by Emma Newman
Now he said he didn’t need anything like that from her. So why wouldn’t he let her go? It couldn’t be love, not after all the things he’d done.
But what if he really did love her? Shouldn’t she forgive him, to please him? No! That wasn’t her own thought, it couldn’t be. He was doing something to her again.
“It’s not my job to make you a better person,” she said, desperate to pick holes in what he said to keep herself from temptation. “Haven’t you heard anything I’ve said? And you can stop making me feel…strange.”
He frowned. “It’s the crown, I swear. You don’t have to kneel to me, or look down all the time. I don’t want that. I want the real you.”
The pressure to be deferent eased. “Let go of me. Please.”
He did as she asked and took a step back. “I’ll never force you to do anything again. But this is the only way I can give you what I couldn’t before. We wouldn’t just rule Exilium, Cathy, we’d rule the Nether too. Don’t you see? The Fae have to obey me, and as the Queen, they’d have to obey you too. You could tell them to remove the Patroons if you wanted to. You could tell them to make the reforms you’ve wanted all this time. You could shape the Nether and give the women there all the rights you want them to have. And no one could stop us.”
She dug her nails into her palms again, her resolve wavering. True change in the Nether? The end of the Patroons and their patriarchy? It was all she had ever wanted. It was the only reason she’d even listened to Beatrice in the first place and now that she was gone, this was the only way to change anything. The thought of destroying the Nether herself seemed ridiculous. It was like asking a schoolchild to finish building a nuclear power station. Surely becoming Queen was the only way to achieve her goals now?
But what about Sam? If she stayed and made a life with Will to make those changes, he’d never understand. He’d come for her and what would happen then? War? And she couldn’t leave him to deal with the Elemental Court alone. She couldn’t reform the Nether whilst damning Mundanus.
“No one could stop you, Cathy,” Will said, pulling her thoughts back to him. “Not if you were Queen.”
“Could you stop me?”
“There would be no need. I only held you back in Londinium because of the Patroon, not because I disagreed with your ideals. On the contrary, I support them.”
Cathy looked at the crown to avoid looking into those beautiful eyes of his. She had the vaguest memory of Beatrice saying something about crowns. What was it? “How did you become King?”
“I took the crowns.”
“And the Fae royalty didn’t stop you. Why? Didn’t they want to be in charge of everyone else?”
“It’s different for the Fae, ruling over their own. They’d grown to hate it.”
“Then why didn’t they pass it on to another Fae?”
“Because I was strong enough to take the throne for myself,” Will said, a harsh edge to his voice.
“But you’re just a man. You weren’t even an Iris when you took it.”
“Do you have so little respect for my ability? I took Londinium, didn’t I?”
“Yeah, but you had Iris’s help to do that.”
He turned his back on her to walk back to the throne. She’d touched a nerve. Interesting. This was more than his pride, this had something to do with the crowns, something that made him tense.
She expected him to sit, so he could look down on her, but instead he went to the other throne. She hadn’t noticed the circlet there, the one he now held as he came back to her. “This is yours, Cathy,” he said when he reached her. “You have so much potential, and with the power this crown gives you, you could realise it.”
Potential. Sam had told her that Poppy believed her potential was to destroy everything, even though she’d been led to believe it was something to do with painting. Why did Poppy say he wanted to see her reach it?
The crown in Will’s hands sparkled in the sun and sprite light. The leaves were such a vibrant green, the gold such a rich colour. It reminded her of Beatrice again. The crowns made sure of that. What had Beatrice been talking about when she said those words? Something about stopping the Fae…that was it! The Sorcerers made the crowns—the very crown Will was wearing now and the one he held out to her—as part of the prison they stood in. The crowns gave the Sorcerers the power to stop the Fae from doing anything and made the royalty here the jailers. That was what Will was now, a glorified jailer of a beautiful prison.
“Can you leave Exilium, now you are King?”
His open, hopeful smile faded. “I have no need to leave it. Why would I? Look at what I have here. Look at what you could have too.”
