped. A wounded beast who had come here to die. Who deserved to die.

That’s when I heard the mayor’s mutter. “She’s completely out of control. How can anyone have an alliance with her? And Max is one of that vile monster’s soldiers? Can’t trust him or his pack. They’re criminals.” His words had power. He wasn’t just a fairy, and whatever else he was could persuade even slicker than Dawn, my aunt.

So that was the plan. Unleash the death fairy, who would kill everyone who might be loyal to me and ruin any chance of having a peaceful rise to power. Dawn must have armies ready to back her claim to the throne once I’d lost it, either from my betrayal, or my love for Max. Either one would work.

A month ago, I was so broken, I couldn’t see clearly. But happily, Max, no, Slaughter, had rehabilitated me like he’d done for so many fairies, for whatever diabolical reason he had. He was bound to Dawn like he’d been bound to Malamech. What had he said about having no will under that monster?

I couldn’t break those bindings. If I killed her, it would kill him. He deserved to die. He was a monster who had slaughtered thousands. Then again, so was I. And right now, there was only one monster I desperately needed to kill. My aunt who had bound the two men I’d trusted.

I took a deep breath, drawing death and power to me. I pointed at Slaughter.

“I, Queen Grace of the Midnight House of Everlasting Moonlight, claim you, Max, Slaughter, Alpha of Singsong City, as my consort-mate. You are mine.” My words rang like thunder, lights flashed all around like lightning had been caught in a jar and was being shaken by an enthusiastic twelve-year-old.

The bindings that had been building between us flared white hot, wrapping around him beneath the red lines.

“My first command, Slaughter, is to kill Dawn, of the House of the Rising Sun.”

He cracked his neck and then the red lines snapped, broken, and he turned to take my aunt’s throat in his massive hand, tipped with black claws. “Yes, my goddess. It is—” He gasped as she buried a dagger deep into his chest, but he didn’t release her, instead he grabbed her head with one hand and ripped it off with a roar that accompanied a swing of blood that drenched the crowd.

Vervain had his own blade raised the next instant, stabbing into her heart through her back, like beheading wasn’t thorough enough.

In a mass, fairies rushed forward, running up the stairs with rage that echoed inside of me and buried her with their fury. She was the betrayer.

Slaughter stood with fairies climbing over him, biting, clawing, infecting him with their poisonous rage. He wove on his feet, turned to look at me, and then collapsed.

The world went black as midnight without a moon, without a star, without a lit candle for a hundred miles. He’d betrayed me. He deserved to die.

Everyone deserved to die.

For a moment I was on the edge, about to fall into the abyss of destruction, but I heard the whimper of a young wolf on the stairs, struggling through the lethal fairies to get to her alpha. The one who had taken her and the other juvenile delinquents in. The one who had rehabilitated the fairies.

And me.

I flipped my hair, and the moon came back, the candles relit, and the world became calm once more.

“Enough,” I said gently as I floated down into the seething fairies that were ripping Dawn and Slaughter apart. “You dare touch the Queen’s consort?”

They immediately gave Max generous space while they looked up at me with blood-smeared mouths.

I smiled at them and they flinched. “Bring him to my chambers. Vervain as well.”

I gracefully spun around to face the rest of the guests.

“Pardon the interruption. Please return to the dancing. I’m afraid I won’t be able to join you at present, as there may be an army on its way to back up my aunt’s claim.” I gestured at her head where it had rolled to the bottom of the steps. “You’ll have to excuse the mess. It’s nothing compared to the slaughter she brought to my mother’s court. Speaking of Slaughter, the lupin sorcerer is my consort. He is under my control, along with his wolves. In case any of you are thinking that I have no alliance. As long as he is alive, he is mine. I do know how to keep people alive for a very long time.”

I whirled around and then flew up, up, up, through the dome, up where I could see the surrounding countryside and any possible threats.

I searched far and wide, searched and searched, but all was as it should be. The greatest threat here was me.

I wasn’t okay.

I came down on the roof, perched on the edge, pulled my knees up under my chin and gave myself permission to have a good cry. My eyes burned, but I didn’t cry. I wanted to fight the enemy. I hadn’t even had the satisfaction of killing Dawn or exiling her.

“Ahem.”

I didn’t turn around. I smelled goblin and wanted him to attack me so I could rip the heart out of something so it would hurt as much as I did. Not very queenly feelings, but Dawn was right about me being a terrible queen. Still, I’d never lead the enemy into our home.

“Beg your pardon, but might I sit?” the Goblin Authority asked.

I sighed. He wasn’t going to attack me, so I couldn’t kill him. I gestured to my left, and he sat, dangling his legs over the edge so it would be extremely easy to push him off to his death. “Can I help you with something?” I asked stiffly. My throat was still clogged with anger and hurt. Betrayal. Even Vervain had betrayed me. He hadn’t told me about Slaughter’s identity as soon as he realized it.

“Actually, I’ve come to help you with two things.”

I turned to look at him. “I told you that you don’t owe me anything.”

He smiled, showing very sharp teeth with the silver filigree to make them even more elaborately deadly. “No one tells the Goblin Authority what I do and don’t owe. Other than the Music Master, but she’s backed by ogres, angels, and most terrifying of all, her own powerful obsession with music. You’re lucky your voice is so confusing musically.”

“Yes, thank you. That was one helpful comment, what’s the other?”

He smiled again, but it looked slightly more genuine that time. “I’m going to tell you what has been set in motion with your dramatic beheading of the Lady of the House of the Rising Sun.”

“Traitor of all Fairyland is her current title,” I said with my own smile.

