Page 75 of The Unseelie War
“I know.” Abigail held her voice high. “And my answer remains the same.”
Ava glanced around. They were surrounded, and growing moresurrounded by the moment. Nightmares, Unseelie, and even humans armed to the teeth were circling around them. This was gettingbad.
She could only hope that Abigail had a goddamn plan.
Valroy was focused only on his Queen and their argument. “Your answer remains the same? Even knowing what it will cost you? Even knowing that your choice condemns you to slow dissolution, to watching yourself fade away piece by piece until nothing remains but an echo?” He spread his arms wide. “Stand with me, Abigail. Let us burn this broken world together and build something beautiful from the ashes.”
“And what if I were to say yes?” Abigail's voice was steady, but Ava could hear the pain beneath it. “If I chose to stand with you, what then? What happens to my people? What happens to the humans you have already put to the sword and slaughtered like so much cattle?”
“They cease to matter. They have never mattered,” Valroy replied simply. “There is only us, only the love that has burned between us for centuries, only the freedom to finally be what we were meant to be.”
“Listen to yourself.” Abigail took a step toward him. “And your words of love and sacrifice cut both ways. You speak of freedom, but what you demand has always been my complete surrender. Tell me, husband—ifyoutruly lovedme,would you not sacrifice your war to be with me?”
The silence that followed was deafening. For a moment, Ava thought she saw something like uncertainty flicker across Valroy's features.
Then his expression hardened. “That choice was made for me the moment I was made, my love. You ask the wolf to become a dog. I am only that what I was fashioned to be.”
“That is a lie, and you know it.” Abigail took another step forward. “This was not decided for you.Youchoose this simply because becoming more than the sole purpose for which you were made leaves you with a terror of any absence of purpose at all.Answer me this—look around you, and tell me, once and for all—is thiswhat you truly want?”
Valroy's eyes blazed with sudden fury. “Howdareyou question my desire.”
“No,” Abigail said softly. “I shall dare. You are afraid.”
“I am not afraid. I am fearitself.”He snarled, baring his teeth at her.
Abigail sighed, and shook her head sadly. “I love you, Valroy. I have always loved you.” She placed her hand on the maze tattooed over his chest, and her voice grew gentler. “But I have never condoned that which youbelieveis your sole motive for existence. For I see you as the whole and not merely a blade, fashioned to cut the throats of those around you.”
“Oh?” He sneered bitterly. “And what would you have me become instead? Your doting andobedienthusband? Tamed and weak? Perhaps I should take up painting or crochet?”
“Only you would see agency as slavery.” She met his fury with a grief that told Ava that Abigail knew she had already lost this argument. That there had been no winning it to begin with. “I would have you beValroy.Nothing more. Nothing less.” She chuckled. “Indeed, I would have settled for the boar.”
For a long moment, they watched each other. Two beings of immense power locked in a tragic situation that had been going on for centuries.
Then Valroy laughed, and the sound was like breaking glass. “Then we are at an impasse, as we have always been, my love. You will not choose me over your precious duty, and I cannot choose anything other than what I am.” He gestured toward Alex, still trapped in the tree. “So tell me, my beloved—why should I release her? So that you can all sacrifice yourselves to nothingness? So that you can lay your love on the altar to the void like some primitive offering?”
His voice grew louder, more passionate. “Don't you understand? This is pointless! The world will always demand more sacrifice, moresuffering, more beautiful things thrown into the maw of necessity. The Morrigan sits and laughs, moving us around like pieces on a chess board, and we dance to her tune like obedient puppets!”
Valroy spread his wings to their full span. “The only solution is to destroy everything! To reduce the whole of creation to the void where it belongs! Make the Morrigan answer for what she has done to us all! Or, perhaps we should finally trap her within that prison mydear brotherso carefully built for her.” He grinned. “Aah…yes, what a wonderful plan. Ava dear, why do you not come here? I have a proposition for you.”
“What?” Ava blinked.
“I will allow your dear spider to survive. I will allow the Seelie to survive. I will even allow…somehumans to survive.” He wrinkled his nose as if the idea was noxious to him and waved a hand dismissively. “You may rend the worlds apart as you planned. Send Alex to be the anchor-point for Tir n’Aill. You, for Earth with brother-dearest to keep you sane. But use the Morrigan to anchor the Web in place.” Valroy laughed. “There! Is that not a wonderful compromise?”
Abigail looked horrified. “You would place the Morrigan herself inside a prison for all time. The very creator of our race. Yourmother.Who is to say what would happen to our magic, all of us, if that were to occur?”
“No more chaotic than anything else we have endured, certainly. What love do you have for that be-feathered bitch-queen?” He huffed a laugh. His glee faded. “And no more tragic than losing you, my love. To choose between the Morrigan and you is no choice at all.”
“And how do you plan to trap her?” Abigail arched an eyebrow.
“The Weaver. Or Puck. Or I.” Valroy shrugged. “Once we are agreed, it can be dealt with easily enough.”
“No.” Abigail shook her head. “No, you are not to be trusted. This is a stall tactic, a ploy, nothing more.”
“It is not foryouto decide.” Valroy turned to Ava. “What say you, Weaver? Abigail, or the Morrigan? War or peace?”
“What the actualfuck.”Ava paced away half a dozen steps. “Don’tyou fucking put this on me, you two overblown telenovelas on legs.” She put a hand over her eyes and groaned. “Give me a second.” Staring up at the sky, she watched the stars twist and the auroras between the worlds flicker and struggle to stay lit. “Valroy, if I agree, and wecouldtrust you, and wecouldget the Morrigan into the Web, what about your war?”
“I continue it. I told you, some shall survive.” The way he said it was as casual as a man saying he was about to go out for groceries.