“But what about Sophia? She needs to be in Mundanus until she comes of age, otherwise she’ll never grow up. Won’t you want to visit her?”
“She likes it here. She’ll visit us. She’s missed you so much, Cathy.”
“Just answer the question. Please. Can you leave?” He looked away, answering the question for her. “So that’s the price, is it? I can change the Nether, but will be imprisoned here with you and the Fae, forever.”
“You always knew there would be sacrifices to make the changes you wanted.” He took a step closer, raising the Queen’s crown ever so slightly.
“And when were you planning to tell me that the crown is just like that damn choker?”
“It’s nothing like it! You will still be you, fully you, in control.”
“But unable to leave. You know how much I love Mundanus.”
“I know how much you love equality and fairness and rights for women too. Which is more important to you? Getting rained on or seeing the Nether change?”
Cathy tucked her hands in her pockets, feeling for the arrowhead. “This has nothing to do with what is more important to me. This is all about you controlling me again. I’d be willing to bet that even if I were Queen, you’d still be able to veto me.” She couldn’t imagine the Sorcerers creating a prison with equal jailers. In their minds, women were lesser, and she was certain they would have seen to it that the Queen was lesser than the King, even in Exilium.
“I don’t want to control you,” Will said. “If I wanted a pet, I could have one. What do I have to say to convince you? I want to give you the worlds, Cathy. I want to give you the power to achieve your dream. And yet you keep throwing it back at me.”
The crown raised another inch. He was close enough to put it on her head. She wriggled her fingers into the leather glove, trying to find the arrowhead buried in its folds.
“You’ve apologised,” she said, trying hard to keep her voice steady as her heart galloped. “Thank you. I’m glad you understand now. And I thank you for the offer to be made Queen; however, I decline.”
His shock was beautiful. “But…but how else will you change the Nether? How else will you get what you want?”
“I don’t know.” But I’ll learn, she promised herself. I’ll shut myself away and learn all the sorcery I need to destroy this place before I’ll be yours again. “I want to find my own way, rather than have it handed to me on a plate as the cell door is being closed. You stay here, be King, be happy. We’re no longer married, because you’re no longer an Iris. Make whoever you want your Queen. It won’t be me.”
“But I need you.”
“You need to let me go. You don’t really want me, Will. You just want to win.” She saw the Queen’s crown move another inch, the anger flare in his eyes. “If you put that on my head, you’ll prove that everything you’ve just said to me is total bullshit. You’ll be the man you say you don’t want to be.”
“You don’t know what’s best for you,” he said. “You never have. Catherine, you are my Queen and you will accept this crown.”
Of course she was. He was her King. She had to accept. Her knees buckled just as her fingers grasped the arrowhead. It felt like she was plunged into cold water, the weight of his expectation upon her suddenly washed away.
She pulled her hand from he
r pocket, fist closed around the iron, to block him with her arms as he moved the crown above her head. The arrowhead’s sharp point scratched his hand on the way up and he cried out as if he’d been stabbed with a sabre, dropping the Queen’s crown in shock. The clatter of metal on stone rang out, filling the throne room.
The doors behind her burst inwards and dozens of sprites and faeries dressed in oak leaves flew in, screeching, circling above them. Will clutched his bleeding hand and staggered back, shaken, as Cathy moved towards the open doorway slowly, putting distance between them. All of the tiny creatures above them were glaring at her and she had the sense they were just waiting for the command to shred her to pieces.
There were footsteps, light and fast, coming down the corridor behind her. Cathy braced herself for whatever was about to hit, unwilling to take her eyes off Will and the horde above them.
“Cathy!” Sophia cheered, and wrapped her arms around her legs. “You’re here! Will-yum said you would be. I missed you! Are you Queen now? Look! I made a map!”
“Hello, darling,” Cathy said, nervously watching Will. “That’s a beautiful map.”
“You didn’t even look.”
