Page 72 of Heir

Omaera nodded and glanced at me, equal parts hesitation and fear in her eyes. I stepped forward, reaching for the handle of the sword. “You don’t have to do this. You will still be a strong leader if you let someone else take over. You haven’t been Queen long. And you’re grieving for your aunt. Let me help you, Little One.”

My large hand enclosed around her small one, reminding me of our earlier conversation about how I said I wanted to teach her to catch fish with her hands.

“You don’t need this weighing on you. She deserves her sentence, but it’s not up to you to see it through.” My grasp tightened on hers and for a moment. I really thought she would let me do this for her, but she shook her head, flicked me away, raised the sword, and brought it down over the demon’s neck, slowly, but with fluidity. Zero hesitation and with the strength of a thousand queens.

Her eyes glowed bright emerald from the reflection of the green flames as the sharp scent of burning flesh filled the air along with smoke.

The demon, to her credit, said nothing. Not a peep. And until the final sinew piece was severed, she glared at Omaera with so much hatred that I knew, beyond any lingering doubt in my mind, that if we’d allowed Raewyn to live, she would have tried and quite possibly succeeded in killing Omaera.

Her racism ran deep and there was no cure for it. No amount of rehabilitation, therapy or otherwise, would heal the demon of her odium toward humans. She needed to be extinguished.

Once the job was done, and her head had been successfully removed from her body, Omaera dropped the sword to the ground and visibly crumbled right before our eyes.

I went to her, sweeping her up into my arms and carrying her to the couch. She was so small and light, it was like carrying a baby deer. She still wore her purple silk scarf over her hair, and the same tank top and booty shorts that she’d slept in last night. Her skin was like satin against my rough palm as I stroked her legs, calming her down.

The first time I ever took a life had me feeling very similar.

I couldn’t breathe.

I couldn’t calm my mind.

And I kept wondering if there was any other path I could have taken that would have spared the person I killed.

There wasn’t.

And there wasn’t a different path this time either.

“You did the right thing,” I said softly as she leaned against me. I made sure to turn us away from Maxar as he finished up with Raewyn’s body, using the same black flames as before to reduce her to ash. “She would have killed you. She would have betrayed the crown and killed Gemma.”

Tears trickled down her make-up free face. “Do you think she’s killed other humans before?”

“I’d bet my life that she has.”

She nodded and exhaled a deep breath through thinly parted lips. “Yeah, I thought so too. Didn’t make the decision any easier though.”

“If it’d been easy, I’d be worried. A good leader doesn’t take serious issues like this lightly. They weigh their options and look for the fairest, most democratic—and humane way—to deal with a situation. You didn’t torture her. I’m sure she felt very little pain. But you’ve spared many human lives now, taking her out of the equation.”

“Has your dad had to do things like this?”

I nodded. “On occasion. There is generally a trial. Sometimes it goes up to the High Council, depending on the circumstances.”

Her eyes widened.

“But given that you’re new to the crown, and this was a very tenuous situation, you made the right call. And we will all stand by you. Nobody—beside others who hate humans—would disagree with your choice of sentence.”

“All done,” Maxar said. “You can turn around now.”

I spun us around on the couch where the psycho fire mage stood with a big Ziploc bag full of gray ash in one hand and a broom in the other. He was also smiling like the depraved lunatic that he was. I groaned and cringed. The man got far too much joy out of this.

Omaera’s mouth dropped open. “Burn the broom, please.”

He nodded and it burst into flames in his hand, falling to the ground in another heap of ash.

“What do you wish to do with her remains?” Drak asked.

Omaera shrugged. “I don’t know.” She glanced between all of us. “Is this going to set off a stream of events now? Did she have a mate who is going to come seeking revenge? Parents or siblings?”

“She had no mate,” Drak said, his phone out. “I just told King Howar what happened. He is deeply sorry for recommending her. She has no mate, and was orphaned as a young demon. No siblings either. She worked as a bartender at an underground realm BDSM club.”

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