by Eva Brandt
“Of course it’s true,” I answered. I had just told Malachai that less than two days before. I shouldn’t have forgotten it, but today, I was doing worse than Malachai. “At this point, I just wish we could face it sooner. This wait is really getting to me.”
Weirdly, my words almost seemed to have a magical effect. A knock sounded at my door, and Jason Chen’s voice echoed through my quarters. “Ms. Hastings, it is time for the trial.”
The announcement should have cheered me up. It didn’t. I still shot Bjorn a weak smile. I knew better than to believe I could fool him or mask my emotions, but maybe if I tried hard enough, I could make myself believe that I could handle this, after all. “It looks like I’m going to get my wish, Inquisitor Lindberg.”
Maybe my luck had finally turned. It was unlikely, but stranger things had happened.
“I’m sure you will,” Bjorn whispered back.
He didn’t offer me his arm or touch me again. Instead, he gestured me toward the door and guided me out of my quarters. Inquisitor Chen was still waiting outside. Officially, I was still not required to be present for the trial. However, there were advantages to having brainwashed one of the most important people in The Pure Kingdom of Alaria to do our bidding and this was one of them.
Even knowing that Chen’s actions had very little to do with his own will, I acknowledged his presence and help with a nod. “Thank you for notifying us, Inquisitor Chen. I appreciate your assistance.”
“As always, Ms. Hastings, it is my honor to fulfill all the commands I am given. Praised be the High King.”
Bjorn echoed his words. I didn’t bother. I’d been polite enough today, and I was more likely to say something stupid than come up with a form of address an Alarian would find acceptable.
When Bjorn and I headed toward the courtroom, Chen didn’t join us. The absence of the unnerving inquisitor would have relieved me more had I not been aware I would soon have to face something far worse. By the time we reached the same amphitheater I’d once burst into in an attempt to help Declan, I was once again a nervous wreck.
A group of armed paladins guarded the entrance to the courtroom. Being Alarian, they didn’t tighten their hold on their weapons or show any tension upon our approach. Instead, they just nodded at us in greeting. “Good morning, Ms. Hastings, Inquisitor Braun,” one of them said. “Do you wish to participate in the trial?”
“Yes,” I replied, affecting a calm I really didn’t feel. “I’ve received permission from Cardinal Vaughn.”
Cardinal Vaughn must have spoken with them beforehand because they didn’t question us again and wordlessly allowed us to pass. This was where the hard part truly began.
The courtroom was even fuller than I had expected. There must have been more people on The Pure Council of Alaria than had been present for Declan’s trial. Some things had stayed the same, though, as the moment Bjorn and I entered the chamber, every single person inside turned to look at us.
To make matters worse, their gazes weighed heavily on me, far more terrifying than they had been that day. I almost felt like I was going to collapse under the intensity of their scrutiny. If I didn’t, it was probably just because of Bjorn’s steady presence by my side.
Had the Alarians always been so oppressive and I just hadn’t noticed? What a day I’d picked to become observant.
The strange feeling dissipated when I took note of the biggest difference between today and my prior meeting with The Pure Council of Alaria. The individual accused was not present. Queen Sarai was standing in the exact same spot where Declan had been, a little over a week before.
This wasn’t all that surprising, as Cardinal Vaughn had already told us that Darius would be tried in absentia and his family would represent him. Still, the sight infuriated me so badly that all my nervousness disappeared and my head cleared. To think his mother of all people would be the one to hear out the accusations against him. How did Alarians come up with this bullshit?
“Good morning,” I said sharply. “I apologize for the tardiness. I hope I didn’t disturb the proceedings too much.”
“Not at all, Ms. Hastings,” Cardinal Vaughn answered. “We were just starting. Do come in.”
I half-expected the king to chastise Cardinal Vaughn for his behavior, but everybody took Vaughn’s command in stride. Perhaps in their own way, they had all expected me to be here. After all, I’d come for Declan’s trial. It stood to reason that I wouldn’t miss this one. And they were still presumably planning to turn me into a broodmare and blackmail me into having Darius’s baby, so there was that.
