Page 94 of The Crown of the Last Fae Queen
“Tell me everything.”
“One second I was here with you, and the next …” Her gaze trailed to the sword and she shuddered.
“What did you see?”
Agnarr approached them and placed a hand on Vidar’s shoulder. The breeze blew his golden hair, tousling it gently over his forehead. “We should speak in private,” he murmured, jerking his chin toward her guards, and the curious stares from passing fae. “We don’t need everyone knowing that our queen has always been sick. It’s bad for morale.”
Kolfinna shouldn’t have been shocked that he knew; he was Vidar’s trusted general, and most of the higher ups probably already knew, too. Kolfinna rubbed her temples with shaking hands as Vidar spoke to Agnarr softly. It was still hard to wrap her mind around the idea that all of these people—Agnarr, Rakel, Floki, Freyja—had known her when she was a child, had known her mother, had fought alongside her.
Vidar and Agnarr led her out of the courtyard, her guards and Blár trailing behind her. She could feel Blár’s gaze burning onto her back, but she didn’t dare turn around and face him, even though she wanted to run into his arms and remain there. When they entered what appeared to be an office, Vidar ordered her guards to stand in the hallway, while all three of them locked themselves within the room.
It was a small room with a table, a few chairs, and walls lined with bookshelves. Vidar leaned against the table and crossedhis arms over his chest, his fingers curling and uncurling. She could read the impatience in him so easily. Agnarr stood by the window, his attention drifting to the clouds and then back to her.
“What happened?” Vidar asked for what felt like the hundredth time.
This time, she told them everything. She told them about Aesileif’s first meeting with Vidar, the brutal attack that killed her family and forced her to become the fae queen, Harald’s attack on the city—she recounted everything. By the end of it, her cheeks were wet and she was exhausted—both mentally and physically.
Vidar watched her carefully, and his lips pursed. “What are you thinking, Kolfinna?”
He wasn’t actually asking about what she was thinking, she could tell that much. He was asking about her stance on all of this. He could see how emotional she was becoming when talking about her mother, when only days ago she would have condemned her. Had things changed that much? Had seeing a hint of Aesileif’s past shifted her thoughts on the war? But it wasn’t just Aesileif that had her questioning things—it was also the assassination attempt made on her life by Hilda’s goons. It was also the fact that humans despised her people.
“Do you still think the humans will give the fae equality? Freedom? Coexistence?” Agnarr snarled. His words were clipped, blunt, and to the point. He didn’t try being delicate about the matter—no, he ripped into her. “At no time in history, ever, have the oppressed begged the oppressor for freedom and been granted it. No—time and time again, the oppressed have had to fight for their freedom, for their right to live.”
“The fae are oppressed now,” she said. “But do you really think you were oppressed back in Aesileif’s time? You were the oppressor, then.”
Agnarr scoffed. “You speak like you know what it was like back then.”
“I know that the fae have treated the humans badly in the past. During your time, you were not the oppressed. You were simply tamping down human rebellions. Don’t talk like you know what oppression is.”
His eyes narrowed to slits. “We lived side by side with the humans. Sure, it wasn’t perfect, but it was better than the current state of the fae. Keep in mind that we weren’t the ones who murdered their people and forced them into hiding for centuries.Theywere the ones that did that to our people when we lost the war. When we were in charge, they thrived, but when they took charge?” He made a low sound in the back of his throat, waving his hand at the window vaguely. “Well, you know better than I do how they treated the fae for centuries.”
Kolfinna couldn’t even deny it. The fae had their problems, she was sure, but the humans had done far worse from what she knew. She could still remember the fear she had constantly lived with—would the humans catch her? Would she be killed? Would she have to run again?And constantly shifting from city to city, new town to town, just so no one could become suspicious of her. She had always been running.
She stared down at her hands. They were shaking again. “But I know people who don’t think like that. Who want to coexist with the fae.”
It was such a weak argument. It didn’t matter if she knew people. It didn’t matter if her friends thought differently. If the entire kingdom thought she was the enemy, what a handful of people said didn’t matter.
“We can all agree that in current affairs, the fae are oppressed,” Vidar said flatly. “I do not think that the fae were oppressed during my time, because they were not, but I also do not think they were, as a whole, the oppressor. As a half-elf,I’ve dealt with prejudice my entire life by the fae, similar to how humans were treated, but that was a societal issue that could have been dealt with accordingly. Destroying our entire nation, massacring our people, and forcing them out of existence was not the answer to human equality among the fae.”
Rakel’s earlier words came to mind.Elves are seen as lesser beings than the fae, so most half-elves hate to be seen as half-elf, and would rather be seen asmostly-fae.
“Why would the oppressor give the oppressed freedom without a fight? Without a reason?” Vidar’s voice dropped. He narrowed his eyes at her, but it was as if he wasn’t looking at her, but was staring into something deeper—something far out of his reach. “If the humans are as good as you think they are, why did they not give our people freedom a year ago? Ahundredyears ago? It will always be in the best interest of the oppressor to keep the oppressed down, Kolfinna. And history has shown that in the past thousand years since Aesileif reigned, the humans have not given the fae anything. No hope. No freedom. Nofuture.”
Kolfinna flinched and couldn’t meet his gaze.
She couldn’t refute any of it, and it frustrated her.
“What … what is the power of the crown?”
Vidar frowned again. “The fae monarch has a unique power that is passed down to the heir. It was passed to Aesileif when her family was murdered, but it has always been a great burden on her frail body. It’s one of the reasons she has grown sicker over the years. There have been reports of it nearly crushing and killing fae heirs who were too young to wield it, so as a result, Aesileif sealed herself away so that you would be protected against it.”
A numbness spread throughout her chest. “And what happens if the fae line is completely murdered?”
“It is passed down to whoever is most worthy.” He lifted one shoulder.
“What kind of power is it?”
“You don’t need to know that.”
