Page 97 of Fates Fulfilled
She glanced up hesitantly. “I might have unfrozen things a bit.”
He shook his head. Isle’s prediction had come true. Lex was more powerful than the Dark King. More powerful than all of them combined.
“What’s happening?” Lex asked.
Garrin looked around. “You raised the dead.”
She peered back at the men and women. “They weren’t dead. I’ve always felt their power, if I think back. I thought it was some creepy energy remnant from dead Fae, but it was them all along.”
“No, not dead,” he agreed. “Waiting. And furious, from the looks of it. They have great reason to hate my father and his soldiers.”
Isle had brought people from the bottom of the ravine Garrin thought to never see again, and some he’d never seen before. Some wore liveried clothes; others were dressed in court attire, and others wore the simple woolen garments Mertha and her husband had worn.
These Fae had been buried in the caves alive. Just as Casone had done with others who’d crossed him. It had never been a graveyard. This place was where the king had stashed his dissenters.
Amund ran over. “The battle will be over soon. Royal soldiers are accepting defeat without their king. Where should we put them?”
Garrin wasn’t truly a prince, and his father should have never ruled. “For now, let us take them to the dungeons. We will meet with the men and women of Dark Kingdom and figure out a way forward. I will not rule this land. I’m not a legitimate heir to the throne, and my father has left a stain on the Branimir reign.”
“None of this was your fault,” Lex said.
He smiled down at her. “No, but I have no wish to rule Dark Kingdom. I find myself inclined to return to the Land of Sun with my fiancée.”
37
Lex tossed a grape into her mouth. Well, not exactly agrape. Some kind of Tirnan variation, but it tasted like a grape, except tangier.
She scanned the inside of Em’s new digs, previously the king’s quarters. “I don’t know. The gold accents give it a certain feel. You could be Em the Gold Queen.”
Em’s mouth puckered. “I’m not queen yet. And Casone Branimir had no taste.”
“I’ll give you that,” Lex agreed. The king had installed a pretty swanky bathroom for a castle this old, with a four-person bathtub that overlooked the now defrosted Dark Kingdom Garden, but the toilet was gold.Gold.Who installed a gold toilet?
Velvet drapes in emerald boasted hand-painted images of Casone Branimir. Talk about narcissism. Even the bed Lex lay on was draped in gold silk and could fit an entire soccer team. The Dark King didn’t do anything in half measures.
Lex looked around with her nose scrunched. “You really want to stay here?”
Em shrugged as she lifted down a Fae-sized painting of the former king. “Someone needs to protect the land.”
Lex was referring to the bedroom, but Em had a point. “Elena and Keen won’t attack Dark Kingdom now that your parents are in charge. They only came because Camille detected Garrin when he entered their land. It was more of a reconnaissance mission. And apparently Jas was putting up a stink to get me back.”
“It’s not them I fear. The queen escaped the king’s ice magic when you unfroze the land, and we are missing two alchemists. My father believes they are together in Tirnan or the Earth realm.” Em’s mouth twisted. “I do not trust the previous queen. She was most unmotherly in how she treated Garrin.”
Lex choked on her next grape. “Um, that’s putting it mildly. She was power-crazed.”
Em batted at the velvet drapes, looking at them sideways.
Lex lifted her finger. “As your stylist, I suggest you burn those.”
Em made a sound of agreement, then sat on the bed beside Lex. “My parents were handed the kingdom because we are the closest relatives to the Branimir line, though we don’t take the task lightly. I’ll make sure my court protects the land from the Dark Queen.”
“Former Dark Queen,” Lex pointed out. “She’s been stripped of her royal post, remember? And I suppose that’s an ignoble reason to hang around.”
Lex sat up and inspected a piece of cheese, wondering benignly what animal it had come from. “What about the king and prince’s harems? What will happen to the women?”
“The prince’s harem wishes to become a part of the royal guard, and my mother and father have agreed. The king’s harem wishes to leave this land.”
Garrin valued and trained his court females, and the king belittled his. The women’s decisions spoke to their treatment by the most powerful men in the land.
