by K. A. Linde
“The election is this summer,” Alsia continued over whatever objection Kerrigan was going to voice. “And we’re down one member. I, for one, would be interested in what might happen if you threw your hat in.”
Helly grinned ear to ear. “As would I.”
“She’s a first year,” Boze groaned.
“Oh hush,” Anahi snapped at him. “Ambition is ambition. Talent is talent. And this girl, no matter her age, has them both.”
The rest of the council shifted uneasily at the suggestion. Zoh looked disturbed that it had been voiced in his chamber. He’d been making demands, and now, she was. Something he was certainly not used to.
Zoh banged his gavel. “The election is another matter. I will consider the second request. Hellina has been given your official robes. Congratulations. Council dismissed.”
Kerrigan sagged in relief as Helly rushed over to her with black robes in her arms. She pulled her into a hug. “I knew you would do it.”
“I’m Bryonican once more.”
“More than that. You’re a member,” Helly said, helping her into the robes. “And who knows… maybe by the end of the summer, you’ll be on the council as well.”
It was inconceivable. And yet, as terrifying as it was, she wanted that council position. She was going to do everything she could to get it.
Kerrigan headed out of the council room in a daze, the weight of her new black Society robes around her shoulders.
“Mistress,” Bayton said, dipping a curtsy.
Kerrigan startled. “Just Kerrigan, Bay, please.”
“Yes, I will never get used to that.”
She fell into step at Kerrigan’s side, which was a vast improvement from her walking two steps before or behind her. “Why are you here?”
Bayton bobbed her head. “Miss, while you were away, we were requested to pack up your belongings, and you have been relocated.”
“What for?”
“Was this not acceptable? It was a missive from the Society, and the rooms are far superior.”
Kerrigan shook her head in confusion and followed Bayton away from the council room and up, up, up, deeper into the mountain. Kerrigan’s hands shook as she realized where they were going—to the member suites. Hers were far from Helly’s elaborate quarters, but still, they’d known she would accept.
“Here we are, miss.” Bayton opened the door, and Kerrigan stepped inside her own private Society chambers.
She clasped her hands over her mouth in shock as she took in the plush living room. It was already furnished with more elaborate furniture and belongings than she had lived in since leaving Waisley as a child.
“Oh, Mistress, you made it,” Benton said, fluffing a pillow. “We have already unpacked your belongings and hope that you find the room adequate. It still needs some cleaning, but so far, we approve.”
“It’s wonderful.”
Benton gestured to the back hall. “This is the formal bedroom that connects to a bathing chamber. There is a formal study as well as two additional bedchambers. If you permit, we will share the smaller of the two rooms. So, your guests will still have space to enjoy your company. Unless you would prefer to find us a place elsewhere. In which case, we entirely understand.:
“Shh,” Kerrigan said, giddy with laughter. “Take both rooms.”
Benton blinked at her in confusion. “But, Mistress…”
“Kerrigan,” she repeated. “Just Kerrigan. You have lived long enough in shadow. I want you to each have a room. If I have guests, they can sleep on the couch or the floor for all I care.”
“That is most generous,” Bayton said. “Too generous.”
“It’s the least of what you deserve.” Kerrigan very well could have been them if she had been born a thousand years earlier. Things weren’t that much better now, but it wasn’t slavery. It wasn’t what the twins had endured at the hands of tyrants. She wouldn’t subject them to that ever again. “They’re yours. Do with them as you will.”
“Yes, Miss… Kerrigan,” Benton said, stumbling over her name. “Also, this was delivered for you.”
She held out a plain envelope, but Kerrigan recognized the calligraphic writing as Fordham’s. She took it out of Benton’s hand and stepped into her new living quarters, tearing the envelope and retrieving the letter from within.
* * *
Kerrigan,
I’ve started this letter a thousand times. I have never been one of many words and always felt that I could express myself better on paper. Thus, I write to you today to express my deepest regrets about what I must do. I will speak plainly: I am leaving the Society.
Netta and I are still bound, and I will not let her suffer a terrible fate by leaving her behind. By the time you read this, we will have already left the aerie with Kinkadia far behind us. Do not look for us. We do not wish to be found. Not when the potential for harm is so great with our continued existence in the mountain.
My biggest regret is that you will read this letter and be hurt by the contents. I wish with all my heart that I could stay behind. That we could live a faerie tale, as we had that week at Waisley. Though it was not reality, and I can no longer pretend that being near you does not endanger your life.
Loving you is the best and the worst thing that ever happened to me. You challenged me to be a better version of the male that I am. Together, we were so much more than we ever could be apart. Which is why I must leave.
The curse hangs heavy over my heart. It is only a matter of time before you fall prey to it. So, I go in search of a way to break this abomination once and for all. Know that I do this for you, for us. If I survive, then I hope I am not too late to fight for you.
* * *
Yours always,
Prince Fordham Ollivier
Kerrigan stepped carefully back into the living space. Benton and Bayton stared at her curiously but dared not ask. More conditioning.
“How long ago was this delivered?” she asked.
“Before we moved your quarters, miss,” Bayton whispered.
