The Queen's Choice

by Cayla Kluver

  Fane reiterated the question I had asked upon coming downstairs. “Where is Shea?”

  “I’m right here,” she answered, coming through the kitchen door. She was carrying a sack of supplies, having entered the house by means of the back door. “I’ve been out on the streets, listening for word. I’m as worried about Pyrite as the rest of you.”

  “But did you hand him over?” Fane shot back, unwilling to accept anything but a direct answer.

  “No,” Shea scoffed, shaking her head emphatically, eyes drilling into Fane. “Wasn’t I out there risking my life on your ship last night?” She glanced around the room, looking for someone to indicate they believed her. “What the hell are you thinking, anyway, pointing fingers? I thought we were supposed to be one crew, or did I mishear you last night, Captain?”

  For a moment, I could hear my heart beating, louder than any other noise in the room. Shea was defensive, too much so, and I couldn’t help but think she was overcompensating for something. On the other hand, how was one supposed to respond to a roomful of accusing gazes? With a smile? Calm consideration? I appraised her, noting how alone and helpless she looked. She certainly didn’t need to face my accusatory glare in addition to everyone else’s. Shaking off my doubts, I spoke up on her behalf.

  “It wasn’t Shea. We’ve been through a lot together, and she’s proven over and over again to be a stalwart friend. If you won’t believe that she has loyalty to Pyrite, at least trust that she wouldn’t endanger me.”

  “Sometimes that don’t matter,” Aunt Roxy said, her gristly voice softer than usual. “There’s only three outsiders here I can’t vouch for myself, and two of you are relation to Pyrite. That leaves her.”

  She tipped her head at Shea, and I could feel animosity growing in the little house. Annoyed that the others hadn’t accepted my word, I hobbled across the room to stand by my friend.

  “It’s not her. I know her better than the rest of you, and if I had any doubt about her innocence in harming my cousin, I’d tell you. Back off.”

  “Maybe you’re blind to her duplicity precisely because of how much time you’ve spent together,” Gwyneth offered, the calmness in her voice designed to defuse my temper failing to do so. “Sometimes our enemies hide close to us.”

  “Believe what you want to believe,” I snarled, clenching my hands into fists, my jaw like a vise. “But tell me this. When is she supposed to have contacted the authorities? Shea and I have been together day and night for months. And Fane—you and Pyrite have kept us hopping ever since we arrived. She didn’t have the time to betray us!”

  I looked at the people in the room one at a time, daring them to contradict me. Feeling that the tide was shifting in Shea’s favor, I added one last argument.

  “Besides, Shea doesn’t know her way around Sheness. She’d have no idea how to contact disreputable bounty hunters or the Constabularies.”

  Silence reigned for a moment, everyone shifting their eyes away from me, presumably in embarrassment over their zeal to accuse my friend. Ironically, now that I had everyone convinced, doubt ate at my stomach like worms attacking a corpse. Despite my assertions, my memory whispered that Shea had left the house alone on the first morning we’d been here, giving her an opportunity to track down Hastings. And though she wasn’t native to Sheness, she had been here before, with her family when they’d attempted to flee the Territory by sea.

  “Who then?” Fane thundered. “’Cause whoever it is, they’ve just made enemies of the entire underbelly of Sheness.”

  Six pairs of eyes darted around the room, each of us secretly suspecting one of our other comrades. Then another possible suspect occurred to me, and relief flowed through me like a cool drink of water.

  “What about Opal? He seemed pretty keen on getting back at you, Captain. Maybe he bribed one of your sailors for information. He is a bounty hunter, after all. He’d do whatever it took to have a shot at the reward on Pyrite’s head. And he could be working with Hastings. They’re sharing Spex, after all.”

  Fane rubbed his unshaven chin. The stubble, coupled with the gray circles under his eyes, suggested he hadn’t slept last night. He sighed, not apologetic but less eager to blame our troubles on a member of the present company. “I’ll see what I can find out.”

  “Can I go now?” asked Shea. “Are you done accusing me?”

