Page 78 of Crowned A Traitor
“Thank you, Your Highness,” Klara’s response was greeted with a tilted smile. Klara tried to take a step, but the Guards pulled her back.
“Touch me again, and I will take those hands,” Klara said, and the Fae Queen smiled, and the Guards backed up. “Josephine, you wouldn’t take action against your kin, now would you?”
Ice white hair trailed down the Queen’s shoulders, Klara was taken aback by such pure beauty.
“I have no kin here,” Klara protested.
“You are not as I expected,” the Fae Queen rubbed her hands together.
“Just as stubborn as your Father.” The Queen was nothing like Klara had ever seen. Not in grimoires and certainly not among Malums’ Creatures. Klara’s legs grew tired while Queen Aemella studied her in silence. Not a slicked back hair out of place.
The floral throne blossomed as the Fae Queen took her seat and the scent of sweet flowers filled the space around them. The Fae Queen cocked her head to the side, “You seem tired, feel free to sit.”
Klara refused to let her legs betray her. Instead, she let the blood pool on the crisp white marble beneath her.
“You speak as though you know my Father?” Klara said, and the Fae Queen let out a soft laugh which seemed to sing off the walls. “How do you think your Father came to rule over Malum? I had to put the less desirables somewhere.”
“The treaty doesn’t mean you know him, stubbornness is the least of his issues,” Klara said, and the Queen’s pale blue eyes went wide. “Leave us,” Aemella ordered, and the Guards evaporated. “Palace Guards are awful gossips,” Aemella winked. “I’m sure Lucifer has never mentioned me.”
“Should he have? I didn’t realize you were so close.”
“We had a business arrangement on which he fell short.”
Fae and their words, nothing was ever definite. “He created Malum for you for your undesirables and what did you give him?” Klara felt her heart quicken, afraid Aemella’s cold stare would drain Klara of her blood. The Queen leant forward resting her pointed chin on her hands. Like a child studying an animal for the first time.
“Where are my manners we haven’t been formally introduced?” Queen Aemella rose and walked down the mirrored staircase her heels clicking.
“Queen Aemella of Kalos,” her white trousers trailed in Klara’s small pool of blood as they stood face to face.
“Klara Lucifer,” she introduced herself knowing to bow her head or lose it. Her words stumbled through chattering teeth. The Queen placed a feathered hand on her shoulder. “What did I give your Father? Well, I gave him what he always desired.’
Klara sank to the floor, unable to hold herself upright any longer. Mila’s iron arrows took more strength than she thought. “A three-headed dog?” Klara half-joked, knowing how much her Father loved Cerberus.
“You,” Queen Aemella smiled sadly. Silence surrounded them as Klara forgot how to breathe.
“You’re lying.”
Queen Aemella sank to her knees so they both sat at the same level. “Lying? Dear child, how could I? You forget what I am! Haven’t you been able to cross into my land without Guards waiting? There was a reason that field was empty.”
“You didn’t want to waste Fae,” Klara said, and Aemella ran a hand over her scalp. Locks of raven hair appeared down Klara’s shoulders.
“Why think so little of me?” Klara was too busy picking up the lengths of hair to reply.
“I was waiting for you when Abadan’s scouts killed my Guards,” Aemella’s frustration was evident in her voice, she rose to stand above Klara. “A rib from him and my blood and ta-da you were born. Not the most romantic encounter but functional.”
Klara didn’t want to know about Lucifer’s or Aemella’s romantic encounters. She wasn’t sure if it was the excessive blood loss or the information making her head spin. Klara knew better than anyone that having someone’s blood in your veins doesn’t make them family.
“Bringing me here means you want something from me.”
Aemella’s eyes narrowed. “Your friends are being monitored as we speak. I can see there is not a bad bone in their bodies, but Lycaons have a habit of multiplying, Lycaon-Faes sound most fascinating, and I’m sure they’d make excellent warriors, but it’s up to you how I respond to them being here.”
“Up to me?” Klara asked. “What do you want?”
“I want you to kill your Father.”
“Why?” The room began to spin, and Klara tried to rise, but her legs gave out. “Stop struggling the protections in this room are stripping you of your magic.” Klara glared at Aemella. “The protections keep everyone in this room on equal footing.”
“I can’t kill the King of Hell,” Klara breathed.
