Page 109 of The Forbidden Fae King

“What evidence do you have?” That same supporter calls out. Irecognize it as Bryce’s, and know they have struck an alliance before the session. Cyprien would be insane to make these accusations without lining up his supporters.

“I traveled to our border with the Winter Court—” Cyprien starts.

“Who gave you leave to go to the border!” Titania cuts in.

“Do I need permission to travel the territory? Should I have applied to leave the city?” Cyprien yells back, and the murmurs of agreement around him tell me how bad things have become, that this is almost a reality.

“As general of the armed forces, it is my job to inspect the border, the watchtowers and fortresses and check on the soldiers there. For years, I have been barred from doing this for one reason or another. My position is slowly becoming a title only, as my powers and authority is siphoned away by her secretaries. So I went on a covert mission, and do you know what I found on our border with an enemy that Titania claims is readying to go to war with us? Our fortresses and watchtowers were empty. Utterly empty! All of our soldiers have been moved away from the border with winter.”

Sharp gasps precede the eruption of yell and cries.

I tap my foot with agitation. It is killing me that I cannot see what is happening, the expression on each person’s face. There is much that can be told about a person’s true stance by watching their initial reaction to news like that.

“That is enough!” The high chancellor shuts the room down. “You will take his word over mine? The threat from winter is not coming from the borders, it’s coming from their technology! From plagues!” She is making it up as she goes, I can tell.

Some people fall so deep into the web of their own lies, that they convince themselves also.

The truth of the corruption is an inconvenience to her family’s business. If the people were to leave the capitol in large numbers and return to their posts in the wilds, her personal costs of selling them all the delicacies and commodities she trades in would skyrocket. Her family’s wealth would collapse and her base of power with it.

Titania has no noble blood and no ancestral right to the rulingclass. In my reign, I made it so anyone could rise up the ranks. Titania bought her way in.

“The threat is very much evident at the borders,” Cyprien replies, venom for venom. “But not from winter. The high chancellor won’t let anyone near there because she doesn’t want you to see the true nature of it. Our magic is fading, we all know that, but at the border there are huge rips through the land, and within those rips are voids of complete nothingness. This realm is falling apart!

“The low fae are being born without half their limbs, and their flesh is rotting and turning to ash while they still live. I have proof and witnesses! Any person who travels there will see the truth of it firsthand. And you know what else I found at the border? Our rightful king, the only one with the nerve to address the problem, returning the corrupted low fae back to the earth so their magic could be redistributed. So I invited him here.”

A raging passion runs through my blood. This ismykingdom she is destroying.Mypeople she is bringing to their knees. All because she cannot face the truth.

“Follow me.” I growl to my low fae supporters.

I slam open the door. The room turns dead silent as I stride across the mosaic floor and stand before the concentric rings of senators.

Titania sits inmythrone facing the Senate, with a diadem on her forehead as though she were royalty. I send a single scathing glance over my shoulder at her, then thoroughly ignore her.

Those eyes of pure, swirling firelight narrow on me, lined thickly in black to match the tattooed midnight of her lips and her long hair. Runes glitter and move in swirls on the pale skin of her forehead, her hairline shaved back to give more space to the parlor tricks of the tattoos.

All of it is someone else’s magic imbued into her skin and eyes, because I know she has very little magic of her own. Those ears hidden beneath peaked caps of silver jewelry are almost rounded like a human’s.

Titania is irrelevant here.

As I turn away, I glimpse the ripple of fear that crosses her face,before she schools it into a haughty mask. She had power here, because I allowed it. The vote, the election and her reign all happened, because I allowed it. I respected the will of the Senate and people. But I was wrong.

I scrutinize the reactions of the thirty senators before me. How the light grows in some eyes and the resentment and distrust in others. There are so many new faces. Titania removes any senators who are an inconvenience to her, until only those who are too afraid to challenge are left.

A ruler is not meant to have that kind of power.

It could work in my favor. All these alienated lords and ladies.

My low fae witnesses line up behind me. The flames of the fire sprites suddenly rush upwards, their presence becoming larger than life. The kelpies rear back onto their hind legs and kick the air.

Pixies dart rapidly around the room, examining many of the senators by suddenly appearing in front of their faces, before dashing away. Only the selkies remain calm, completely in their land form with their seal skins draped around them like cloaks.

“This is the gravest threat we have ever faced.” I boom with passion. “Our world is unrevealing, fae are suffering, and this woman would have you pretend it is not happening. If we do nothing, our way of life will collapse. Everything we know will die.”

Unhappy murmuring builds around me. Fear coils in my stomach that my pleas will fall on deaf ears again.

“Is this a military coup, Cyprien?” Titania’s smile is cruel, taking advantage of the hesitation of the Senate. Her tongue is ever golden. “Is that why you are spinning these lies, to get your brother-in-law back in power?”

“How can it be a military coup, when I have no idea where you have stationed the soldiers I lead?” Cyprien snaps back.

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