Succession

by Rachel Angel

  One of the towers that guarded the castle was no more. It lay in a pile of stones at the northeast corner of the castle.

  “I can only imagine what Spring and Fall must look like,” Harley said.

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  Oak came to them, a load of splintered lumber in his arms. “We’re going to recuperate what we can to rebuild. The rest will be used to build a series of fires to cook on. We’re going to have a feast tonight… that much I can tell you.”

  Grinning, he walked on.

  “A feast certainly sounds good,” Harley said as she ran her hand over her flat belly. Always slim and toned, she’d never been so sickly thin.

  They walked on together, assessing the damage. Piles of dark fae dust lay everywhere, proof of the immensity of the army they faced. As Kingsley had pointed out, there were a few lost dark fae wandering aimlessly.

  “Do you know the degree of damage to your castle?” Harley said. “To your kingdom?”

  Kingsley looked at his distant castle and grunted. “That black hole that you see there,” he said. “Well, there’s another one twice as big as that on the other side. Some have said that we may have to tear the entire castle down and rebuild.”

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  “I’m sorry about that,” Harley said, shaking her head. “I wish I could have stopped them. I wish I could have stopped my father before he…”

  Kingsley turned to her. “Don’t do this,” he said as she turned to look at him. “Don’t beat yourself up over this. If you hadn’t been here, there would be nothing to rebuild. The entire fae realm would now be run by your father and his dark fae.

  Yes, we’ve sustained losses, but we will rise again, Harley. I can promise you that. We will come back stronger ever.”

  She smiled through her disappointment. She knew he was right… things could be worse, but it was a blow to learn just how devastating the damage was.

  “Hey,” he said as he wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her to him. “I’d love to have you hang around the castle and help us rebuild.

  You did a great job with the Academy. Imagine what you could do for Sea.”

  He was right. They could start with a clean slate, build everything anew. It was a great opportunity to start all over again.

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  As they walked back to the encampment, she looked at the number of soldiers, hers, Fall’s, Sea’s and Wood’s. They all worked together to clean up.

  There was a degree of comradery that she’d never seen before. It was another positive outcome of the otherwise devastating war.

  It didn’t matter what kingdom they were from. It didn’t matter who their king and queen were. The important thing was getting the job done.

  “Truth be told,” Kingsley said, “You could hardly ask for a better ending to the entire war. All these soldiers have never had the chance to work together before. At times they hated each other without even knowing why. Now they’ve come to realize that, in the end, we all want the same thing.

  To live happily and peacefully together.”

  A cloud of dust appeared on the horizon.

  Dozens of horsemen pulling carts arrived from the direction of the Castle of Sea.

  “Those are my men,” Kingsley said. “It’s time to feast, my love.”

  For the first time since the war had broken out, Harley allowed herself to fully feel her hunger.

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  Succession (Fallen Fae Academy #6) As they headed back through the camp, there was a sense of elation, a communal sigh of relief.

  The moment the carts, laden with food, arrived, men and women took to the tasks of peeling, chopping, preparing and cooking.

  Harley picked up a pear and took a luscious bite. “Oh,” she let out. “Heaven.”

  Large bonfires were lit as well as several smaller cooking fires and before long, the aromatic smells of a well-deserved dinner filled the air.

  “If I can have everyone’s attention,”

  Kingsley shouted as he climbed onto a table.

  “Dinner will be served shortly. I ask that the injured or weak find a place at a table. For the stronger and more robust among you, we ask that you find a comfortable place to enjoy your meal.”

  Harley sat at a table positioned in such a way as to allow her to see all the other tables and beyond.

  The bonfires kept everyone warm as they sat at the large tables and awaited their meal. Dozens of townspeople took to the task of bringing everyone a plate piled high with chicken, pork, potatoes and cabbage.

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  “I’m so proud of you,” Oak said as he raised a glass to Harley. Seated beside her, he grasped her hand, gave it a squeeze, then stood. “If I may have everyone’s attention…”

  The crowd of people, all eager to dig in and savor their meal looked up at him with annoyance.

  “Just a moment of your time,” Oak said. “I know we are all hungry and eager to enjoy this feast, but I want to take the opportunity of thanking Harley, Princess of Spring, for coming through and aiding us in this all important battle.”

  Smiling, Harley stood and looked out at the crowd. After a brief bow of appreciation, she looked at length at the people seated at her table and on the ground beyond. In addition to the Queens of Fall and Spring, she had Kingsley, Red and Zed to her left and Oak, Ethan and Colin to her right.

  All was right with the world.

  Bringing her gaze back to the crowd, she raised her glass of ruby red wine. “This has been an incredible test,” she said. “A test of our resilience, a test of our values and a test of our undying love of 228

  Succession (Fallen Fae Academy #6) all that is the Faery Realm. I thank you all, I love you all, and I toast you all.”

  The crowd cheered and Harley’s heart filled with joy and love.

  Just as she prepared to sit back down, a dark and shadowed movement caught her eye from the field to her right. It was quick, but the dust that flew up behind it remained in the air confirming that something indeed has passed.