“Hours ago,” she gasped. She choked on the thought.
“What is it?” Benton finally asked, helping Kerrigan to a seat.
“Fordham. He’s… he’s gone.”
64
The Execution
“What are you doing here?”
Kerrigan swallowed and stepped deeper into the prison beneath the mountain. Lorian’s face looked as determinedly irritated as ever. They’d stripped him of his Society robes. He was in a filthy beige shirt and black pants that clung to him from sweat and grime. Kerrigan had never seen him in anything but his robes. He was fastidious about his hygiene as well. It was shocking to see him like this.
“I wanted to see you.”
“You’ve come to gloat. Your plan worked. I am the one behind bars now.” He came slowly to his feet and stepped up to the ironwork. “Is that it?”
“No,” she said carefully. “I didn’t do this. That was all you.”
He huffed and rolled his eyes. “If that helps you sleep at night.”
She took a deep breath and released it. “I don’t know why I’m here. Something didn’t feel right. Alura was so adamant of your innocence, and I’ve never known her to be a liar.”
“Maybe because I didn’t do it.”
“The evidence said you did it. The council voted.”
He sighed and slumped back against the cot. “My daughter is not a liar. I am not a liar. If you believe me to be so, then you can leave. I don’t wish that my last hours be disturbed by you.”
Kerrigan bit her lip and turned to leave. But still, something nagged at her. It had nagged at her for two whole days as she waited for the execution to take place. She just didn’t know what it was. Lorian wasn’t telling the truth. Surely, he knew what he was doing. Twisting his words so that she had sympathy for him.
“Who were you working with in the House of Shadows?” she asked, her back to him.
“I assure you that I was not w
orking with anyone. Why would I go to war against a group that I helped?”
A good question. But there was an easy answer.
“You did it to save face. If you tell us who it was, then maybe we can still plead your case. Get you sent t…”
“Prison for life?” he asked. “No, thanks.”
“Think of Oria,” she snapped.
He dipped his head. Surely, thinking about how his dragon would also suffer the same cruel fate today.
“I have thought of her. Speak with my dragon. She will tell you my heart.”
“The council already did.”
“Then, leave me. I have no information for you that I did not have for the council.” His head tipped up, and he looked at her with those same eyes that had always haunted her steps in the mountain. “I am innocent.”
Kerrigan didn’t know why she had bothered. He wasn’t going to give her anything. She trusted her gut. And her gut had said that she needed to talk to him to find out if what he had said was true. But he was determined to see this through.
“The gods be with your soul,” she whispered and then stepped out of the prison.
Guards passed her on her way back up to retrieve him for the execution. It was going to be a private affair due to his high role in the government. Only council members and family would be allowed to be present. It was a luxury, considering the treason charge.
Kerrigan didn’t want to be in the mountain when it happened. She’d told Ben and Bay she’d be back any moment, but she couldn’t go to those rooms and be okay when nothing was okay. Yes, she had her position and a good in to get a nomination to run for council. But Fordham was gone. The refugees were a mess waiting to happen. Humans and half-Fae still had limited rights. And something told her that Lorian was not the end of the violence he had started. That this was only the beginning.
She meandered away from the center of the mountain toward the eastern grounds. She could have gotten lost in the city, but today was not the day for a half-Fae to be wandering. Already, there were counter protests for Lorian’s death. He had been beloved in the city. Instead, she headed toward the greenhouses.
She touched the door and then retreated, moving away from the interior, where she had shared a heated kiss with Fordham. She walked the grounds, and a tug came from Tieran, checking on her. They’d gone flying the last two days to help her escape her thoughts, but it hadn’t been enough.
She sent a pulse back to let him know that she was wandering today. He seemed increasingly concerned, but she couldn’t deal with it right now. She shut down her side of the bond and felt the sinking failure seep over her. Tieran thought they had won. She didn’t want to continue to bring him down when she couldn’t process her own emotions.
With a heavy sigh, she stopped in the shade of an overgrown tree along the hillside. A figure approached her along the same walk. That was unusual, considering that no one came this way. Only the naturalists ever really ventured outside of the city limits like this. She pulled her magic in taut, fear clouding her judgment.
War had changed that. She reacted now without provocation. Screamed herself awake in the night as she was caught in another nightmare of slaughtering Fae before her eyes. It had been necessary. That did not mean it didn’t haunt her.
But as the figure came into view, she released her unease in measures. “Valia,” she said in surprise. “What are you doing out here?”
“Looking for you,” she said, tucking a strand of her honey hair behind her ear and looking back the way she had come. “I thought you’d be in your rooms. Your attendants sent me to the dungeons.”
Kerrigan flushed. “Yes. Did you need something?”
Valia looked around again, as if she expected someone to jump out at them.
Kerrigan pulled her magic in once more. “What is it? Were you followed?”
She gulped. “I don’t think so. But I need to speak with you.”
“About what?”
Then, to Kerrigan’s shock, Valia burst into tears. Kerrigan gaped at the stoic girl who had been nothing but fierce the entire time she’d known her.
“Valia, what is it?”