“Thank you,” I answered simply. The words came out curt and inappropriate, but I was too busy with controlling my temper to focus on stupid things like manners.
As I shuffled deeper into the courtroom, the doors closed behind us with a decisive bang. Bjorn subtly guided me in Queen Sarai’s general direction, which I assumed was probably because that was where the people on Darius’s side were supposed to stand. Apparently, the Alarian justice system didn’t have much room for loved ones witnessing trials, so despite the massive size of the amphitheater, I would be forced to withstand the proximity of a woman I loathed with all my might.
But I had no other option, so I reluctantly followed Bjorn. Queen Sarai greeted me with a warm welcoming smile. “Ms. Hastings, thank you for coming. I’m sure Darius would appreciate your interest.”
I wanted to throttle her. Making an effort that proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that I was indeed not human, I suppressed that anger and managed to provide a reply. “He’s my soulmate. Of course I came.”
I’d have liked to say more, to ask her how she could have possibly cursed her son and doomed him to such a horrible fate. Cardinal Vaughn started—or rather, resumed—the trial before I could even make the attempt.
“Prince Darius Alarisson was originally accused of breaking our most sacred law, the Soulmate Protection Dictate. It has been determined that since the soulmate in question is not human, that accusation is null and void. However, the fact remains that he deliberately and willfully broke the oath made by Alarian royalty, the Alarian Vow.”
I clenched my hands into fists as I took in the slew of nonsense Cardinal Vaughn sprouted from his table. I should have asked Bjorn to brainwash him a little more thoroughly, maybe even turn him into a vegetable. Clearly, we’d been a little too subtle and nice for our well-being.
“At this time, there is only one possible fate for him, and that is death. However, there is the matter of his holdings, titles, as well as his role in The Pure Alarian Kingdom.
“We will, therefore, ask Prince Darius’s soulmate, Lucienne Hastings, to step forward and declare her intentions. We will ask her, here and now, to take up the crown Prince Darius dropped and uphold the vow and will of the High King Alaric, to protect mankind against the scavenger threat and the Accursed Syndrome.”
I gaped in shock at his statement. I hadn’t expected that. Cardinal Vaughn hadn’t said a word about me having to accept anything except a sample of Darius’s semen. Or something along that line. I wasn’t sure how that whole process with the fertilization was supposed to go.
“You want me to what?” I asked, knowing I sounded a little dumb but unable to stop myself. “I can’t carry any crown. I’m only...”
I trailed off when I realized I didn’t know how to finish that sentence. Only Lucienne? What did that mean? Who was Lucienne Hastings? I’d thought I’d known, but clearly, I hadn’t. In my former vision of the world, Lucienne Hastings had been just a simple orphan with rotten luck but friends who cared about her. She had been a plain human who wrote articles for a living, paid her bills by the skin of her teeth, collected stupid tea mugs, and watched too much Netflix.
I was none of those things. In fact, I thought with a dose of hysteria, I’d completely forgotten to renew my Netflix subscription. All those episodes I’d missed... How would I ever get by?
I was really losing it.
“You are Darius’s
soulmate,” Queen Sarai said, completely oblivious to my incoherent thoughts. “It is your prerogative and your duty to do this. There is no one else. If I do not have a son left, then I will have a daughter.”
What the fuck? Were they all insane? A daughter?
What was I thinking? Of course they were insane. That had already been well-established, ever since my first real conversation with Darius, when he’d told me the story of his people.
But despite that, they couldn’t just attach random strangers to their families. Surely even magic had its limits and couldn’t accomplish what Queen Sarai was suggesting.
Then again, what did I know? I was new to this whole magic shtick. It might be entirely possible to add me to the Alarisson line. There was just one problem with that idea. I refused to bend my knee to The Pure Kingdom of Alaria. Right now, I was about as happy with them as I was with Vandale. The last thing I wanted was to join their family.
