Page 113 of Royal Captive
I thought back to when we’d first arrived at Fennis’s court. Feyanna and Fallon had been behind his throne, but I hadn’t paid the daughters any mind. I’d been too worried about Eve, and about our fate. And what had been happening in front of us with Cassus and Ferar.
“Was Ferar a rebel?” I asked, trying to put the pieces together.
Eve inhaled sharply beside me.
Breaking my attention from Feyanna was a mistake. Her fist hit me hard before I could even blink. Just as fast, Alihandro pulled her off me, even as she spat in anger.
Eve winced as she put a gentle hand to the side of my face, which was already swelling.
“Don’t you dare say his name like that!” Feyanna cried.
“Like what?” I shot back, resisting the urge to hold my cheek or show that it hurt.
“Like he didn’t matter,” Feyanna snarled. “Everything I did, I did for him.”
Eve dropped her hand and made a small sound in the back of her throat.
“I was watching the princesses that day in the throne room,” Eve began. “Feyanna … she flinched when Ferar died.” She faced Feyanna with a gleam in her eyes. “You loved Ferar. He was your mate.”
Oh.Oh.
A lot of things suddenly made sense.
Eve was a convenient scapegoat—someone to blame the sudden change in tactics and retaliation on. Because that’s what the violence was about, wasn’t it? It wasn’t because Feyanna cared about her people or tried to bring her father to justice. She’d had all this time and her long fae lifespan to do that, but hadn’t made her move until we had come.
Until Ferar had died.
She’d terrorized her own people and her city to get revenge for her dead lover. That was it. Anything else was supplemental.
I couldn’t allow her to step one foot in our homeland. Judging from the hard expression on Eve’s face, we were on the same page.
“Is the prophecy even real?” I asked. “Or was it another convenient lie to help hide the truth?”
I anxiously awaited the answer. I hoped it was, but I knew from my dreams what the answer was.
“Only children and fools believe in such nonsense,” Feyanna sneered. “Wishes and hopes are only as good as the cold bodies they come from. Action is the only thing that matters.”
She gave Eve a harsh once over from head to toe.
“I mean, look at you! A queen who would destroy it all. You couldn’t even give me a paper cut. Pathetic, desperate ramblings of a pathetic, desperate people.”
Eve’s eyes narrowed, but instead of retaliating, her head tilted to the side.
“The barrier stays open as long as I don't eat, right?” she asked carefully.
Alihandro let go of Feyanna, who looked less likely to hack my face off. “The moment fae food touches your lips, our magick taints you, and the barrier will close since you are the last human here without a drop of magick in you,” he confirmed.
“Why do you think I followed you here?” Feyanna snapped. “I wouldn’t go through all of this just to have you fuck it up at the end. I made sure you only took food prepared and raised by humans. Even that chicken you took!”
Eve laughed. “You’re all nuts. I’ll just eat something, and all of this will be for nothing. I’m not letting you across this barrier.”
Feyanna snarled. “I will kill one refugee at a time, starting with the children until you agree to let us pass through. Allow us all through, and I will stay behind with my sword at your throat. When it is done, we will cross together. The barrier will close behind us forever once you’re on the other side. This land can die and magick can have it.”
And killing everyone left behind. How noble.
“What kind of princess are you?” Eve challenged. “Why not bring everyone through?”
Alihandro ran a hand through his hair. “Most of everyone who is sympathetic to our cause is here now. Only those worthy and who supported our cause may come to the other side. Otherwise how will we honor the fae and human alliance?”
