Page 63 of Finding Closure

I smiled and went over to him, chuckling when he dipped me and gave me a soft kiss. Then I danced over to Lucca and gave him a worried look. I wiggled my butt and was a goof as I kept his gaze. “Wanna go get some fried chicken and all of the sides? Lots of honey? Your own huge jar even if you want?”

“Yeah, that’s what I need,” he agreed as he snagged his arm around my waist. “I just…”

“You need to know that his other voice has talked several times in his mind,” Neldor said quietly. “It’s fighting—”

“Shut up, fairy,” Mason blasted.

I used magic to silence him, focused on Neldor. “What’s going on?”

“I wanted to learn from him too,” Neldor admitted. “To protect us. All of us.” He nodded when I couldn’t hide my shock. “No, I didn’t want to bring it up and risk upsetting you, but now I can tell their voices apart—Mason and his bear or his other personality. The good one has congratulated Lucca in his mind and said he’s glad Ronald won’t hurt you or Lucca anymore.”

“Wow,” Darby whispered, looking like that was a bit hard to swallow.

Neldor nodded. “He chastises Mason every time he explodes.” He swallowed loudly and looked at Juan. “And he misses you. He’s begged Mason to tell you that your friendship was real and you shouldn’t let your family be mean to you anymore. That he’s glad you made up with Hudson and are accepted with us. He’s really glad you seem happy and can move on.”

Juan’s eyes filled with tears and he focused on the floor before looking at Mason. “Thank you for wanting me to know that because I did value our friendship. I’m sorry you’re sick. I’m sorry you have something treatable in humans but can be so wrong if a shifter. I’m sorry you’re trapped in the same body as someone evil.

“The kid who helped me with so much and did so much doesn’t deserve that. I wish I could free you. I wish there was some magic to actually do that. I had a dream we could put you in a different body like Vision from Marvel or—we can’t. I hope you find peace one day and don’t completely unravel and go feral.” He shot me a guilty look.

“We won’t let it get that far,” Neldor said quietly. “Once it’s clear his sanity is gone and—it will be handled. If he’d stop trying to play the victim or kill himself to stain Tam’s life, he could actually get help. He can’t live freely. He’s too dangerous and has done too much, but he could have a comfortable life if he got with the program. He does this to himself.”

What else was there really to say?

Actually, I did have something.

I walked over to the cage and studied him. “I won’t care, Mason. Look into my eyes and see it. I’m telling you the complete truth. Ninety-six percent of Faerie wants me as their queen. I could murder you tomorrow and they won’t care. You killing yourself won’t do anything to me. I haven’t had a nightmare—I haven’t even thought of you in so long. Move on if you can. I have.”

Then I went over to Lucca and asked what he wanted to do.

“I’m done,” he promised, kissing my hair. “I’m with Juan. I feel bad for his bear and the kid I had some good times with. I can’t help him, and—I want to cry for his bear not being free, but I still want him dead for what he did to you. But I feel better seeing he really is locked down. The rest—what happens happens.”

They all agreed. Juan was the only one mostly heartbroken, but we couldn’t fix it. We couldn’t separate the good Mason from the evil Mason.

So it was time to truly put him in the past.

Good.

16

The interviewing of the bears who wanted to join Lucca’s sloth went fine. They were all truly just hoping to get out of their toxic, sexist, and racist sloth. The new leadership was just as bad as Mason’s father had been and just wanted them to be isolated from everyone, and they didn’t want that. But no one would take them after all of the issues.

So they hoped Lucca would because they assumed fairies would be involved with his sloth and we could vouch for them. It wastheirsuggestion that we interview them and clear them as truly wanting this.

Yeah, those were people who were desperate, not trying to con anyone. It was good that it was being handled and we could focus on the piles of everything else we had going on.

I felt like I blinked and it was finals. I obviously aced my power training given I beat up all the applicants for the royal security force and was the “final boss” they were using as their new training level.

Faerie’s Justice System was reviewing all of the laws and adding some that were specific to the situation we were in and had never been in before. Also, I had a whole everything drawn up to standardize sentences and more. Plus, I was changing some of the court system as I could not be the judge for everything. That wasn’t even reasonable.

But it had been a really great distraction for both queens before to have that role while the ancients did the real ruling of the realms.

No, we were implementing a new judge system after I became queen. They had to have served as a Guardian and either have years of experience on the policing side or as an attorney since. For the first level of judge at least. And they were elected for ten years but not to serve in their own area.

That was how corruption bred. It was also a blind election. Some might know the resumes, but that was what we were putting forth. The resumes. Not who had money or connections. It was who was the most qualified. From there, it would be their voting records to be reelected or not.

Nothing else. Not while I was the boss.

We didn’t need juries to convict when there was magic,butI developed a system of five random citizens to be formed in a tribunal to decide on sentencing when the case was more complicated or layered. They would work with a second-level judge for those cases.

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