Page 56 of The Unseelie War
Before Ava could process his seeming threat, Valroy turned to Serrik, who was still looming silently behind Ava. Serrik had been remaining silent throughout the exchange. Valroy grinned fiendishly. “Which brings me to you, dear half-brother. I have a proposition.”
Serrik’s tone and face were perfectly blank. “Which is?”
“I find myself curious what it would be like to face one of my own ilk. Or, perhaps, as close as I shall ever achieve after a fashion.” Valroy studied his nails. “But what is a brawl without proper stakes? So. Here is my bargain to you, brother. You and I, in single combat. Winner takes all. If you can defeat me, I will surrender. I will stop my war and submit to whatever judgment you and my lovely wife see fit to levy upon me.”
“And if you win?” Serrik’s voice gave away nothing.
“The same. You surrender. Unconditionally. Andonly you.Your dear friends may continue to meddle as they see fit.” His smile was sharp and vicious. “Is that not generous? What say you?”
“No.” The refusal from the spider was immediate and left no room for argument.
Valroy’s laugh was one of honest delight. “Damn! And here I was hoping you might be foolish enough to accept. I had heard such legends of your hunger for revenge and your overwhelming rage at our kind, after all. But I was fairly certain you wouldn’t be such a fool.”
“You know you would win. As do I.” Serrik’s hands on Ava’s shoulders tightened just slightly. “It was a simple ploy to remove me from the board.”
“Indeed it was.” Valroy unfurled his wings with a wistful sigh. “I was, however, eager to see what the exiled spider was capable of.Perhaps I might still be so lucky. But that will have to wait, it seems. For shame. You are not one to gamble.”
“No. I am not. And certainly not when the other party holds loaded dice.”
“And it seems you have now something to lose.” Valroy turned those faintly-glowing blue eyes to Ava. “Love makes cowards of us all.”
“Mm. Interesting.” Serrik lifted a hand from Ava’s shoulder to gently comb his golden nails through her hair. “In that, I believe you may be correct. I find myself reluctant to take unnecessary risks, now that I have more to lose. Which in turn casts the morning light of doubt, King Valroy…” The spider’s voice dropped low. “Upon the words of love you claim you feel yourself…”
Valroy growled, baring his teeth at Serrik, a feral expression. “Mind your tongue. Lest I follow in the footsteps of Dagda and Bres and cut it from you. I suddenly find myself curious what spider meat tastes like.”
Flashes of a dream she’d shared with him. A knife. Laughter. Serrik screaming in pain. Yet like a dream, she couldn’t remember the details. She glanced up at Serrik. But the looming creature behind her was expressionless and cold. If the threat bothered him, he didn’t show it.
And now wasn’t the time to ask for details.
“So. I have to ask again. Do all of you ever get sick of being the Morrigan’s puppets? Of dancing to her tune?” Ava huffed a half-laugh. “Because she created all of you—me, too, I guess—to play her stupid fucking games. And here we are, playing them like obedient little toys. And I’m fucking sick of it.”
For the first time since he’d shown up, Valroy looked genuinely surprised. He began to laugh. Not bitter or mocking her, but with real amusement. “A puppet? Oh, dear girl. I am terribly sorry. You simply do not understand, do you?”
She hated being talked to like she was a child. But she supposed to him, she was. She sighed. “Understandwhat,Valroy?”
“The part of me that is the void that hungers joined in this game with herwillingly.”He placed a hand to his chest over the tattoo of the maze emblazoned on his skin. “When she bred the fallen archangel to create this cage of flesh for the power I contain, she called upon the entropy between worlds andthis—my existence as you see it now—was our agreement.”
“Moreover,” he continued, “know this, Weaver—it washerdesign that gave me the capacity to enjoy it!” Laughing, he spread his arms wide. “She made me what I am! A creature of entropy and destruction, with the intelligence to appreciate the artistry of it all. The perfect irony, the elegant chaos, the beautiful futility of mortal ambition.” He gestured toward the burning settlements in the distance. “This is not destruction, little Weaver. This is not dancing upon her puppet strings. This isparadise.”
“You're insane,” Bitty whispered.
“Perhaps.” Valroy's expression grew serious as he turned back to Abigail. “Which brings me to my final offer, my beloved wife.”
“As always, I shall listen.” The poor Seelie Queen looked exhausted and heartbroken.
“Stand at my side. Willingly. Be my queen in blazing glory, not in opposition. In truth, not in name.” His voice grew softer, almost pleading. “I will grant you the gift of building something new from the ashes of the old. I swear to you, the Seelie will be spared. Your people will live in peace, allowed to thrive in whatever form this new world takes.”
“And if I refuse?”
Valroy's expression hardened. “They shall burn with the rest.”
“That is no choice,” Abigail said quietly. “That is coercion.”
“Yes, my love. And it was always destined to come to this moment.” Valroy's voice was gentle, almost sad. “I will not stop this war. I cannot stop it. You know I cannot. It is what I was made for, and I have waited too long to be denied now. But I can choose how it ends. I can choose whether your people survive it.”
Abigail stepped close to him, placing her palms to his chest. “You're asking me to betray everything I believe in. Everything I have stood guard against—that my kind have stood guard against for centuries upon centuries.”
“I’m asking you to chooselove.” Valroy placed his hands over the backs of hers. “To choose the survival of your people. I am asking you to save them the only way they can be saved.”