He shrugged. “You met the fairy mayor. Let me tell you the gossip.” He leaned back on his arms and kicked his feet slightly, showing his fancy boots with elaborately designed silver caps that matched his teeth. “He lives next to Alpha Max, and has been threatening for years to get the city to condemn his house and get him evicted. He’s tried so many ways, but each time, Max responds in kind. Such as the time the Mayor had dignitaries over and Max hosted a monster truck rally. In his backyard. I believe they shot off rockets, one of which landed on the mayor’s roof. At any rate, it’s been war between them for years. Max has a soft spot for fairies, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, so he didn’t personally end the mayor. But that only gave the mayor the idea that Max was weak. He’s young, moderately powerful, and lacks a great deal of understanding about power balance and real war. Max is old, massively powerful, and understands everything about real war. So many different kinds of war. I fought against him a few hundred years ago while Malamech was growing in power. It was universally agreed that he was undefeatable. But you defeated him.”

It was my turn to shrug. I collapsed on the roof, looking up at the stars. “It was easy. I just had to turn my people into the worst kinds of monsters to do it.”

“That’s a good point. The mayor is going to use your reputation as a monster and Max’s position as your consort to take his property. He’ll spread the news that Max is your slave, and the wolves will break their bonds with him and find a new pack. Maybe start one under the helpful guidance of the mayor and his extensive connections. It’s going to bring a lot of chaos to Song as wolves fight for position. There will be death. The young and innocent will get caught in the middle, as they always do, and the caverns will be taken by the mayor without any resistance. He’ll evict all the homeless fairies from Singsong and turn the caves into an amusement park. All for the sake of tourism and his ego.”

“You really think that your prophecy of gloom and doom is worth a favor? Why should I care about Singsong City or its wolves?”

He was quiet for a moment. “Why terraform their caverns in the first place? Why exert your strength healing so many werewolves and goblins? Because you are the sort of person who cares. That’s what I thought the first moment I saw you. ‘That’s the softest fairy I’ve ever seen,’ I thought. Such big eyes. Such sweetness.”

“Are you hitting on me? I’m looking for an excuse to throw you off the roof.”

He chuckled. “I am definitely not hitting on you. My heart is otherwise employed.”

“How do you keep your heart employed? What do you pay it?”

“Sushi. At any rate, you care. That’s why your aunt dared come face you, knowing that she could bind Malamech’s second with those infernal chains, because she knew that you wouldn’t kill her when it would injure him. You care about him most of all. He hasn’t been Slaughter for a long time. Like you haven’t been the death fairy. Right. My second favor to you is telling you that you need to find the person working with the Traitor of all of Fairyland, the one who gave her the binding over Slaughter. I think her plan was to have him kill you. She had a great deal of faith in those bindings, but that’s folly. They broke in the first place. I wonder how Slaughter was liberated from Malamech’s grasp.” He clucked his tongue. “Such a mystery.”

I turned to frown at him. He looked back at me with weirdly glowing eyes somewhere between green and gold. “Are you finished with your favors, or are there more? If not, feel free to go. I’m enjoying my solitude.”

“Is that what you call it? When I sulk on the roof, I call it wallowing in misery, but to each their own.” He rolled off the roof without the slightest warning.

For a second, I stared at the space where he’d been. Had I accidentally on purpose pushed him off? I leaned forward and looked to see a blur of black swallowed up in the shadows. And to think that I could have had the satisfaction of pushing him off the roof the whole time.

“My Queen,” Vervain said after he’d left me alone for longer than he normally would. Wallowing in misery is exactly what he’d call it.

“My betrayer,” I returned evenly without looking at him.

He sighed and came closer, dropping on his heels to look out into the night, searching for the enemy so I didn’t have to. He was so familiar, it was almost comforting to know that some things never changed.

“He’s unconscious,” he said after a long pause. “The dagger was a spelled infernal blade made to kill you. He’s not quite dying, but he’s not healing, either.”

“Perfect. He can stay like that forever.”

He nudged me with his elbow while I stared into the darkness. “My Queen, he is your consort.”

“Yes. And you are my bodyguard and court spy. The next time you touch me with your elbow or anything else, I will shatter it. Why didn’t you tell me that Slaughter had betrayed Malamech and was working with us?”

“Because I couldn’t risk you being gentle with him once you thought of him as your ally. If Malamech suspected his treachery, he would have crushed him, and we would have lost any advantage we had.”

“You trust yourself, but not me? He’s Slaughter. I wanted him to refuse to leave so that I could kill him like I did his master. And you got between us every time he came close. You wouldn’t let me fight him.”

“Because I knew that he’d give it away by being too gentle with you.”

I turned to frown at him. “Because he wanted Malamech to lose and saw that I had impressive potential for destruction.”

“Because he fell for you.”

I blinked at him. “What do you mean by that?”

He shrugged. “Something about you spoke to him.”

“The way I killed his people spoke to him?”

“You’re more than a death machine.”

“And you’re going to say that so is he. Slaughter the death machine is more than a death machine.”

He rubbed the back of his neck. He looked rather stressed out. Usually he was utterly impassive and emotionless, but this had knocked him off balance. Did it bother him to know that I’d never trust him again?

“He’s not fighting to live,” he finally said. “He’s actually willing himself to die. If you don’t do something, I don’t think he’ll ever wake up again. He might not be technically dead, but…”

“I’m a terrible healer,” I said, crossing my arms and staring out at the night. “What can I do that the best healers in all of Fairyland can’t do?”

“You can give him back the strength you took from him. You can be his Queen. You can give him the will to live.”

I shuddered. “I’m too angry. My aunt, you, and Slaughter. You all betrayed me. I can’t heal anyone when I want to tear the world apart.”

He hesitated and then put his hand on my shoulder. Was I going to shatter it? “Of course you can. You’re the Queen. You do what you must, no matter what you want.” He squeezed once and then released me and stood at attention, on guard, doing his duty. Like I was going to do mine.