“Well, I’m just leaving now and—”
“Aww. Can’t you stay and play with me? You were gone for millions of years.”
“I’m sorry, I can’t,” Cathy said, still watching Will as she gently untangled herself from Sophia’s embrace. “Lord Poppy needs to take me and my brother and sister-in-law home now.”
“But why?”
“Because I don’t live here, and I have my own things to do. And you know how kind Will is. He wouldn’t keep me here when I need to be somewhere else, would he?”
“I suppose not. Are you going to come back?”
“No.”
“Yes,” Will said as his blood dripped onto the stone floor. “Yes, she will be coming back. In the meantime, Cathy has something very important to think about. I’m sure she’ll realise the best way to keep all of her friends and family safe is to be Queen.”
“Good,” Sophia said. “When you’re Queen, Cathy, can we make a rocket for my dollies?”
“We’ll see,” Cathy said. She had to get out now—she knew Will wasn’t willing to do something ugly in front of the child. “Now you go and give Will a big cuddle. He looks like he needs one.”
Sophia gasped at the sight of the blood. “Oh, Will-yum! You’ve got a boo! We need a bandage. I can be your doctor.”
Cathy backed out the doorway as Sophia went to Will. “I’ll see you again,” Will said as one of the faeries laid a sparkling bandage across Sophia’s outstretched hands so she could wrap it around the wound. “You’ll be much happier here with me. I’m certain of it.”
Cathy turned and ran, expecting to be dragged back any moment, but she wasn’t. She heaved the outermost doors open to find Lord Poppy, Tom, and Lucy all sitting a little way away, Poppy sunning himself as if it were a lazy Sunday afternoon in a park whilst Tom and Lucy clung to each other.
“Cat!” Tom said, embracing her when she ran to them.
“Take us all back to Mundanus, Lord Poppy, to the place—and time—we came through from.”
Poppy tilted his head as he regarded her. “You order me as if you are Queen, yet I see no crown on your head, my sunlit one.”
She’d had enough of his bullshit. “Do you see the blood on this?” She brandished the arrowhead in front of her. “Want some of yours to join it? I’m sure Lord Iron will be very interested to know if you don’t do what I ask.”
Poppy got up, his eyes twinkling. “You don’t need to threaten me. You are the queen of my heart, after all.”
“Urgh.” Cathy cringed.
“The only mortal in the worlds who would be appalled by my affection,” Poppy laughed. “Shall we go?”
28
Lucy was shivering by the time they got to the house Cathy had been hiding in since leaving her husband. She wished she was dressed properly, but when Poppy took her from the Nether, she’d only just got ready for bed and was wearing a nightdress and dressing gown. Her slippers were sodden and even with Tom’s jacket draped over her shoulders she felt like she was going to die from the cold.
Cathy had run ahead and was talking to a plump housekeeper in the entrance hall. “Oh, hello again,” the woman said as she smiled at Tom.
“This is Lucy,” Cathy said as Tom managed a nod. “My sister-in-law. Lucy, this is Mrs M.”
“You all look frozen. Shall I go and make some hot chocolate?” They nodded, and as she went off to the kitchen Cathy raced up the stairs and came back with a thicker dressing gown and huge fluffy socks. Lucy accepted them gratefully and soon she was wrapped up and in front of the fire with a hot chocolate.
All three of them hunched over their mugs, worrying over what was to come. Unable to bear the silence any longer, Lucy said, “So what happened with Will? Did you stab him or something?”
“No. It was just a scratch,” Cathy said, staring at the arrowhead. “He was forcing me to accept the crown and be trapped there forever. With him.” She shuddered.
“I’m just glad you walked out of the palace a free woman,” Tom said. “Poppy was convinced you’d be crowned. I don’t understand any of it.”
“The crowns are part of a massive magical ritual created by the Sorcerers,” Cathy said. “There are four of them: King, Queen, Prince, Princess. They’re part of the magic that makes Exilium a prison for the Fae. He’s their jailer now, effectively. He was trying to sell it to me, saying I’d be able to change the Nether because I’d be able to order the Fae to remove the Patroons. But I’d be trapped in Exilium forever if I did that.”
