Page 55 of The Ruthless Fae King
He frowned, not moving. “No, I won’t leave you again.”
I looked back at Marcelle’s corpse. “I can take care of myself. I promise.”
Surely he saw me fight off everyone. I’d only needed help with Marcelle because I didn’t want to torture him. I’d gone soft, but I had intended to kill him.
Lucien hadn’t left, and now the guards had reached us, pulling out bows and swords and igniting sun in their palms. Other Summer Court citizens were stepping out of their homes to see what the commotion was all about. When their gaze fell upon Marcelle’s body they gasped and covered their mouths in shock. They stared from Marcelle’s dead body to the winter king.
I threw a gust of wind at the guards and their swords and bows clattered to the ground. “Stand down!” I shouted. “Marcelle was lawfully executed for treason. I am your queen and leader now, and if you have a problem with that, then you may flee to Cinder Mountain,” I told them harshly. We didn’t have time for an uprising.
The dragon king chuffed from where he stood off to our left and I winced. “Sorry,” I mumbled to him. Cinder Mountain was in his lands, but it was well known that’s where everyone went when they weren’t happy with their lot in life.
The guards looked around at each other, and then again at Marcelle skewered on the wall.
“The Nightfall queen is attacking Winter Court right now,” I told them. “We must unite against her or she will pick us off one by one!”
Not one guard moved. They all just glared with absolute hatred at Lucien. And he was glaring right back at them.
“Bow to your queen!” Lucien growled, advancing on them. “Or I’ll freeze you all and be done with this entire charade.”
The guards and people who surrounded us hesitated, stepping back a few paces and away from him, but then scrambled to their knees as a slap of cold air rushed at them. One by one, they kneeled.
Okay, I would have liked to have earned their loyalty, but fear worked too.
“Marcelle stole my betrothed against her will!” Lucien bellowed so that the amassing crowd could hear. “He tried to rob me of my future and he split our great land, which made us look weak. Now the Nightfall queen attacks, and if it were up to me I would leave you all to fend for yourselves.”
We needed to work on his speech writing skills.
“But it’s up to me, as your reigning queen…” I stepped up beside Lucien, hoping to calm his intense energy. “…and so I decree that if you travel with me to the Winter Court and fight as one, I will make sure you are well guarded against the war that is sure to come upon us. I will protect you as I would protect my own family.”
The people looked nervously among themselves but remained silent, frozen in fear. No one wanted war, I understood that, but war had come to us.
The giant black dragon king flapped his wings anxiously.
“We have to go,” Lucien said to me. “Come with me. If the other courts join us, then fine, but if not, I say let them live out their own mistakes later. I no longer care to protect them. They’re ungrateful for the comfort and peace my reign brought to our lands.”
Ouch.He didn’t whisper that. As I was just deciding what to do, Birdie came out of nowhere. She jumped out from behind me and screamed, “Look out!” The warning had barely left her lips when an arrow lodged in my stomach. A burning pain like I’d never experienced before flared to life in my gut. It all happened so fast, it took me too long to register that I’d been gouged through with an arrow. My mouth popped open in shock, and then everything happened at once.
An agonizing scream thundered from Lucien’s chest and icicles flung from his hands, piercing the archer atop the roof that had attacked me. The archer’s body fell like a sack of flour to the ground.
Dead.
The people and surrounding guards gasped and began to back up in fear, whispers starting among them.
“No one move or I’ll freeze you all!” Lucien bellowed and they stopped. “Youungrateful, vile people. How dare you try to kill her!” The sky let loose with a thunderous clap as clouds rolled in. His voice sounded on the verge of panic. The temperature plunged as clumps of snow fell from the sky.
Birdie ran to my side and caught me as I fell. It was weird. I knew that I might die from this and these might be my only moments left, and yet the only thing I could think about was the line of succession for Summer Court. We were still a split nation, and with Marcelle gone, and now me injured… “Birdie, you need to bring Prince Mateo back from wherever Marcelle sent him. He is in charge until I get back…”
The unsaid words passed between us as well.He is in charge if I die. She nodded, tears lining her eyes. Even in death, I was ever the perfect royal. My mother would be proud.
Lucien was there then, ripping me from Birdie’s arms and tucking me to his chest. He grunted as he ran across the courtyard to where the dragon king waited. I peered over his shoulder to see every single soldier and townsperson on one knee, holding still for fear that Lucien would in fact freeze them to death. Lucien’s eyes scanned the crowd as if ready at any moment to turn them into ice blocks.
I clung to him as he stepped into the basket that was tied to a saddle of sorts atop the dragon king.
“Are we seriously about to fly?” I muttered, trying to ignore the wetness and pain in my stomach.
Lucien kept his hand pressed to my wound, the arrow still stuck inside of me poking out between his fingers. “Yes, and it’s rather fun in other circumstances.”
With that, the dragon king’s wings snapped out and he kicked off the ground, taking flight. A yelp of surprise ripped from my throat and then I coughed, wincing at a fresh wave of pain. I’d never felt pain quite like this. It was sharp and hot, and yet deep and throbbing as well.