  She waited, telling herself it was a stray dog, an untethered horse.

  Anything.

  But the movement came again, closer this time. Her heart raced. That smell. She knew that smell. The scent of…

  “Stephen,” she muttered in disbelief as the great black shadow that was her father came down upon the assembled residents of the Faery Realm.

  Before the men around her could respond, the monstrous black shadow, larger than he’d ever been, loomed in front of her.

  “My disgraced daughter,” Stephen said, his voice just as ugly as his being. “The child of my 229

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  loin, who I trusted, protected and trained. You’ve betrayed me.”

  Harley could hardly believe her eyes.

  Stephen looked down to the end of the table where the queens sat, then back at Harley. “You’re just like your mother. Not to be trusted. I had faith in you. With me, you were to inherit the Faery Realm, the Human Realm and the Dark Faery Realm. Do you not realize what you’ve just let slip through your fingers? The world could have been yours.”

  “You mean it could have been yours,” Harley corrected as she stood to face him. “There was a moment, Father, when I thought the human side of you could return. There was a moment when I thought I could lure you to the light, that you could be redeemed. That you would find it in your heart to be loving and compassionate. But, no.”

  Stephen chuckled. “You’re too naïve for your own good.”

  “No, Father,” Harley argued. “I’m too pure for your own good. Look at the destruction you’ve brought on the kingdoms of the Faery Realm. What 230

  Succession (Fallen Fae Academy #6) is the point? You seem to revel in destruction for destruction’s sake. But what does it really bring you. Nothing. Nothing but ugliness and sorrow.”

  Snarling, Stephen leaned
over her, drooling his toxic saliva over the table. “You’ll regret the day you betrayed me, sweet daughter.”

  Slimy and blackened tentacles sprouted from every side of his body as he simultaneously reached out to grab Kingsley, Red and Zed. Before anyone understood what had happened, he nabbed Oak, Ethan and Colin and held them up like trophies.

  “What say you now, darling savior to the Faery Realm?” Stephen let out with a demonic laugh. “What are you prepared to do now to save the retched souls of these louts?”

  As a final gesture of defiance, Stephen reached out to grab Prince Harris.

  “Father, please,” Harley said, devastated by the sudden turn of events.

  Stephen leaned in close to her, the open nostrils that made up his nose almost touching hers.

  “I’ll leave you the night to make your decision, my love. At dawn, I shall send one back in a box. In 231

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  the meantime, I may just amuse myself whipping a few of these boys into shape.”

  With a sardonic laugh that filled the air, Stephen along with all the men that were important in her life, turned into a plume of acrid black smoke.

  And they were gone.

  What just happened? Harley wanted to say.

  “Mother!” Harley cried as the entire crowd gasped in horror. “Mother! What did he do?”

  The Queen of Spring came to her daughter’s side. “I should have seen this coming,” she said.

  “Stephen will never rest until he has full control of you… until he has full control of the world.”

  “How do I find him?” Harley said, distraught.

  “Where did he go? I have to get them back. You heard him. He’ll torture them to no end. By God, he’ll kill them before morning, I’m certain of it.”

  She immediately received a trembling message from Oak. She saw the sweat on his brow and felt the pain her father was already inflicting to him.

  A hot iron… the burning of skin… the gut wrenching scream…

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  Succession (Fallen Fae Academy #6) Then she saw him… Oak lying on the ground unconscious.

  “He’s already begun torturing them, Mother,” Harley said, seeing it all so clearly now.

  “He’s in a structure somewhere… a barn… There are harnesses and reins and bales of hay.”

  Shocked she stopped as her mind’s eye finally recognized where her father had brought her beloved men.

  Spring Castle.

  Harley turned to look at her mother. “He’s brought them to Spring Castle. I have to get to him.

  I have to save them before he kills them all.”

  The Queen of Spring nodded and took her daughter’s hand. Staring into her eyes, her pupils turned bright white and they were suddenly enveloped in a cloud of blinding brightness.

  When the cloud dissipated, Harley found herself at the door to the barn where Stephen was keeping her men.

  “You have it in you to finally stop him, Harley,” the Queen of Spring said.

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  Harley pushed open the barn door and looked at her father in all his darkened glory.

  “I see you’ve come to your senses,” Stephen said with a cocky grin. He flicked the whip in his hand. “You’re a little quicker than I expected. You barely gave me time to have fun with these lowlifes you call friends.”

  “You’ll understand, Father dear, if your criticism of these men doesn’t hold much water,”

  Harley said. “I mean, how does a lowlife such as yourself measure the worth of another man?”

  “Harsh words, my daughter.” He grinned.

  Harley looked at Oak and Kingsley.

  Tethered to a post in the center of the barn, they both bore the burn marks her father had inflicted on them. At the back wall, beside the pig pen, Red and Zed were chained to the rafters, their feet barely touching the ground and, nearby, Colin and Ethan were tied back to back seated on a block of ice.