Valia shook her head. “I can’t tell you. They’ll… they’ll kill me.” She hiccupped.
“Who?”
“The Red Masks,” she whispered.
Kerrigan swore she hadn’t heard her. “Who?”
“Please don’t make me repeat it.”
Kerrigan stepped away from the girl in horror. “Who are you?”
“I’m so sorry, Kerrigan. I was placed here. I was supposed to… I was supposed to gain your trust. Then, I was going to kill you.” She said it so matter-of-fact and somehow, without malice.
Then, it came back to her. That night in her room during the tournament. A vision had warned about a person with honey-wheat hair in her room. Kerrigan had thought nothing of it, because it had only been Valia. She’d been worried for no reason. But the warning had been real, and Valia was a threat. “That night during the tournament.”
“Yes,” she croaked. “I lost my nerve. I couldn’t do it.”
“You’ve been spying on me all this time,” Kerrigan said with a dawning realization.
“Please, I didn’t want to. They’ll kill me before letting me go.”
With the force of her magic, Kerrigan yanked the girl off of her feet and threw her backward into the tree. Vali cried out, fresh tears coming to her eyes. Kerrigan pushed her hand against Valia’s throat and held fire in the other hand. “Tell me why I should not do the same?”
“You should,” Valia whispered. “I deserve death.”
“Who are they? Who sent you? What do they want?”
“I’m sorry. I was raised in the organization. I was just a child. A daughter of the Father. They want… they want to wipe out humans and half-Fae.”
“I know what the Red Masks are,” she hissed. “But if you are truly one of theirs, then let’s go to the council right now and tell them all you know.”
“No! No, we can’t do that. They’ll kill everyone I know. They’re so deep, so insidious, that it won’t hurt them. But you won’t have me any longer.”
“That sounds good as far as I’m concerned.”
“But you need me.”
“I don’t think that I do.”
“I can help you,” she gasped. “And… I understand why you’d hate me.”
“Do you?”
Valia nodded and started crying again.
“How can you help me?” Kerrigan demanded. Then she thought for a second. “Do you know Isa?”
Valia gulped. “Yes. She’s another daughter of the Father. She failed at killing you. So, I was supposed to do it. We were both punished for our failure.”
“And who is the Father?”
“I don’t know.” Kerrigan pushed the fire hotter, and Valia screamed. “I swear I don’t know. He wears a Red Mask at all times. It molds to his face so that even in death, we’ll never know who he is. Isa may know who he is, but I do not. I’m not sure anyone else does.”
“It’s not Lorian?”
But Kerrigan already knew the answer. She knew it before Valia started shaking her head. Lorian wasn’t the leader of the Red Masks. He was just a bigot. One who would suffer for the sins of others.
“Did Lorian do the things that he was accused of?”
A tear streaked down her cheek. “No,” she choked out. “It was a plant.”
Kerrigan released her in a rush. “We have to stay the execution.”
Valia grabbed her arm before she could go dashing back toward the mountain. “It’s too late. He’s already gone.”
“You let an innocent man die!”
“Lorian Van Horn was not innocent,” Valia said. “He was not a Red Mask, but he was hardly innocent. You can’t save everyone, Kerrigan.”
“I can damn well try,” she said, shaking her hand off and heading back toward the mountain.
“I’m offering you a chance!” Valia rushed afte
r her.
Kerrigan turned back to face the real traitor in their midst. “A chance at what? Leading me astray again? You said yourself that they’ll kill you for this.”
“Yes, if they find out. Like if you barge in there right now and explain how Lorian is innocent. But”—Valia raised her chin and met her head-on—“if we work together, maybe we can stop Father before it’s too late.”
“How do I know that this isn’t another trick? How do I know that the Father didn’t send you to do this?”
“You don’t,” she said, swiping at her tears. “You have no way of knowing, but I swear to you on the grave of my mother that I am telling you the truth.”
“I could never trust you.”
“No,” Valia agreed with a sigh. She dropped her chin to chest, a wash of shame coming to her cheeks. “But you could still work with me.” She lifted her head again and met Kerrigan’s stare with one of matching fury. “I’m done watching the world burn and doing nothing about it.”
Kerrigan looked at the girl and saw her for the very first time. She had blood on her hands and weight on her shoulders. She’d been raised to be a spy and an assassin for a broken man. Kerrigan might never have this chance again. It would mean she would be trading Lorian’s life for information to bring down the whole bloody organization.
“If you betray me, I will unleash on you a thousand fold.”
“I know,” Valia said with a smile. “I know you, Kerrigan.”
Kerrigan might regret this later, but it was necessary. She held her hand out. We take them down.”
Valia hesitated only a second before sliding it into hers. “Together.”
65
The Father
ISA
Isa leaned over the side of the wall where the dragon’s typically observed council meetings to watch Lorian’s head be released from his shoulders.
No dragons had come to see the show. So, she had the entire upper quadrant to herself. Her hands dug into the cliffside while her feet had light purchase against the stone. She shouldn’t have been able to see into the chamber from here. There were no official doors, but she knew how to not be seen. She’d climbed up hours ago in the pitch-black and waited like a spider spinning a web.
