Page 36 of Bros Come Before Hordes
Chapter Eight
Gasps drowned out thesounds of the waves crashing against the cliffside two hundred feet below us as I marched up the middle aisle to collect my crown. Dragon shifters turned and gaped. Some reeled back in horror at the sight of me, and honest to god, some even clutched their pearls. Some of them were probably in on Petra and Rio's little plan, so to see me here, alive, without my harem as protectors... Pretty sure I was blowing their minds right about now.
And it was going to get a lot worse. For all of us.
I took my place on the raised platform, and without waiting for the small symphony on either side of the stage to stop playing, I opened the glass box on the pedestal, took my crown, and set it on my own damn head. The music sputtered out into sour notes as I did, and I turned to face the whispers, the glowers, and the shocked expressions of those I now ruled.
I stayed quiet as I swept my gaze over them, stretching the silence out until it turned awkward, so Petra, Rio, and the redheaded shifter woman who'd brought the poisoned dress to my room and played a part in my harem’s kidnapping could squirm. Petra and Rio sat side by side near the middle aisle, their expressions a cross between smug and surprise that I wasn't dead. Me too, honestly.
There was a noticeable amount of empty chairs, and I had to wonder if those shifters not here had died at the hands of the fae, or just simply decided not to come since I was queen. All of them who were here, though, sagged a little in their seats. The bright sun spotlighted their hollow cheeks and the dark circles under their eyes.
My gaze ticked to Dox, the old bearded shifter Vance had introduced me to, sitting on an aisle seat near the front on the edge of his chair, his friendly gap-toothed grin on display, though tired-looking.
"Dox, remember when you said I could ask you for anything?" The microphones carried my voice far and wide, surprisingly cool and calm.
His eyes widened, and he slid forward farther until the chair began to tip before he caught himself. "Yes, Your Majesty. Of course."
I found the poison-dress woman sitting among the sea of shifters seated several rows behind him, but I avoided looking directly at her. "Please stand up, Dox, and start walking toward the back of the crowd. I'll tell you when to stop."
He popped up and did so.
Murmurs rippled through the shifters, likely them wondering if I'd lost my mind. Petra and Rio glanced at each other nervously, then slouched with relief when Dox passed by them.
When Dox had almost made it to the woman, I said, "Asa, the one with the dress."
Immediately, a video flickered over the castle wall to the shifters' left, like a TV screen only much, much bigger. It clearly showed the woman with the dress, carrying it up the steps toward our private hallway.
The murmurs turned to gasps.
"Grab that shifter to your right, Dox, the redhead there, and take her to the dungeon," I ordered.
He grabbed her and pulled her hands behind her back when she started to struggle.
"What?" she screeched.
"You may have noticed the discoloration in my skin," I said above her protests. "It's because of her and that dress. She tried to kill me, so to the dungeon she goes." I narrowed my eyes at Rio and Petra, whose faces had gone completely pale. Good. They knew that I knew what they did. "Let that be a warning toallof you."
Everyone gaped at Dox dragging the struggling redhead toward the castle.
"Asa, the video outside the throne room, please. Just the beginning," I said, and the video changed to Big Mama January with a knife at my throat and admitting to taking Léas.
A stunned silence blanketed the crowd after they heard the admission, and then turned to me as one, their faces pinched with agony and desperation. They needed their goddess back or they would die, and they knew it.
"Who is that woman?" a shifter asked from the front row.
"Fae," I announced, and my heart twisted a little at the stark horror on their faces. "Asa, the rest of it."
The video kept going then, to where Big Mama declared war on the dragon shifters.
More silence while that news settled over them, just as suffocating for them as it was for me.
"What are you going to do?" someone shouted.
"I'll tell you what I'm going to do.” I paused for a beat to stare out at all of them. “You may know already that I'm a thief, but what you might not know is that I'm a damn good one. I'm going to cross over into fae land and steal back your goddess."
"That'swar." Petra stood up, her hands balled at the sides of her gorgeous red dress. The cliffside breeze touched her long dark hair, giving her a pissed-off, frazzled look.
"We're already at war," I reminded her.