“Thank you for the offer, Your Majesty, but the last time I took someone up on a tentative offer of familial bonding, it didn’t go well for me. No offense, but nothing you’ve done so far makes me inclined to trust you. Darius is still very much alive. You don’t need me to be anything except perhaps your son’s soulmate.”
Queen Sarai shook her head. “It’s kind of you to say that, but the law is the law and it cannot be broken, not even by royalty.”
“Believe us, Ms. Hastings, we have no desire to let Darius die,” the king added. “It is a waste, and logic states that he couldn’t have known this would happen. However, we have always obeyed the dictates of the Alarian creed. Our laws are harsh, and we are aware of it. If we ask our people to follow such rules, we must show the same respect and follow them as well.”
Up to a point, I admired him for that. Most people in his position wouldn’t have blinked an eye and would have taken advantage of their power to save their son.
But the truth was that I couldn’t have cared less about petty details or false morals. This whole debate was fundamentally flawed because nothing I could ever say would reach them in a way they could understand.
“Fuck that,” I snapped at him. “You’re the king. If the law hinders you, you change it. Isn’t that the way it works?”
“Are you mad?” someone I didn’t know asked in an outraged tone. I marveled at the fact that any Alarian could sound outraged. “We cannot simply change the rules that have been in place for over a millennium.”
“And why not? As I see it, the Alarian Vow exists only because you want to make a point. That’s admirable and all, but it is senseless and counterproductive when all it does is harm the continuity of your line.”
The king shared a look with Cardinal Vaughn. By my side, Bjorn tensed. Had I said too much? I wasn’t supposed to know they needed me to have Darius’s child, and so far, they hadn’t mentioned that explicitly. I hadn’t either, but I had come very close.
Fortunately, Queen Sarai stepped in before any of them could focus on my blunder. “As heirs of the High King Alaric, we’ve all accepted the price that needs to be paid and the burden we have to carry. You mean well, Ms. Hastings, and your protests are understandable, but the continuity of our line has always been tied into the Alarian Vow, and that will never change.”
I had no idea what that meant. Why did Alarians have to be so cryptic? I’d finally made some headway with Darius and started to crack his tendency to keep secrets, but his family was even more annoying than him and all my other soulmates put together.
“I can respect that,” I said, even if it couldn’t have been further from the truth, “but at the same time, you have to respect the fact that I have no reason to bow down to your words. My loyalty doesn’t lie with the High King Alaric. I didn’t even know any of you existed until recently. If I am here, it is because my heart tells me that I owe Darius, Malachai, and Declan something. I don’t really understand it, but I know I have to fight for it.
“You’re standing in front of me now and spitting in the face of my bond with them, in the face of my decision and my fight. What gives you the right to do that? What gives you the right to pretend that your choices are in any way better than mine? It is not your place to get involved in my relationship. It is not your place to claim that the price we must pay for being each other’s soulmates is too high.
“You’ve reneged of Darius because he broke the Alarian Vow. That’s fine. You’re royalty, and you have your rules. But you can’t do that, then turn around and say you want to adopt the woman who caused the entire situation to begin with. It just doesn’t work that way.”
By the time I finished my little speech, I was breathing hard and everybody in the courtroom was staring at me. I didn’t expect any magical results, and I didn’t get any.
“In the human world, perhaps that would be true, Ms. Hastings,” King Sterling said, “but this is The Pure Kingdom of Alaria. You’ll find that in our world, this is all perfectly normal.”
I didn’t know what I hated more, his level tone or his obvious dismissiveness toward my human background. I’d known that he didn’t really care about Darius, of course, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t painful to witness this scene, to see with my own eyes that his own parents were advocating for his death.
It was too much, and it was the drop that filled the proverbial glass. Waves of bright, colorful magic started to flare around me. The air thickened, crackling with electricity.
