Page 118 of Fate and Flame
It was the first time he had spoken with absolute authority.
Greeve moved forward an inch, nearly crunching the back of the chair in his hands.
“The gods chose to shield my people because we listened to the prophetess. We made sacrifices to them and begged for them to have mercy on us.”
“So, you’re telling me you’re a gazillion years old?”
“No, girl. Our ancestors have passed on. We likely do have more children here than you see in the south because we pay homage to the Mother. We still die. We still age. We still bicker amongst ourselves.”
“What does any of this have to do with me?” I asked, trying to pull everyone back to the actual point.
“I’m sure you met the creatures of The Bog as you passed through. The gryla?” He pulled a piece of paper from his desk and began to write as he continued. As if we had already bored him.
“Unfortunately,” I answered.
“When the fae traveled south and left a tear in the veil, he traded our information to the gryla for safe passage. Occasionally, they are able to slip past our guards. They steal children from their beds at night and give them to Autus so he will leave them alone. A tax. We’ve lost several children this way.” He paused. “Including my own son. Did you never wonder where you were from?” His pen wavered long enough for him to look up at me with disgust.
“I was raised in the king’s stables. I had no reason to question the things that were said.” My face mirrored his own.
“Fae children are so rare. They would never be discarded. Never thrown out to the stables.” He looked back to his paper and shook his head as if I were the ridiculous one.
“And my mother?”
His eyes moved to a painting on the wall. I didn’t bother looking. I knew what I would see there. The face of a female I never had a chance to know.
“She passed bringing you into this world.” His voice turned dark, raw with emotion. “I wasn’t fit to raise you, so I sent you to live with a caretaker. A friend of your mother’s. She lived close to the border of our wards. When the gryla came in at night and stole you, she slit her throat.” His eyes became dark. Sinister. “You’ve been the cause of two deaths in this city.”
Gaea scrunched her nose in disgust. “He was a baby. You can’t possibly blame him.”
“I can fight my own battles,” I said, rising. “And none of this is why I came here. None of this matters anymore. You can hate me, that’s fine. But I’ve come on behalf of the king of the Flame Court.”
He snorted, focusing solely on the paper he had been working on.
“Autus is gathering a human army. Coro and Morwena are dead. He is bored with the north and wants to take over the entire world. A world that you are part of.”
“A king that wants to claim the south is no problem of mine. He doesn’t even know that we exist.”
I pressed my palms onto the desk and leaned over him, ire filling my blood. “Your gods gave me passage to beseech your help. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”
“They gave you passage because you were born here.”
I pointed to my companions. “They weren’t.”
“The gods have many whims that are rarely explainable. I’ve learned over many, many years you can never be sure of their motive for anything.”
“What do you think will happen after the king decimates the south?” Greeve asked, a brisk breeze moving through the room. “Once the king has claimed the rest of the world? If we know you are here, do you think it will take long before he learns the same?”
“What if he uses the Hunt to move into the human world or another? What if he wants to claim that for his own as well? What if worlds are destroyed because you want to sit behind this desk and claim immunity?” My hands trembled as I held back the fury.
“I am within my rights to protect the identity of my people. I will not suffer them to a war that is not their own. Get out.”
“But you can’t—”
“I can and I will.”
Gaea jerk upward. “You’re a coward.”
“Perhaps, but when you’re dead and I’m alive, I will know I’ve made the right choice.”
