Starkeeper of the Fractured Crown

I sneered at him. I didn’t need to hear that from him. Not like that. It wasn’t how that was supposed to besaid, and certainly not to her back. I turned away from him and walked around to see her face. As hidden as it was, eyes could tell it all.

She was already searching the woods, her gaze cold. Regret? