Page 31 of The Unseelie War
Serrik, maybe.
Her friends didn’t deserve an opera house suddenly turning into an angrysentientopera house.
“I am merely stating that we should locate a base of operations somewhere quiet, somewhere farther away from this madness, and allow the world to…normalize, as much as it is able to do, before we act.” He shrugged dismissively. “You are ill-prepared to take on a creature such as Valroy. And without your gifts under my command, as was my original intent, this could go quite poorly for us.”
“Oh sure, blame this on me wanting to maintain my own damn agency andsoul!”The lights flickered again. Ava gripped the back of one of the rows of seats, desperately trying to cool her temper. “If only I had just let you enslave me, things would have turned out perfectly.”
“That is not what I am saying, Ava.”
“Then what are you saying?” She shot him a look that told him to be very, very careful with his next words.
If he got the meaning, his expression didn’t betray anything. “Simply that matters would not be this…” He paused, searching for the right word. “Tumultuous.”
Oh. Oh, that was rich. “Things are about to become a lot more tumultuous around here,assclown,if you don’t start explaining to me real quickly why you’ve suddenly become a coward.”
Thatfinally got a reaction out of him. His expression turned dark. “Will the rest of you leave the room?”
“No. They stay. I want them to hear why you’re suddenly too chicken to face Valroy.” She took a step toward him. “Why you want to run away with your proverbial tail tucked between your seven fucking legs.”
He grimaced, baring his teeth at her, the first crack appearing in his composure. “Because my wrath will not stop with him!” His hands lowered to his sides. “Every last one of them will die.” He gestured to the other fae gathered in attendance. His expression turned sadistic. “And I willdelightin it.”
“Serrik…” She felt cold settle over her.
He stalked to the front of the stage, moving with a predatory grace even in his human form. “Do you think simply because I have found companionship in you that I can simply set aside nearly two thousand years of rage? Of hatred? Of the loathing I see reflected in their faces, even though I stand here as their ally in this moment?” He gestured at Nos and Ibin.
“But you’re half-fae,” Bitty was still cowering behind Lysander. “You’ll die too, won’t you?”
“Would that not be the most fitting end to my tale?” Serrik laughed sadly. “Is that not how this story should be written? I was never designed forlove.This was an accident. An aberration.” He gestured a hand dismissively at Ava, his smile sharp and bitter.
“Ohfuck you.”She rolled her eyes. “Fuck you and your ‘woe is me’security blanket. You’re running away from this because you’re scared to face the truth.”
“And do tell, what is that?”
“That you might have to actuallyforgivethe bastards who did this to you!” Her grip tightened on the back of the row of the seats next to her.
Suddenly the bolted-down legs snapped free and elongated, and the Boston Opera House row BB seats 101-109 got up in their new and startling form as an enormous theatre-seat centipede. It raised its bizarre amalgamation of a seat-head, let out a loud, quite-rusted, scraping-metal-spring “SCREEEE,”and angrily trundled off up the aisle to go do…whatever it was it decided a theatre-seat centipede ought to do with its life.
Putting her head in her hands, Ava let out a long, ragged sigh. “Fuck me. Just, fuck it. Fuck everything. I can’t even—I can’t even get mad without—is that thing going to cause a problem?”
“I…don’t know?” Ibin tried to helpfully answer, even though Ava wasn’t really asking anyone in particular.
“You have succinctly proven my point, Weaver. You cannot control your power. And I am still uncertain as to how much of mine I can wield without disastrous results.” Serrik folded his hands behind his back.
“Stop using that as a cover.” She glowered at him. “I’m not going to get into a circular argument with you.”
“Then I suggest you simply agree with me and be done with it.” His tone was once more hard, his momentary crack sealed once more behind a wall of stone. “My reasoning for wishing to retreat from this location can be multitudinous and complicated. Your reasons for wishing to stay may be flawed in just as many facets.”
“I swear tofuckSerrik, have you ever seen the movieThe Fly?Because—” There she went again, getting angry. “Stop pushing my buttons, will you? Are you trying to cause a fracture in reality?”
His expression softened, if slightly. “What do you see, when you look at me, Ava?”
She threw up her hands again in frustration. “The hell kind of question is that?”
“You see a creature pretending at humanity.” He placed a palm to his chest. “A creature made of nightmares who has managed to convinceyouthat he is capable of something more than revenge. But that is all that it is—pretense. A lie. A trick of the light and nothing more.”
“Here goes that ‘woe is me, I’m a monster’ shit all over again.” Ava was starting to get to the point where she wanted to cry. “What do you want me to say? That you’re right? Because you’re not. If you were a monster, you’d be out there slaughtering every fae you met right now, indiscriminately, the same as Valroy is probably doing toinnocenthumans. And you said you?—”
“What? Love you?” He laughed, the sound harsh and bitter. “Perhaps. If something like me can know love. Valroy claims to know love. But creatures such as we…what we say is love is merely a facsimile.”
