Page 106 of The Crown of the Last Fae Queen
“No, no!” He pressed his back to the wall. His wide, crazed eyes flicked from Aslaug, to Kolfinna, and then to Vidar.
The last time Kolfinna had seen the king, he had put her on trial even though she had helped save the capital from Ragnarök’s attack. He had been arrogant and cruel, searching for any way to discredit her, have her imprisoned, and hang her for being a ‘traitor’. He was undeserving of his crown, even more so now that she knew the truth.
“Is this your doing?” He slammed his fists on the stone wall covering the exit. He didn’t rip his attention away from Vidar.
“My general took care of that.”
Floki.
How long had Vidar been planning this attack? By the looks of it, it hadn’t started last night. Maybe since the beginning—maybe kidnapping Kolfinna had just been the catalyst for it all.
“Please.” The king’s mouth trembled. It seemed to be slowly dawning on him that he wasn’t going to be getting out of this alive. “We can come to an understanding. A … truce, or treaty of some kind? If you kill me, there will be no chance of peace.”
“He is a monster! He does not deserve any peace,” Aslaug spat.
The king finally turned his attention to Aslaug, as if seeing her for the first time. His eyebrows pulled together as recognition flashed within his eyes. “Aslaug?”
“Oh, so you do remember your dear, dear sister.” She laughed bitterly and her hands fisted together. Fury laced her every word. “You took everything from me.”
The king opened his thin mouth, then closed it. The flickering torchlights of the tunnel cast over his suddenly pallid face, illuminating his shock and horror.
Vidar’s shadows and light flickered over his arms impatiently. His wings twitched as if he wanted nothing more than to rush the king and kill him, and yet he restrained himself and motioned toward Blár’s mother. “Speak, woman. Tell him what you want to before I kill him.”
Aslaug nodded and turned back to her brother. Kolfinna could only watch.
“Why?” Aslaug asked. “Why did you kill my husband and our children? I left the palace because I fell in love and I wanted nothing to do with the royal family anymore. Nothing to do withyou. I thought I was doing you a favor by leaving, and I was happy for so many years. So why did you order my family killed? How did you even find us? Why not have me killed right when I left? Or did you purposefully want to give me a taste of happiness so you could crush it all over again?”
Leiknir pushed himself against the wall even harder, as if he could melt into the wall and disappear in the cracks. He swallowed thickly. “I didn’t want to kill your family, but they posed a threat! I’m … I’m not proud of what I did, but I did what I needed to do. To protect us all.”
“What do you mean they posed a threat? We were just normal people! I raised them without telling them about my—our—royal lineage. We didn’t pose a threat to your reign! We were normal?—”
“Your son was not normal!” he shouted, and his words echoed off the walls.
Aslaug’s face went slack. “You mean Blár.”
“Why did you allow him to join the military? They saw him, saw his power, and wanted it for themselves. They trained him and he only grew stronger. Do you not realize how much of a threat he posed to my reign? If they found out he had royal blood, that he was my nephew, don’t you think the military would have wanted to put him on the throne? He had too much power, Aslaug! I couldn’t risk it, I just couldn’t!”
Kolfinna inhaled sharply while Aslaug looked like he had slapped her.
“I couldn’t risk it,” he repeated, his gaze flitting between Vidar’s stone-faced expression and then to Aslaug. “Your other children could have become just as powerful as him. I couldn’t allow that to happen, so … so I had to do what I needed to.”
“You weren’t protecting anyone,” Kolfinna said with enough vitriol to burn him on the spot. “You only wanted to protect your own position.”
Leiknir’s lips curled. “I did what I needed to!”
“But he survived.” She swayed on her feet. “He survived. You told me he died.”
“I tried to kill him. Many times. But he’s always been too strong, and he’s always survived everything—and everyone—I threw at him. Eventually, I couldn’t stop him at all. I didn’twantto lie to you.”
Aslaug’s face lost all of its color. “You tried to kill my sonmultipletimes? Do you not hear yourself? He’s your nephew!”
The king remained silent.
Aslaug sunk to the floor, her hands covering her face and tremors wracking her shoulders from side to side. “Kill him,” she said between sobs. “Kill him!”
“No, you can’t!” Leiknir turned to Vidar. “You have to understand! We can achieve peace, we can?—”
“I do not want peace with you,” Vidar said smoothly. Each step he took toward the king seemed to reverberate against thewalls, the floors, the very air itself. Power rippled from him in thick waves, distorting everything in a haze of shadows. One second he was close to Kolfinna and the next he was in front of the king. His hand wrapped around the older man’s throat as he lifted him off the air. “You are not worthy of that crown, descendant of Harald. You are not worthy of this kingdom. And you certainly aren’t worthy enough to breathe the same air as the rest of humanity and fae kind.”
