Page 111 of Fae Reckoning

Dragon-Xeno grumbled his assent.

“Fae, you must stop right now,” I yelled, my amplified voice reaching every corner of the once grand Hall of Mirrors, now devastated with piles of rubble, bodies, and shards of glass.

“Look,” I went on, “the dragons do not attack unless you threaten them.”

A few of the dragons hissed warnings. Most simply looked back at their observers with a sobering, shrewd cognizance.

“If you think you fight for Embermere’s rightful queen, whichever of us you believe that to be, halt now. You hurt your fellow fae without justification.”

The clanking slowed further.

I asked Ivar, “Does my voice reach the exterior of the palace?”

“It does now.”

“Good.” Then I announced, “This is Elowyn Xiomara Ashira of Embermere. I am the rightful queen of Embermere and all the Mirror World, chosen by the land’s magic as validly as if I’d completed the Magicus Probatio. Cease your fighting. The war is over. Talisa, the false queen, no longer holds power over any of you.”

For those inside the hall, I gestured toward the female who lay crumpled on the floor, between the sapphire-blue she-dragon and Xeno. The nobility huddled in clusters around the room, no longer pressed to the mirrors since monsters now writhed behind their surfaces, pounding against the glass. Hesitantly, several lords and ladies shuffled forward. When they saw Talisa, they gasped and clutched each other. Their reactions drew others.

“You now have a new king and queen,” I declared for all to hear. “Rush Vega, drake of Amarantos, and Iare mates and your new rulers. You have our solemn vow that every action we take will be for the well-being of this land, its people, and its creatures. Your needs are as important to us as our own.”

I glanced at Rush with an inviting arch of my brows, but he shook his head, offering me a beaming, proud smile instead of his voice. All remaining sounds of fighting, save for some hissing, finally quieted.

“There will be time for you to accept a shift in power. But there shall be no more fighting. No more hurting. No more killing.

“We are forever one in the light. In the darkness we are forever divided. Fae of the Mirror World, it’s time for the light to reign and shine once more!”

Hopeful cries rang out. Then again, more loudly.

I scanned the ragtag crowd and its many faces—covered in skin, scales, or fur—pointed at me. “And if a sense of rightness doesn’t motivate you, then your new king and queencommandyou to cease all violence.” I allowed long moments to pass. “Save one final act…”

A few unsettled murmurs punctuated the quiet.

“The sun will not go down today without the fae seeing Talisa Zafira Tatiana, murderous, dark, blood-drinking, false queen of Embermere, who used darkness to claim a reign to which she had no right …dead.”

34.TORMENT TO THE DARK QUEEN!

ELOWYN

The enthusiastic murmurs of lords and ladies escalated into a buzz.

Speaking over it, I said, “The dragons have already punished her?—”

“How?” West asked loudly.

I explained. More questions were called out, and people talked among themselves. Beyond these walls, I imagined the cacophony was similar.

West said, “No matter how long the dragons made her suffer, it isn’t enough. Not for all she’s done.”

The agreement that came next was swift and insistent. There were severalayes andthat’s rights.

Even with Ivar’s magical augmentation, I had to yell to be heard. “Is it more important to make her suffer? Or to end her and any risk she might pose to the fae?”

“Ye said she was no danger,” a turtle with an armored shell shouted.

So the giant turtles could speak too. Okay! “What I said…” I didn’t actually remember all I said; my words sounded far away even to my own ears. “…was that she’s no longer powerful.”

I glanced at Rush, who smiled at me in encouragement. His eyes and tattoos swirled with muted light. Blood smeared his hands, face, and neck around his fighting leathers.

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