Queen Sarai was so close. It would be so easy, so very easy to just squash her where she stood, to end her miserable, pathetic life. All I had to do was wish it, and she would die, right then and there, in front of me.
I could taste her life, see its thread dangling right in front of me, taunting me. It was insulting. Everything about this state of affairs was insulting. These people shouldn’t even dare to draw breath in my presence, after everything they’d done.
“Darius wouldn’t be sick at all if your wife hadn’t cursed him,” I hissed at the king. “I think I’m entitled to reparations. What would you say if I were to make your queen feel what Darius did when the curse was tearing him apart?”
I could do it too. I knew I could. The knowledge was there, waiting for me to embrace it. If I just reached out and took it...
Bjorn made a grab for my arm, and my magic instantly settled down. I blinked and my head started to clear.
For the first time, I realized that at one point during my little fit, Alarian paladins had burst into the room. Several of the nobles present seemed to have decided to try to come to their queen’s aid, as they had left their seats and were only a few feet away from us.
When had that happened? I’d completely lost awareness of what had been going on around me.
“Perhaps we should take a small break,” Bjorn said. “Ms. Hastings is agitated and coming off an injury at the hands of the plagues. We wouldn’t want any accidents to happen.”
“That does sound like a good idea,” Cardinal Vaughn agreed quickly.
Were they really going to let me get away with almost attacking their queen? Apparently, yes.
Did they need me more than I had thought they did or was something else going on?
Either way, I didn’t think taking a break would help me. Although I could understand why Bjorn had made the suggestion, it would be pointless. My temper would only flare again if they continued to behave like this.
“No, it’s not necessary,” I said quickly. “I apologize for my lapse. This has all been very difficult for me and your offer was very sudden.”
The words tasted bitter on my tongue, but I said them. One of these days, I would absolutely make the Alarians pay, but that day had not yet arrived. I couldn’t afford to lose control, not when everything was still so uncertain and our only real backup plan relied on my worst enemy.
“It’s understandable, Ms. Hastings,” King Sterling said. “This is a very emotional time for you.”
I stared at him in disbelief, wondering if I’d ever heard anything more absurd tha
n the Alarian king claiming he could understand me.
A headache was beginning to pound at my skull. “Perhaps we could start over? Meet one another halfway? I would not be averse to supporting The Pure Kingdom of Alaria if Darius received the medical attention he needed in exchange.”
I knew even as I said the words that this was what they had been going for all along. The king showed no sign of being satisfied with his success. Instead, he just nodded. “That would work well, Ms. Hastings, although I must warn you that at this time, we do not have the means to counter the effects of the Alarian Vow. The only thing we can do is to sustain Darius’s body and trust that he will hold on or break the spell himself.”
I suppressed the urge to sneer. How convenient. Don’t lose it again, Lucienne. Get a grip. You’re better than this.
“I see. Well, I trust the assessments of the Alarian healers. They’ve helped me a great deal, and I believe they will do the same for Darius.”
“Naturally, Ms. Hastings,” Queen Sarai answered, “although you did leave their care sooner than you should have. Perhaps you should consider returning to the healing wing for a check-up.”
So they could impregnate me against my will? That wasn’t happening.
“I will consider it,” I promised. “Thank you for your advice. Until then, do we have an agreement?”
“Indeed, we do,” the king said. “We will arrange for the official ceremony to take place within a week. It is within my power to marry you and Darius without his consent, so it will not be a problem.”
That little tidbit was in no way a surprise, but it still irritated me. Marriages did not work that way. No matter how much power the king had, he didn’t have the right to just barrel over his son’s wishes.
But I didn’t say any of that since losing my temper again would’ve canceled all the progress I’d made so far. I probably wouldn’t have had the time to argue with King Sterling anyway. Now that he had made his decision regarding Darius, he quickly moved on.
“The next item on our order of business is the trial of former Guardian Malachai Braun,” he said.
