Page 8 of Till Kingdom Come

I bent over, clawing at my neck, trying to cough, holding out my hand blindly for help, and they both stopped talking to look over at me.

“What in the name of Eris are you doing?” Prince Bracca asked.

I pointed wildly at my throat, and he rolled his eyes and sighed. He waved his hand over my face, and suddenly the spell lifted. and I could breathe again.

“Oh, thank goodness,” I said, drawing in a huge breath when I could speak again. “I was choking. I thought I was going to die! I thought you were trying to kill me.” I could feel my face burning, so I hurried to explain again. “I-I’m sorry, but I really couldn’t breathe. Perhaps I panicked a little.”

He smirked and my hand went to my sword, angry at the Fairy’s superior attitude and ready to defend myself if he tried to harm me again. He faced me unflinchingly and even smiled more broadly. “I hadn’t realized you were slightly mad.”

The remark only made me more furious. Ellien then did something most extraordinary. He turned and took my arm with an incredibly strong grip, shoving me toward the prince and saying the words that sealed my fate. “He’s yours. Take him before he makes you change your mind. In recompense for the life of your captain, I offer you the life of Killian Honeywood.”

I gasped in horror as Bracca carefully watched my face.

“What?” I shouted. “What did you just say?”

“If you like, my men can hold him down for you so you can kill him. Do whatever you want with him, but just please leave us in peace.”

I was too shocked to speak. Each of Ellien’s words had struck my chest like sharp daggers, and I gasped aloud in surprise and stumbled backward, drawing my sword again. Gods, I would kill this treacherous Fairy!My men can hold him down for you so you can kill him? Had Ellien truly just said that?

I admit I had been ridiculously slow to fully understand—that the “recompense” they’d been discussing was me all along—I was the trade for the Fairy captain’s life. Rage burst inside me at Ellien’s treachery. How could I have been so naive and stupid and so easily played for a fool? My anger multiplied, magnified, built and repeated until I could no longer contain it. I lunged for Ellien, raising my sword and intending to strike him dead myself, no matter what the cost, but the impossibly strong Bracca grabbed me around the waist with one arm and hauled me back against him.

“Stop it! The bargain has been made. It’s over. That’s enough!”

He let me go, and I staggered away, nearly falling, my sword still drawn and my eyes wide and disbelieving. I could feel the blood draining from my face while my heart was beating almost out of my chest. I looked around wildly, but I could see I had no chance of making it out of this courtyard alive. I vowed that I would take as many of them with me as I could.

I had never dreamed that Ellien, who had seemed so friendly, would betray me by offering me up as some kind of sacrificial lamb to repay a debt that he owed. It must have been his plan all along. He had lured me here into the Liminal, somehow glamouring the trail so I would come into his territory unknowingly. By using me, he could save his own life and the lives of his people.

And that must have been his reason for giving me Fairy food and inviting me to stay with him day after day. Maybe he had even drugged me to give him time to get word to Bracca. That must have been it. That was why he’d been so welcoming to me. The Fae didn’t consider mortal lives worth as much as their own. I gave the faithless Fairy a shocked, contemptuous glare. I had been prepared to try and defend the creature. I had even been a bit attracted to him—but that was all burned to ashes now. Now that I knew how little he thought of me. How could he do such a thing? I was stunned by the heartlessness of his betrayal.

Bracca stepped toward me, and I looked up at him, almost in a daze, with tears standing in my eyes. I found myself staring boldly up into his face. He might decide to slash off my head for it, but he could only kill me once, and my heart already felt cold and dead from the treachery of those around me. I’d meet my death as bravely as I could and never give Bracca or those assembled here the satisfaction of seeing me beg. Furiously, I raised my sword as he came closer, and I took a fighting stance.

I started shouting. “I-I won’t go easy. You’re in for a fight, damn you! All of you! And I’ll take a few of you with me.” I turned to glance over my shoulder at the worthless Solarian lord. “Maybe I’ll start with him.”

I whirled around and pulled my sword above my head, ready to strike him dead. but another sword met mine with a loud clang. Bracca shouted, “Lower your damn sword and calm down. Now!”

Instead, I leaped back and raised it over my head in both hands again, intending once more to bring it down on Ellien’s scrawny neck. One of Bracca’s soldiers attacked me from behind, hitting me with something hard that didn’t cut me, but dulled my senses and caused me to fall to my knees and drop my sword. But I still wasn’t done. My fingers tremblingly closed around the hilt of my sword again, but a booted foot smashed down on the blade, knocking it from my hand and slamming it to the ground. The point of a sword pressed into my throat, and I gulped as it dug a little into my flesh.

I glared up at Bracca defiantly. So this was it. He would kill me now. My life was over.

But I was the son of a knight and not a slave to grovel for my life. If he wanted to kill me, then do it. Bracca’s eyes flashed at me as I raised my chin in hot, bitter fury and stared up into his face again with defiance. He tilted his head and smiled, showing me his sharp incisors, and I remembered that Dark Fairies and demons were closely related. I made a growling noise low in my throat and waited for him to kill me. But the blow never came.

“Stand up and stop all this.” He waited, staring down, as he waited for me to do his bidding. “Calm yourself. Do it now or I’ll do it for you. And hand me that sword.”

I snarled at him. “Never! I won’t do it.”

“I said, give it to me. Don’t make me repeat myself.”

Furiously, I huffed out a long breath and then picked it up and threw it at him—well, perhaps it would be more accurate to say I tossed it over at his feet. Angry and out of control as I was, I still didn’t feel quite brave enough to throw it at him. Maybe I was holding out some hope he would let me live. Then I turned on the man I had been beginning to think of as a friend, and I spat down at his feet.

“Fuck you, Ellien, you faithless dog! You whoreson bastard!”

I pulled a dagger from a strap I carried at my side and jumped on top of Ellien, taking him to his back and fully intending to bury it deep in his heart. But Bracca picked me up again as if I were the child he’d called me earlier and shook me hard, until the knife dropped from my nerveless fingers. His strength was incredible.

“Enough, damn it. This is over.” He turned to Ellien. “I accept your trade. And I’ll take him with me.”

There was a loud sigh of relief from everyone watching, and the prince glanced down at me. Bracca’s incredible power reminded me of what he was, but I was too far gone to care. I was much too angry to be truly frightened and refused to control my temper like he’d told me to. My cheeks burned, so I stared defiantly at him. Truthfully, I thought he would kill me anyway. Without warning, he dropped me on the ground, knocking the breath from my lungs. I thudded down hard with no chance to catch myself and I just lay there on my back, feeling stunned, expecting to feel his blade in my throat at any second.

He knelt down beside me and lifted my head by my hair. “What would you do if you managed to get away from us, boy? Where would you go? Your father took Ellien’s gold for your purchase. Don’t you understand? You were bought and paid for. Your own family sold you to us. If you were to manage to escape and go home, he’d only bring you back.”

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