  “You can go upstairs,” Fane responded, annoyance at her attitude still quick to emerge. He didn’t like the fact that we hadn’t yet ferreted out the traitor. “Don’t leave the house. Roxy here will keep an eye out to make sure you don’t.”

  Shea glanced at the owner of the house, who nodded her head vehemently, and an angry glow spread across her cheeks and nose.

  “Whatever you say, Captain,” she snipped, then she turned and stormed up the staircase.

  In the aftermath of Shea’s departure, I foolishly thought suspicion would no longer be cast on her. But as soon as she’d disappeared from sight, Fane was on me, pinning me to the wall with his forearm. The impact was enough to make me cough, and I groaned, my raw muscles protesting the treatment.

  “If Shea did this, you can’t protect her,” he snarled, mismatched eyes narrow and distrustful. “Even I couldn’t protect her, assuming I’d want to. Pyrite made himself a symbol in this city, a symbol that took the heat for a lot of things your cousin didn’t do. With that light extinguished, some very dangerous people will be left out in the open, and they won’t be grateful for it.”

  I clawed at his arm, more affronted than afraid, although rage simmered deep inside me at my helplessness. With a cry of pain unrelated to my efforts to free myself, Fane stumbled backward, and I fell the few inches he’d lifted me from the ground. Illumina moved close to my side, blowing on her fingers while the captain examined the blistering burn around his wrist.

  “We don’t know that Shea or anybody else gave Hastings information,” Illumina said in her honey voice, staring down the dumbfounded pirate without blinking. “He could have invented the whole thing.”

  “Isn’t that sweet?” Fane scoffed, trying not to reveal fear or alarm, though he moved away from us. A human’s first violent encounter with a Faerie’s elemental connection was always eye-opening. “Guess you Fae stick together.”

  “That’s more than can be said for you humans,” Illumina replied in a wispy voice that was somehow terrifying.

  The captain had the decency to allow shame over his prejudicial statement to creep into his expression. The rest of us were quiet, and I wished Aunt Roxy would leave, since she was preventing us from talking openly about Zabriel and the fallout from his capture. But I could hardly insist she get out of her own sitting room. Gwyneth stepped forward in her expensive boots, making herself the center of attention, and I held my breath—this could be good or bad.

  “You see, Fane, some people really can trust their friends,” she scolded, and I exhaled more loudly than I intended. “It will be a sad day indeed when you take the word of someone like this Hastings fellow over the word of our companions. Now, if that’s quite settled, my father mentioned he expected a raid at The Paladin to follow last night’s disaster. You’d best warn your men, Captain.”

  Fane nodded curtly, and I dared to add, “We’d be better served right now by focusing on how to help Pyrite. Unless you want to see him executed.”

  For a moment, I thought the captain might lunge at me again. He didn’t welcome having his loyalty challenged. Instead, he picked his hat off the mantel and stuck it on his head, glaring at everyone except Aunt Roxy. Still, his reaction was reassuring. It told me he’d do what he could to slow down the Territory’s march toward justice, perhaps even launch a rescue attempt if Zabriel were yet in Sheness. He remained our ally, however much he might resent us. He strode to the door, but before he disappeared into the street, he tossed a report over his shoulder.

  �
��By the way, the shipment we intercepted was sky iron, from what I could tell. Most of it sank with Dementya’s ship, but that’s what was in the cargo my men managed to retrieve. There was a foreign transport stamp on all the crates, but it didn’t say where it was coming from. That’s all I got.”

  Stepping outside, he violently slammed the door, and I was thankful he was taking out his wrath on an inanimate object.

  “Upstairs,” Gwyneth muttered, giving my hand a squeeze. “We need privacy.”

  Gwyneth, Illumina, and I mounted the stairway, leaving a wide-eyed Aunt Roxy behind. Spex was sitting up in bed as we entered the room, watching us with a serene expression that belied his awareness of the troubled dynamic of our group. Who was responsible for him now? He had been Fane and Zabriel’s little joke, but now Fane had walked out and Zabriel was in custody. Spex’s hazel eyes met mine, the same question on his mind. Not knowing what to say, I took the simple approach and ignored him.