“You could really change the Nether? Forever?” Lucy asked.
“Yeah, but I’d be Will’s forever too. And I don’t exactly trust him to let me change anything there, even if I was Queen.”
Sipping her hot chocolate, Lucy tried to reconcile the irritation simmering within. Cathy’s response was perfectly understandable; Will had done some terrible things to her. But having all that power to remove the Patroons and shape Albion into something truly decent…that was one hell of an opportunity to pass up.
“We know that Will isn’t trustworthy,” Tom said to her. “He might have promised that, but once Cathy was his again, who knows what he would have permitted her to do?” He kissed Cathy’s cheek. “You did the right thing.”
“Did I? He pretty much threatened everyone I love and care about as I was leaving. If Sophia hadn’t been there, I think it would have gone very differently. Shit, why won’t he let me go? This is a fucking nightmare.”
“We’re never going to be safe,” Lucy said. “Especially you, Tom. He knows how much you love each other.”
“Yes, but Cathy giving up her freedom for us is not an acceptable solution.”
Lucy stared down at her mug, remembering her own father saying something very similar when the family had gathered to discuss the plan for independence. The letter from the Patroon about Tom had rested on the table they sat around and she’d stared at it, trying to weigh up what was more important: the struggle for freedom from colonial rule or her right to lead the life she’d planned. When she considered the sheer number of people who would benefit from her sacrifice, it wasn’t a hard choice.
She looked at Cathy, pale-faced and scowling into the fire. Lucy tried to tell herself that this wasn’t the same. Will wasn’t an unknown man in a foreign land. Cathy was terrified of being abused again. But considering what was at stake, Lucy still couldn’t shake off the feeling that Cathy had always been selfish, wrapped up in her own struggles without being aware of others around her.
“I think there’s a solution,” Cathy said. “It’s something that’s been on the cards for a while. I’m not sure how long it would take me to figure out, but there is a way to destroy his power. And Exilium.” She chewed her lip, looking at Tom nervously. “And the Nether too.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“What about the people who live there?” Lucy asked, appalled.
“They’d live in Mundanus. As would the Fae. Listen, I know this sounds insane, but this is something my friend Sam and I have been tangled up in for a while now. The Sorcerers split the worlds and we were told they did that to keep people safe from the Fae. And that’s really easy to believe, given how awful they are to people, but I really do think it’s more complex than that. And there’s the Elemental Court, and that’s fucked and the environment is being destroyed by them and…” She let out a long sigh. “This must sound like total bobbins, but you have to believe me—I think there is a case for reversing that ritual and re-integrating the Fae. We need them to balance against the Elemental Court. And we need to take down Will. If I destroy that magic, I’m certain it will destroy the crowns too. It’s all interlinked.”
“Could you really do that?” Tom asked. “You’re not a Sorcerer.”
“Not yet, but I’ve had some lessons and I have books and a brain. It’ll be hard, but not impossible.”
“But if you do this, all the people who live in the Nether will age and die!” Lucy said. “Our families and friends! Us!”
Cathy shrugged. “I think that’s the way it’s supposed to be. Don’t you?”
Lucy stood, spilling the hot chocolate in her anger. “No, I don’t! I know Albion sucks, but things are starting to change! Just because it didn’t happen quickly enough for you, doesn’t mean it won’t. And I’ve just won independence for my family, and maybe all the other families in America! The Nether is great over there; it’s nothing like Albion! We do so much for the mundanes and…and you just want to trash all of that because of your ex? That’s…that’s so fucking selfish!”
Horrified, Tom set his mug down and put his arm around Cathy. “Lucy, I know this is a difficult time, but we must remain civil!”
“Civil? Cathy’s talking about condemning every single person I love to death. I didn’t give up everything to have our lives trashed by someone who won’t step up!”
