Page 99 of Fae Reckoning

Raising her voice to be heard over another shake of Einar-instigated thunder, Talisa called from the other side of the long room, “This doesn’t concern you, Oren. Return to your chambers. I’ll come for you once I’m finished.”

The king picked his way across the hall. Dashiell swept his sword back and forth in a wide arc, clearing a path of dragons and serpents, who bobbed their heads atop their long necks but didn’t strike.

“You’ll come for me once you’re finished…” he deadpanned, incredulous. Since I’d been absent from court, apparently my father had grown a set. “No, Talisa, you won’t. I am the king of Embermere and your husband. You’ll tell me what’s happening right this instant.”

He’d never sounded so much the king before.

“Why are you covered in blood?” he asked once he drew closer.

“Your daughtertried to kill me.”

The king whirled around to gape at me. “You didwhat?”

The nobles who were crowded along the walls gasped in unison, sharply reminding me my true heritage had still been a secret for most. Their eager whispers buzzed loudly as they clutched each other, greedily hanging on every word.

Talisa scowled, as if she had forgotten she’d told her nobles I was some distant cousin of the king.

I smiled at Talisa’s irritation—such an insignificant win—before spinning back on the king. “Don’t act so surprised,Father.” I had no patience left for any of them and more than enough terror to take its place. “She’s had it coming for a long time,” I said loudly enough that the gentry would hear. “She’s been murdering her subjects and blaming others for their deaths. She’s been feeding off them and bringing the dead back to life with blood magic to keep taking their power for herself.” Or something like that, anyway. “She’s been sucking the land dry of its magic, keeping it all for herself instead of using it to support the fae. Her darkness has poisoned the whole of the Mirror World until it’s all dying.

“But then, you already know all this. Don’t you,Father?”

His jaw ticced. Dashiell’s own jaw clenched.

“Talisa—” I said.

“I am yourqueen, and you will refer to me as such,” Talisa interjected with a commanding snap.

Braque backed her up with an obsequious, “That’s right, my queen.”

Pointedly, I held my stare steady on my father. “Talisastole my mother from me, made everyone believe she went mad, that she was incapable of claiming her role as queen of Embermere. Talisa kept her captive and fed off her for decades. Decades. She”—my voice hitched as I recalled Edsel telling me Odelia was beyond saving, a scant echo of the female she’d once been. “Odelia was supposed to be the queen. She was supposed to bemy mom.”

The hum of whispered gossip grew until it was as loud as the snakes’ hissing.

“Do you have any idea how many people and creatures she’s tortured and fed off of? Do you know there’s an entire dungeon underneath this place where she raises dragons just to experiment on them and hurt them?”

More gasps swept along the crowd, extending even to some of the guards. The dragons in the room with us stilled entirely.

“Someone has to stop her,” I continued. “You weren’t going to.”

“Odelia was supposed to be my wife,” the king said so softly that the courtiers might not have caught it. His shoulders buckled. Dashiell sidled closer, as if ready to carry his weight should the king break.

Surely Talisa had heard him, but she pretended not to, addressing me instead. “Only, you didn’t kill me, now did you?” Talisa’s wickedly triumphant grin wasback, made all the more frightening by the blood spattering her ordinarily pristine face. I couldn’t help but note the striking resemblance between us. How blind I’d been not to recognize the family resemblance the very first time I laid eyes on her.

I still gripped my useless sais. I’d failed everyone I loved and the fae of the Mirror World who were depending on me, whether or not they were aware of today’s battle. I’d failed the land itself, the dragons who believed in me. Every warrior and those who were willing to become soldiers to back my claim to the throne.

I failed. The admission slid across my tongue but I held it back, though my torment surely swirled across my face. I wanted to look at Rush, to take in the extent of his masculine beauty one final time, but I didn’t dare deliver Talisa’s attention to him.

“And now you’ll all die,” Talisa announced as clear as a bell’s cheerful peal. “Every single one of you.” Talisa beamed as if this were the result of a long-nurtured dream of hers.

“Not all of us, Your Majesty. Right?” Braque asked. “Only those who’ve been disloyal to you?” His certainty faltered.

She frowned, not even looking at him. “Yes, Braque,” she said as if bored of his ridiculous antics. “Only those who’ve been disloyal to me. But of those, there are a great many.”

“Now, Talisa,” the king said in a rare tone of reason as he stepped closer. Dashiell pressed to his side asfirmly as Azariah did to Bertram’s. “Despite your misdeeds, there’s no need for such extreme measures. These are still our subjects.”

She scrutinized me for several long beats, during which time even the snakes mostly silenced. Eventually she dragged that hard stare over to the king. “My ‘misdeeds?’ You forget your place, Oren, kingconsort. You don’t tell me what to do. I’m the bloodline monarch, not you.”

“Clearly, I must remind you, yet again, that your father, King Erasmus himself, chose me as your husband. To rule alongside you as your king.”

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