Page 20 of A Queen Of Broken Realms
I’m thinking of all the things I will accomplish with the blade in my hand when a sound startles me from my wicked reverie. I look over my shoulder and watch Ediye enter the Council Room, her gaze surveying the blood on the floor and the broken furniture littering the wide space.
“I noticed something interesting when I arrived at the library this morning,” the witch says as she rights an overturned chair, wiping her hand across the seat before sitting next to me.
I have no interest in expending energy by talking, so I only offer a grunt in reply. I keep my eyes down on the blade I sharpen with methodical strokes.
“There were no ghost hosts today,” she continues, undeterred.
Ghost hosts. That sounds like something Lu would say. I glare down at the dagger in my hand.
“No haunted carriages either.”
I grunt again.
“Then I heard an interesting rumor. That there was a decree issued that souls will no longer be used in service to Reapers. I thought to myself, ‘who would have done that?’And then I heard that any demons caught disobeying this decree would be punished by death, to which I thought, ‘I bet I know exactly where that decree came from.’”
I stay silent for a long moment, sliding the blade across the stone, though the edge cannot get much sharper. “She hates that we used them.”
I give no more detail than that. There is no reason to, and the witch understands. She is always pushing, but only enough to bend the line of my irritation, never break it.
We sit in silence for a long moment. I think about the time I brought Lu to the library. We stood in the vestibule, and she cast her hand across the page of her notebook, asking about the werewolf soul chained to the door. She wanted to know what his crime had been, and I gave no thought to my answer. I said I didn’t know. I never expected a reaction, but Lu challenged me. Fearlessly. In my own domain. In the realm of her enemies. And she did it with kindness. She looked at me not with anger, but empathy.
How this place must have sickened her.Terrifiedher. And yet she still has mercy for the souls and demons residing here, despite everything the Shadow Realm has taken from her, everything it put her through. I understand now how much she strives to connect with others, even despite herself. The loneliness she must have felt during her years in hiding…it must have been suffocating.
“You look like shit,” the witch says, tearing me free of my thoughts. “Come and get something to eat.”
“I’m not hungry.”
“You think you’ll find her any faster by starving yourself?”
I glance up at the room before returning my attention back to my blade. “I have more important things to do.”
“Right, like re-killing people you’ve already killed several times before.”
“Exactly. That is calledjustice.”
“Actually, it’s calledvengeance, but sure, whatever.”
“Your memory is short, witch. You seem to be forgetting the vengeance you took out on me in the barn when you killed me with your starblades.”
“Starblades. I like that.” Ediye smiles as though I’ve brought up fond memories. “I’m not forgetting. Becausethatwasjustice.”
I can’t argue with her on that point. I could have fought back in the barn, but I had a debt to pay. Ediye was owed her pound of flesh.
“Did Lu ever tell you how we met?” the witch asks, her voice quieter than before. I glance up and shake my head. She gives me a bittersweet smile. “She’d overheard a human man in a tavern, bragging about how he’d caught me. His name was Matthew.”
“Matthew,” I repeat with a huff of a mirthless laugh at the meaning of his name.Gift from God. “I can imagine Lu would find him appetizing.”
“Definitely. He had me subdued in his cottage. It was late when he returned from the tavern that night. I heard him coming up the stairs, and I was terrified. I refused to use my powers for his advantage. I knew he was going to kill me for it. And then, all of a sudden, I heard this loud thud on the porch. In dances this wild whirlwind of a vampire, dragging Matthew by the ankle. I was just as afraid of being cornered by her, but she was determined to be friends, whether I wanted to or not.Great friends, Lu even said.I just know it.”
A long sigh passes my lips. “That sounds like Lu.”
“Yeah,” Ediye says. Her voice sounds thin and weak. I hear her swallow and I look over, but her eyes are cast down from me. “She helped me take my justice. We were not merciful. And we didn’t stop at Matthew.”
I notice in the silence stretching around us that I must have stopped sharpening my blade. I turn it over in my hand as I wait for the witch to either continue or leave her memories buried in history.
A scuffling sound draws my attention to the door behind us and Cyrus appears, his gaze bouncing between me and the witch. He says nothing, just jerks his head in the direction of the hall. My fury swirls in anticipation. I trap it in my gut and wave him off. He nods and disappears down the hall and I watch the empty space of the doorway as his footsteps retreat down the corridor.
“I had a son once,” Ediye says, almost a whisper. My gaze snaps back to her but her eyes are fused to her upturned palms. “He was half human. It was just me and him. His name was Tayo. It meansboy full of happiness.”
