Page 101 of A Deception of Courts

Duncan winced, brows furrowed. The scar on his face deepened, as did the lines across his dirt-covered forehead. I wished to reach out and touch his face. To draw him down to my mouth where he could forget his regrets. “Kayne got his comeuppance,” I added. “Don’t allow him to haunt you, Duncan. If anything, it won’t benefit you. We must not be distracted now, not with what we have left to do.”

“I hear you, my darling. But it will take time.”

I wanted to remind him that time wasn’t a luxury we had. No matter how I wished it was, until Aldrick was destroyed and his poison cleansed from the realms, we couldn’t hope for anything but the moment we were given.

“Do you want to free yourself from your burdens?” I asked when Duncan looked down to his broken knuckles. He kept doing it, ever since returning from that room where he and Kayne had shared their last moments together. “If you keep it all in, you’ll find that your guilt eats you from the inside.”

“Kayne hurt you. Guilt isn’t what I feel for his death. The only thing I’m guilty of is wishing so desperately that I’d killed him before he had the chance to–”

Althea’s voice raised in volume, silencing Duncan before he could finish. It seemed she wished for everyone in Cedarfall, living and dead, to hear what she had to say next. Duncan swallowed his words and pinched his mouth closed. I caught the feathering twitch of his jaw as he fought hard to keep himself quiet.

“I understand you have all been through a lot, and it is unfair that I ask anything of you. But I must. I ask that all fey with access to magic stand up and fight. Fight for those you’ve lost, and those you do not wish to be taken. Will you stand with me, as your queen? Avenge the Cedarfall name, and ensure we have one when this is all done?”

A beating sound began. I looked around and watched as fey slammed fists into their chests, a thud that soon became a booming song – a song of acceptance. Althea swept her eyes across the crowd, and for a moment, I saw the hint of a smile grace her lips. This time, when her eyes filled with tears, she let them loose.

Pride swelled within, watching my friend accept a fate that had unkindly been handed to her.

“Just as a Cedarfall is born from the flames,” Althea called out, each word striking into the heart of the crowd, “may they return to them.”

Althea waved her hand before the line of bodies at her feet as though gesturing farewell. Fire bloomed within her open palm, then fell in arching, golden waves upon her family until her blaze consumed each one.

No one left until the wind claimed the Cedarfall family’s ashes, and the ground was left eternally scorched.

“Are you confident that is what you saw?” My question echoed across the throne room. It wasn’t exactly empty, but for the grand size of it, the room should have hosted far more than the few of us. “It is important that we know every detail exactly if we are to make our next move.”

Lady Kelsey turned her red-rimmed eyes upon me. “I watched my sister’s murder. Every detail will haunt me until I am returned to the fire. Of course I am sure.”

I bowed, sorry that we even had to have this conversation.

“I didn’t mean to offend you, Kelsey.” I hoped she registered the apology set in my expression. “I’m merely trying to understand it. If Aldrick is using the labradorite to extract the keys, then he is aware of the rites royalty conduct during the succession of an heir. If we can get it back, then we can give the power back to Althea.”

“It would make sense,” Rafaela added. I was thankful for her taking the weight of Kelsey’s eyes off of me. It had only been hours since her sister was cut down from her hanging place, and already I’d offended her with my careless comment. “Aldrick cannot use the keys to open Duwar’s gate until he has all four. This is as much a rescue mission as it is a mission to keep him from completing the task.”

I shot her a look, knowing the undercurrent of meaning beneath what she’d said. It was part of our plan, a plan that still had life in it yet. We either succeeded in getting the keys back, or we destroyed them.

But for the sake of not inspiring panic, we kept that part to ourselves.

“Aldrick has access to an abundance of labradorite in Elmdew. If he is fashioning boxes to collect the keys within them, it makes sense why the power has not manifested physically within Elmdew and here. He has successful captured it long enough to wait to get the rest.”

It didn’t feel right to describe it as a box. Kelsey had recounted what had happened, watching the Hunters cut through Queen Lyra’s wrists where they collected her blood within a box of labradorite. Not a drop spared, she had said.

Lyra hadn’t screamed or fought. She made no sound as she expelled Altar’s key alongside her blood. Now wasn’t the time to remind the group that Aldrick didn’t need to kill them to take the key – I trusted they all knew it deep down.

“It took hours,” Kelsey sobbed, her words barely audible as her hands muffled them. “I begged them to stop. Althea, I never wished to leave her in her final moments… but I failed her.”

Althea raised a hand and silenced her aunt. “Now is not the time for concerning ourselves with what has happened. I don’t wish to hear any more. We focus on our path ahead.”

Kelsey bowed her head, eyes smudged with kohl that ran down from her lathered eyelashes and left rivers of black down her grief-stricken face. She didn’t utter another word, but her muffled cries carried as background noise inside the room.

“Labradorite is not indestructible,” Rafaela continued to explain, aware that the entire room required her knowledge of the stone. Just like our knowledge of the keys, it seemed Altar wished to remove the true purpose of the stones from our history. Perhaps the gods wished to keep us in the dark to protect us, but all it had done was make us more vulnerable. “It is malleable. The Nephilim have used it for prisons, weapons and even the heart of our concerns, the gate which keeps Duwar locked away.”

“For now,” Althea said quickly, her gaze fixated on a spot on the floor before her. “We understand Aldrick’s intentions and know what he wishes to achieve. He may even claim the third key if we continue sitting around talking about it. Or, we act before he makes his next move. Robin.” Her eyes settled on me. “You are safest with us, but Elinor is currently in her court alone. I have already sent word to her, told her to prepare her borders for an inevitable attack.”

I nodded, swallowing down the lump in my dry throat. “And we are sure that Aldrick cannot use the keys?”

It was a question for Rafaela, one she answered freely. “There was a reason Altar made four. Because only a god can access the full power of four, and regardless of what Aldrick thinks he is, he is no god. To our luck, we only have his magic to contend with, and the force of his Hunters.”

Three powerful raps sounded on the closed doors. No one needed to accept the request for entry, for the door burst open. I turned and watched as Duncan and Erix entered, side by side. In the middle was a man I had hoped to see.

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