Page 12 of Kill the Queens

“That doesn’t sound like fun.” Ace didn’t fight the eye roll this time. She stepped out in the sun, the heat hitting her bare skin. Her white scar was exposed but if she kept her head down maybe it would be less noticeable.

“I’m rarely everyourversion of fun.”

The streets were dotted with people out shopping and running their morning errands. Ace and Shelby made sure to give them space as they weaved around them.

“Did you hear about the castle?” a woman gasped as she strolled into the open doors of a small dinner. “Yes, it’s nothing but rubble!”

Ace kept her head down though she so badly wanted to look up at Shelby who’d shoved his hands deep into his pockets and hunched forward. He didn’t slow his pace to eavesdrop like Ace had and kept moving forward through the crowd. It wasn’t like she could lose him when he was a head taller than everyone else.

“I heard Queen Sienna had taken leave for a holiday in the country with her new husband. Do you think she actually made it out in time? What do you think happened?” the friend responded as they took their seats next to the opened windows, giving Ace the best opportunity to listen. She stopped completely, bending down to pick up an imaginary coin and fiddle with it in her hand.

“Probably faulty construction. It was built so fast andyou know you can’t trust warlocks.”

She said that as if she had any experience with a warlock. Ace trusted Shelby...mostly. They continued the conversation steering it more toward what they thought they should do this afternoon. Ace took several long strides to catch up to Shelby, moving closer to his side.

“They think the queen left and the castle fell due to bad construction,” Ace said under her breath.

“Bad construction?” Shelby huffed, then lowered his face as they continued through the crowd. “I helped build that. There was no bad construction. It was sturdy until...”

“Until the Fae,” Ace finished for him when he stopped talking.

The conversation didn’t continue on as they both became absorbed in their own thoughts. Ace continued to listen to prayers, trying to discern anything helpful.

The farther they made it through town the less and less the prayers became, giving way to the rumble of gods. Ace’s concentration was constantly split between watching every street corner for guardsmen—who were as absent as the queen—and listening to the gods. Their words became a chant. They became her motivation as she surged forward and the pair went from the well managed walkways to the dirt path of the forest.

One queen’s dead.

Three more to go.

Nature must be corrected. Nature will be corrected.

Ace can do it. Ace will do it. If she can’t, another will.

Kill the queens. Kill the queens. Kill the queens.

Kill.

The.

Queens.

It was those words, their words, that followed Ace through the forest. The pair only stopped once at the river bankto scrub away any evidence of the day before. When they passed the river, the late evening sun poked through the trees and the small cabin finally came to view. Shelby’s grandma’s house was a modest one room —two if you counted her small washroom— cabin, where the old woman managed to be self-sustained.

There was still the small stool that sat on the porch like the last time they’d been there and no smoke was coming from the chimney. Silence always seemed to wrap itself around the home, making Ace wonder how his grandma lived like that and remained sane.

Maybe having lost some of her sanity was the answer.

Upon seeing the cabin, Shelby’s pace quickened. He shoved through the last bit of brush and all but sprinted to the doors. Ace’s shoe caught a fallen branch, scuffing her new boot and causing her to fall behind. That didn’t keep her from listening to Shelby’s quick knock or from seeing his grandma’s face appear in the crack of the door.

The old woman flung the door open, the gray in her black curls somehow greater than the last time they’d been here, only a day ago. No, it had to be longer than that. Her eyes crinkled heavily around her eyes and a series of wrinkles curved across her cheeks. All of it faded as she pulled his face down to her level, several feet below Shelby’s natural height.

It was his grandma’s gasp, the heartbreaking confusion and worry that suddenly contorted her features that made Ace want to die where she stood. She came to a stop several feet away from the porch. Her stomach clenched with the familiar feeling of nausea that crept up her throat.

“No,” the old woman rasped. “No!”

“Grandma—“ Shelby whispered but the old woman pushed his face away from her with surprising strength as he stumbled away. Her steps were heavy as she crossed the porch. Ace swore when she met the earth those same steps were likesmall earthquakes that shook her where she stood. His grandma raised her hand—

Ace’s head cocked to one side, her cheek burning from the sudden strike. She squeezed her eyes shut. The pain in her cheek was already passing but her chest was throbbing with the painful reminder.

---