Page 152 of Wrath of the Fae Queen
He arrives with three scrolls, each with a different royal seal: Summer, Autumn and Winter. And I just fucking know.
I take the first scroll from his hands and break the seal, the magic that ensures I am the only one who can tamper with it evaporating as I do. I read the words as everything inside of me screams and screams. Then I turn to my people, who have fallen silent, holding only Keira’s wide eyes.
“The Summer Court has declared war on Spring.” I take the next scroll mechanically and break it open. “The Autumn Court has declared war on Spring.” My hands shake on the third scroll. “The Winter Court has declared war on Spring.”
Chaos breaks loose, but I only have eyes for Keira, whose rosebud lips hang open. I am so fucking afraid of losing her all over again that my legs almost give out on me. We won’t get the luxury of time in peace to grow old together. To get married and have that family she spoke of. Not with these odds stacked against us. The gods must have cursed our stars.
“This is Torin’s doing, I just know it.” Keira’s voice shakes. “The letter he sent by arrow. What he said to me in the dungeon. I didn’t believe him at the time.Thiswas his contingency plan, if he lost the throne to us.”
I pull her into my chest, kissing the top of her head. I squeeze her tight for a heartbeat, then another, needing her to ground me when we don’t have the luxury of time, while everyone yells and cries around us.
“One thing is clear,” I snarl. “We need to find out what in the Darkest Realm is going on.”
I look for Sasha in the crowd, but she is gone. Our royal hostage and assurance that the Winter Court wouldn’t attack usagain, fucking gone. The one person who clearly knew this was going to happen and could give us answers right now.
I grab Cyprien by the shoulders. “Sasha?” I ask him.
“She left an hour ago,” he growls. “I didn’t think anything of it at the time.”
“Find her,” I demand. “Hunt her down. Bring her back by any means possible. Tonight. She couldn’t have gotten far.”
He nods, turns on his heel and strides away.
“And Cyprien,” I call over the top of the crowd. “Bring the hounds with you.”
Chills run down my spine as I watch him leave. I hold Keira even tighter in my arms, focusing on the rapid beat of her heart, on the fast expansion and contraction of her chest as she pants. I breathe the scent of her in.
I take a moment, before we need to leap into planning another fucking war.
With the way the Spring Court has been ravaged in our battle for the throne, with how Titania ran it into the ground before that to pull its wealth and resources into her own pocket, we could hardly win against a single court right now.
Three courts declaring war on us will be our ruination.
The End
