Page 106 of Fae Champion

Gorko and Cambo were gone. The bodies of their felled kin remained, still leaking blood in slow trickles.

“Elowyn’s awake, Your Majesty,” Ivar said.

I faced the dais where he still stood, flanking his precious monarch, as Braque tutted and said, “I was just about to tell her that, Ivar. It’smymagic.”

“And so is Rush,” the queen commented.

I leaned forward, peering down the lengthy row of us. His eyes were dull, no moonlight shining through them now, and narrowed menacingly at the queen, until he sensed my gaze and faced me.

His brow furrowed, his lips tugged low with his concern. Not for himself or the sister who dozed at his side, I thought, but for me.

For the woman he claimed to love.

“You see how vulnerable you all are,” the queen told Rush. “Your friends could die before they even realize their end is nigh. Your dear sister, the one you’ve sacrificed so much to protect, will you let her fall now? Without a real fight?”

It was true. Though we had fought, our efforts had been futile when the woman could so easily overpower our will and our bodies. What chance did we stand against someone like her? With the magic of Ivar and Braque at her disposal?

“I don’t like to show too much mercy,” the queen said, and I would have snorted if not for that void I felt inside. “I have to keep my subjects in line, you know. They can’t go thinking they can get away with too much beneath my rule.

“But Rush, I like you. I’ve always liked you. The people and creatures of the mirror world like you. That’s worth more gold and jewels than your entire Amarantos clan possesses.”

Unhurried, she uncrossed her legs, crossed them anew in the opposite direction, swept idle fingers downthe rich taffeta of her skirt with a melodic crinkle that grated.

“But I’ll show you a little more mercy, Rush. No one will ever know, and I want to help you.”

I couldn’t help my scoff from escaping this time. She flicked a glare my way but otherwise ignored me, pinning those deceptively beautiful eyes on his once more.

“Once you kill Elowyn, only I, you, Braque, and Ivar will know the choice you made, and my friends will never tell.”

“We’ll never betray your confidence, my queen,” Ivar stated staunchly.

“Never,” Braque echoed, the two men for once in easy agreement.

“You can tellyourfriends and sister whatever you want.” The queen smiled—easygoing, affable, pleasant.

Yeah, right.

“You can tell them I threatened you with”—she waved a hand in the air—“whatever you want. Tell them I threatened the entire Amarantos clan if you’d like. Your friends’ clans, too.”

She dropped her hands to her lap, clasping her fingers, her jaw clenching. “But you must kill Elowyn, and you must do it now. This is your true final chance. I won’t be giving you a single other one, Rush, I promise you that. If you don’t take me up on this last offer I’m making you, and a most generous one, you’ll find yourself my enemy, and you know you don’t want that.”

Despite the fact that the queen had given Rushwhat seemed like an unprecedented number of chances, I believed her.

This was it.

I stared at his face until he looked my way, and in those troubled eyes I so loved, I saw that Rush believed her too.

I swallowed, wondering what advice Zako would have had for me going up against someone as corrupted as the queen. Why he hadn’t warned me about any of what would one day come for me, I still didn’t understand. Knowing the queen, he should have anticipated that things would end like this. The king wouldn’t have been able to keep my existence secret forever—not from her.

“It’s okay, Rush,” I said, the words sounding foreign, as if it were someone other than me forfeiting her life. Giving it all up without more fight. Without a final struggle worthy of a warrior’s death.

Though what was the purpose of a warrior if not to give up her life when it would most safeguard the defenseless? It’s what the dragon protectors woke every single day of their lives ready to do.

And everyone lined up against this wall with me was worthy. Even if Rush was proving to be my enemy to the very end.

But it was either Xeno and Saffron and Hiroshi and Ryder and West and Larissa and Rush, forever in danger if not also dead … or me. Just me.

One of me versus all of them.

---