  “What are we going to do?” Gwyneth asked, cutting straight to the point. She didn’t or wouldn’t believe the game was up, that there was no way to help my cousin. “It’s for the best Fane is occupied right now, but I don’t see any point in us pretending Zabriel’s still in the city. The people who have him are smart enough to get him out of here before announcing his arrest. Otherwise, half of Sheness would try to free him.”

  “There’s only one thing we can do.” I turned to Illumina, who was already nodding her head, anticipating my decision. “You have to go back to Chrior and bring our aunt to Tairmor. There’s no time to waste.”

  Petite features as hard as diamond, my cousin snatched up her leather travel pack and began to stuff her possessions inside.

  “I need to return to my family,” Shea inserted from behind us.

  I jumped, having nearly forgotten she was there. She stood by the balcony, staring across the street. The sun afforded her still form a strange shine, like she were a mirage instead of flesh and blood.

  Gwyneth scowled at her, presumably because this was not an ideal time to desert our ranks, while Illumina looked smug, probably expecting this sort of behavior from a human. Neither of them was aware of the More family’s predicament, and there was no real reason to tell them. At the same time, there was a very good reason to keep them in the dark. Shea’s history might be all it would take to convince them of her guilt, for she would have derived quite a benefit from the bounty on Zabriel’s head. It was far less problematic if I was the only one aware of her background. The truth about Shea was my business, my heart insisted, my personal business.

  Truth. What a terrifying word. Why was going back to her family suddenly so urgent? Fane had told her to stay put, and she had stuck with me thus far. Why run off when the worst imaginable had happened, and I was in greater need of her support and friendship than ever? My stomach prickled with uneasiness. We Fae were stereotyped as deceptive and manipulative, yet if you asked us a specific enough question, you would have no grounds to doubt the answer you were given. Humans were not bound by such rules. What answer would I get from Shea if I asked her the question that burned in my gut? And did I know her well enough to discern the truth regardless of her words?

  “Right, you should see your family,” I responded, brushing aside my qualms like cobwebs, and with about as much success.

  I dragged my gaze from Shea’s silhouette, aware that Gwyneth’s eyes were darting between the two of us, keen to navigate the undercurrent in our exchange.

  “I’ll go with Illumina to Tairmor,” I informed Zabriel’s wealthy cohort. “I’ll stay there and wait for her and the Queen to join me. I don’t know what influence you have over your father and in the capital, but use every ounce of it to keep Zabriel alive. Most of all, keep your ears open. If you hear anything, anything at all, send word to me. There’s a woman named Fi who runs the Fae-mily Home in Tairmor. I’ll reconnect with her, and you can use her to get a message to me.”

  “I know the place. But, Anya, I’m not sure going to Tairmor is wise. What if you’ve earned yourself a wanted poster? You were discovered in that warehouse right alongside Zabriel.”

  “I’ll find a way.” Though I had little desire to travel the tunnel system again, it would take me safely into the city. I would do what had to be done.

  Gwyneth bobbed her head, then bobbed it again, recognizing her cue to depart but for some reason wanting to disregard it. When her tawny eyes landed pleadingly upon me, seeking some form of reassurance, it came to me that she was scared. She was vibrant, powerful, unstoppable—and afraid of losing my cousin. All I could offer her was a smile, but it seemed to be enough. She headed down the stairs, shoulders straight, her usual guise of confidence firmly back in place.

  “Are you sure you should go now?” I asked Shea, undertaking the next bit of unfinished business. “The captain seemed opposed to you leaving, remember?”

  “My family’s in danger and I’ve waited long enough. I’m not going to stay here for Fane.”

  Though her reasoning was plausible enough, she wouldn’t meet my eyes, breaking out of her statuesque pose to scurry about the room, gathering her things.

  Illumina placidly watched Shea, then fastened the clasp on her travel satchel.

