His Red Queen

Chapter Thirty-eight

"It's the only way," Evangeline says. She shrugs. "I do not want to marry him and you are married to Maven." She spits his name like sour wine. "The time to act is now and if we get in contact with him, it can potentially be done by the end of the month."

I blink slowly. Evangeline has had this planned for longer than I thought. Everyone seems to know what they're doing. Except me.

"All right." I stand and look over my shoulder. "You should tell Elane. I'm sure she'll be relieved to know." I offer a thin smile. I don't want to think too much about it.

Elane materializes behind the transport. "It certainly is good news."

Evangeline smiles slowly, revealing perfect teeth. "She was there all along."

I snort. "Figures." Turning to Elane, I add, "You're an excellent spy."

"I know."

I leave them and head towards Farley's transport. We are all to leave soon and the most crucial part of her plan is going to unfold not too long after. Sparks twirl along my fingers at the thought, nerves buzzing in anxiety.

I can't mess it up. If I do, countless lives will be lost—more than if we succeed.

Farley is sitting in the grass, Kilorn beside her. He never fails to act like a lost puppy. She waves me over. "Sit down."

I skip pleasantries and sit across from her and the fish boy. Now I notice Kilorn's grim expression. I feel myself pale. "What happened."

Are those tears in Farley's eyes? My legs go numb beneath me. "What happened," I repeat.

Farley sobs, "They've taken Shade." Shade was sent on a mission to gather information from Montfort. He was supposed to be so far from Norta and the Lakelands that no one could touch him. He is too valuable, too—

"Mare." Kilorn shakes me.

Without warning, purple lightning shoots up into the sky, creating a veiny storm. I don't know when I start crying nor when the lightning stops. Kilorn is screaming at me to calm down as he jumps away from me. Farley begins weeping. The lightning runs out as the power from every transport runs out.

I am curled on the ground, clutching my knees, out of lightning when Kilorn picks me up. I don't protest as he throws me over a shoulder, places me in a transport. I cry until my face is sticky with tears and I can breathe no longer.

Farley did not have to tell me who took my brother, her lover. Maven took him. He found him and will use him as a bargaining chip to get me back. He knows—Maven knows I ran away. Again.

Hours pass before the electricity is back in the transports. And soon after, Kilorn knocks on the transport door. I tell him to come in. I tuck my hands into my pockets so he cannot see me shaking.

"Maven found Shade." It sounds more like a question from him.

"Yeah." I stand, legs wobbly at the thought of what I am going to have to do.

"I don't want you to go back."

I draw a sharp breath. "That's my decision to make." My temper rises rapidly and I clench my fists. He doesn't understand. Will never understand.

"So what, Mare?" Kilorn huffs. "Say you go back, you and Maven make up. He gives Shade back to us, and you're locked up in that palace for the rest of your life. And you'll do it willingly, just to be the hero!"

"Leave me," I growl, opening the door, ready to kick him out.

"Life is not a fairytale, Mare." His voice breaks and I look away, unable to watch him cry. "You—you are always going to choose the king."

My face heats and electricity pounds in my blood. "You know why I chose him, Kilorn. Why I did everything."

He blanches. "I—I know."

"I did it to keep you all safe." It sounds like a lie.

"How has that worked out for you?" He snaps. "I was in prison. Your brother is captured, you haven't seen the rest of your family in months."

Tears well up in my eyes and a lump forms in my throat. I can't take another second of this. "Leave. Me."

I want to be kind to him, to tell him that I want him to be safe, to live a long life and eventually find happiness. But I can't. The painful truth he offers hurts more that Maven's sweet lies.

"Go back then," he breathes. "Go play pretty princess and end the Scarlet Guard. Kill your own people."

I shove him out the door. He lands on his backside in the dirt. Gasps sound behind him but he doesn't seem to hear them, his green eyes intent on my face as if he is memorizing every detail before never seeing me again.

I put a hand out to help him up, suddenly embarrassed of my behavior. If I am going to leave and betray him once again, the least I can offer is helping him out of the dirt.

He smacks my hand away, a look of disgust and horror on his face. "I can't believe I ever loved you."

"Such a pity," someone behind him says. A soft baritone rings out across the gathering crowd.

I know that voice, that face and body. I know him in every form; kingly, princely, bare, dressed, kind, cruel. "For loving Mare is a plague no one can ever recover from."