Page 25 of A War of Three Kings

“Foraging turned into setting snares for rabbits. One day I stumbled across a wild Cú Sídhe that had killed a hunter. Many of the fae beasts had slipped through the rips in the veils around that time and plagued us for years after.” She pauses for a long moment, staring into the air. “I watched the entire thing from the top branches of a tree. The creature ripped out the man’s innards and crunched his bones, leaving him a bloody mess. I will never get that sight out of my mind, or stop hearing the sounds of his screams, or forget the horror of what I did next. I was only thirteen at the time.”

Hot waves of horror ripple through me. Aldrin shoots me an unreadable glance, but I can’t drag my eyes away from my grandmother. Her shoulders hunch inward.

When it looks like she won’t continue, my father pours wine into a chalice and wraps her fingers around the stem, coaxing her into taking a sip.

“I crept up to the ruined corpse,” she whispers, “and I took his bow, arrows and throwing daggers. He didn’t need them anymore. The man had been short and slight, probably only a teenager himself, but it took a full year before I had the strength to pull his bow and the ability to aim the arrows.

“I had less magic back then, a bit of air and a zap of lightning, but all the determination of a girl with a painfully emptystomach. The desperation of one who didn’t want to end up like my mother. She had four other children, all younger than me, with not a single one of our fathers sticking around. The shame we received from the rest of the town for the fact…well, you don’t need to know about that.”

She falls into a long, drawn-out silence. I hold my breath, waiting, too afraid to say anything, in case it startles her.

“Mother. The rest of the story,” my father cuts in, downing an entire shot of whiskey in a single gulp.

“I was an accomplished huntress by the time the realms aligned again,” she continues. “I would aim straight for a beast’s heart and load my arrows with my lightning. It takes only the smallest zap to the heart to make it stop, which is lucky, because that was all I had.

“When the rifts between worlds were torn open, a whole horde of redcap goblins streamed through into these lands. Their attacks on defenseless villages were horrendous. There were so many deaths. People were slaughtered for no reason other than their savage bloodlust.”

Aldrin stiffens. “They were probably terrified out of their minds, lost in a new world with a massive target on their backs. The creatures have the intelligence and impulse control of a human toddler.”

My grandmother’s eyes snap to Aldrin. “Well, a murderous rampage is still a murderous rampage, despite the reason.”

“And what is it called when humans slaughter an entire band of goblins? Justice?” he fires back.“Could you not herd them back through the rift?”

I put a hand on Aldrin’s shoulder and he whips his head around, staring at it with a scowl. He doesn’t shrug me off, he doesn’t move at all, but he might as well have. I pull my hand away sharply as the realization dawns on me that my family would have told him about my involvement in the hunts. Theywould have threaded lies in with the truths to sow division between us, just like they did to me.

Gods, Aldrin probably thinks I tortured low fae for kicks in my spare time.

I drag my eyes away from Aldrin so he won’t see the unshed tears glazing them. I glare at my grandmother instead.

My entire life, she has been a foundation of warmth and overprotective strength. I have cried in her lap countless times. Right now, I loathe her. The bitter resentment is like a wild animal thrashing within my chest, growing until I fear I will not be able to contain it.

Her lips twist at what she sees on my face. The flash of pain in her eyes swiftly shifts to anger, as it always does with her.

She leans forward in her seat, pointing a finger at Aldrin. “Don’t think for one moment,fae, that because you have met my granddaughters, you know all humans. The majority cannot fight or defend themselves. Most have practically no magic. We’ve never had massive armies lying around to escort rabid fae back home. Especially back then.”

“Did you humans even try, Naomi?” Aldrin bites out the words, though much of the heat is gone from them.

“We were fighting for our survival.” My grandmother dismisses him with a flick of her hand. “There must have been a hundred redcap goblins obliterating villages near my hometown. I saw the aftermath of their work. There was not a single creature left alive or in one piece. Blood was everywhere, pooling across the pavers and painted on the walls. Have you ever had the displeasure of fighting redcaps, Aldrin?”

Aldrin shrugs. “I fought a war against the Winter Court, so of course I have.”

“Then you know of their frenzied bloodlust. That they coat the entire surface of their skin in their victims’ blood, and thatthere is no stopping them during a slaughter without extreme force. Explain to me how we should have herded such numbers.”

A heated silence drags out between them. My heart hammers hard and my blood races in my ears until it is the only thing I can hear.

“Mother,” my father grinds out. “I know you are stalling.”

“Yes. Well.” My grandmother finally remembers the wine in her hands and takes a long drink, while my mother runs an absent-minded hand up and down her arm in a soothing gesture. “We decided to fight. My home was a large township at the edge of the wilderness, and we had a lot of hunters in our number. We built a fortification of sharpened stakes around the town, but it wasn’t going to be enough. Then the heir to the Lord Protector rode into our town with a band of elite warriors, looking like a savior angel of death, ready to wreak havoc on our enemy in our defense.”

A slow smile forms on my grandmother’s lips as her eyes become distant.

“Ronan was breathtakingly beautiful and nothing like I expected a lord to be. Caring and compassionate. Ready to risk himself for us lowly peasants. When the goblins arrived, we fought together, peasants alongside nobility and guards.” She suddenly lets out a laugh that makes me jolt with shock. “Ronan became captivated by me. I was a slip of a girl with a ferocious temper who held her own next to his trained soldiers. I was the lowest of peasants, andhe, the Lord Protector’s heir, was mesmerized byme. He gave me a job hunting the fae causing havoc in our realm, and kept me close to his side.”

She hesitates for a long time.

“We fell in love, but our class difference meant we could never be together. Not unless I took the pilgrimage to the fae realm. There is only one way for a peasant girl to break the chains of her birth and marry a lord: a magical pregnancy. Iwould have done anything to be Ronan’s bride, and I sacrificed part of my soul to make it happen.”

I don’t realize I am crying until a tear drops from my cheek onto my hand. I always knew there was a lot of pain and struggle in my grandmother’s youth, but I never knew the extent of it.

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