  “I’ll go see if Aunt Roxy can give us any provisions for the trip,” she said, with atypical social sensitivity, and I nodded my thanks.

  The moment Illumina disappeared through the doorway, Spex reasserted his presence.

  “If you want to be alone, you’re going to have to do something about me.” He held up his chained hand and tugged a reminder. “You can’t keep me forever, despite how much you love me.”

  “That doesn’t mean we have to let you go,” Shea retorted. “We could let you starve to death. Or just shoot you. Then again, Roxy might have some use for you—perhaps turn you into a potato peeler in the kitchen.”

  I smirked. Shea was shameless in her enjoyment of Spex’s distress. It took him a bit to notice the smile playing on my lips, but when he did, his entire face scrunched in irritation that she would poke fun of him at such a dire time.

  “Think that’s funny?” he spat, his anger as laughable as his injured pride. He was like a kitten on the attack—tiny, ferocious, and totally ineffective. Realizing he was getting nowhere with us, he sat back to try a different approach, adopting a more nonchalant attitude.

  “I’m way too talented to be kitchen help, and you know it. I’m a spotter, remember? And you don’t have the guts to kill me.”

  “I wouldn’t go underestimating our guts,” I warned.

  Thoughts of the previous night flashed through my mind. I’d watched Zabriel shoot someone in the head and Illumina roast two men alive. And if I had known how to handle a gun, I would have shot Hastings in whatever manner of heart was trapped in his chest. But I had no desire to deal with Spex that way. What I needed was to have him gone, no complications, so that I could be alone with Shea. There were bigger matters at stake, and it was hard to imagine he could make things worse for us than they already were. I strode to the desk, yanked open the top drawer, and withdrew the key that would set Spex free. I set about removing his shackles none too gently, and in one final endeavor to influence him, was none too gentle with my words, either.

  “You’ve hurt everyone I love in the Warckum Territory. You know everything that’s happening, and unless I really do kill you, I can’t stop you from reporting to Opal or Hastings or whoever will take your information. But you’ve suffered, too. They’ve made you suffer, and that’s why I can’t take your life. Maybe you’ll find it in you to be a little grateful for that. Now go out that balcony and disappear.”

  Spex rubbed his wrist where the shackle had bound him. Almost as though he expected my action to be a trick, he hesitated; then he was out the door, over the railing quicker than any cat, and sprinting down the street.

  “I’
d better be on my way, too,” Shea said, picking up her pack and scanning the cluttered room one last time. I wasn’t fooled by her behavior. She couldn’t bear to look at me.

  “I’m not going to stop you.”

  Maybe knowing the ending would combat the coward in her and allow her to be honest with me. My heart was pounding and my legs were trembling, though I couldn’t have voiced the reason. I already knew. Was I really so averse to hearing the truth out loud?

  Nervous, I continued to fill the silence between us. “I mean, I just let Spex walk out of here. If there’s anyone I should have done away with, it was him.”

  “Anya...please.”

  “Please what?” I shrilly laughed.

  I closed my eyes, trying to rein in my wildly surging emotions. I needed to focus, something with which I was experiencing difficulty of late. But this time when I reopened them, I, at least, was calmer. Shea’s restless movements had continued, however, and she looked toward the door like she’d missed her opportunity to escape.

  “The truth doesn’t scare me, Shea. I think I deserve to hear it.”

  Shea finally looked straight at me, tears brimming and spilling down her cheeks. My stomach lurched at this confirmation of my fears and suspicions. I retreated from her, hands going to my hair, tugging hard to make sure I was actually awake, actually living what felt like a scene from a farcical play.

  “I did it for my family,” Shea said, taking a meager step toward me. “The price on Zabriel’s head was enough to pay my father’s debt. Luka promised he’d arrange for us to move back into our house in Tairmor. So I really had no choice. I had to do it, for my sisters, for Maggie and Marissa.”

  This time she was bold enough to come near, but I stopped her with an outstretched arm, my anger rising and reaching like a living thing, wanting to lash out at her, to strike her, to hurt her.