  The only one to receive better treatment was Prince Harris who was simply tied to a chair.

  “I thought you had come to bargain,” Stephen said. “But, if you wish to contest…” He flicked the 234

  Succession (Fallen Fae Academy #6) whip at the ground a few times then snapped it at Red, catching his shoulder and his cheek.

  Harley felt the pain of the gash now on Red’s face and held back from gasping in horror. She didn’t want to give her father the satisfaction of knowing he shocked her.

  “I think it’s time we finally put an end to all of this, Father,” Harley said.

  “Do you, now?” he said with a devilish cock to his brow.

  “You called me naïve,” she went on. “I guess I was. I guess I held onto the naïve and childish dream that you would become human and you’d grow a heart, a conscience. But you continue to prove just how wrong I was, and now you leave me no choice.”

  With a menacing grimace, Stephen lashed out, whipping the leather strip repeatedly, catching Oak on the leg, and Kingsley straight across his back. One lash caught both Colin and Ethan across the face.

  “I will not have you talking to me this way,”

  Stephen shouted. “You will join me in ruling the 235

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  world. That ring you carry around your neck. It has meaning, Harley. It means you belong to me. It means that you belong to my world. You cannot betray me. You cannot back out now.”

  Harley simply stared at him, truly saddened to see how hopeless he was.

  “You are my heir,” he screamed, his voice becoming more and more hysterical with every word. He pulled the whip back and prepared to lash out at her men once again.

  “No more of this, Daddy,” Harley said with finality. She tugged on the ring that she wore on the fine chain and tossed it at him. “This is simply a token of your evil spirit. It has no meaning for me.

  I want nothing to do with you.”

  All her powers came together, all the energy.

  She felt electrified and saw the glow that emanated from her body as her hair turned into brilliant strands of every color of the rainbow.

  The wind suddenly howled and the shackles that held her men down broke away. Despite their injuries, they ran behind her just as the roof to the barn flew off exposing the darkening sky.

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  Succession (Fallen Fae Academy #6) The walls shook as Harley concentrated solely on her father. “I will not tolerate any more destruction from you, Stephen,” she called out to him. “I will not allow you to hurt another living soul, nor will I allow you to destroy any creation. I banish you, Father. I pray for your soul. I truly do.

  After all, you are my father. But I nonetheless banish you to a prison that will hold you for all eternity. A prison that will hold you safe, but that will never allow you a moment of freedom. Not even your dark fae magic will penetrate.”

  “Nice try,” Stephen said with an evil grin.

  “There’s nothing you can do to hold me down. I have supreme power.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong, Father.”

  Harley raised her hands, and, in an instant, a sphere of metal bars surrounded Stephen.

  Startled, he glared at her and sneered. “What is this?”

  “Your new home,” Harley said. “I hope you’ll take the time to reconsider your position in this world. I hope that somehow, you’ll find peace.”

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  “Let me out,” Stephen shouted as he rattled the bars. “You horrid creature. Let me out!”

  “He’s not alone,” Kingsley said as he came to Harley’s side. “Cici and Ashley are around here somewhere. We heard them earlier. They’re trying to hide. They were talking about regrouping and attacking anew.”

  Harley closed her eyes, trying to get a sense of where Cici and Ashley could be. Were they hiding nearby?

  Oh, yes, Harley thought with a grin. Very close. Opening her eyes, she gazed up to the hayloft.

  “You bi
tches are not going to get away this time,” she whispered. Concentrating, she focused on their exact location and fiddled with the planks beneath their feet.

  Within seconds, she heard the sound of wood splitting and the surprised screams of the two girls as they fell from their hiding place.

  Laughing, the guys all pointed at them as the girls landed in the pig pen. The large hog housed 238

  Succession (Fallen Fae Academy #6) there immediately went to greet them, sniffing them with his muddy snout.

  “Sorry, girls,” Harley said with a grin. “I didn’t intend for you to land there. But, I guess it really is where you belong after all.”

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  Cici called out. “Stephen is going to destroy you when he finds out what you’ve done to us.”

  “I don’t think Stephen is going to be doing much of anything,” Harley said as she gestured to the imprisoned Dark Fae Wizard.

  Cici snickered and grunted. Raising her clawed hand, she ran to Harley, snarling and growling as she lunged at her. Just as she was about to tear into Harley, a clear glass bubble encased her, stopping her in her tracks and sending her floating in the air.

  Stunned, Cici banged her fists into the wall of the bubble.

  Ashley took one look at her friend and bolted for the door, but before she could reach it, the same type of clear glass bubble encased her.

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  “I’ve long fantasized this moment,” Harley said. “I’ve questioned the degree of compassion I would be able to show either of you.”

  Cici, already panicking in her small enclosure, looked to Harley with imploring eyes. “I beg of you to show mercy, Harley,” she said.

  “I will,” Harley said. “I contemplated sending you off to live the rest of your existence in the light. I thought perhaps if you had an eternal view of joy, happiness and the wonders of light that you might come to regret your dark ways.”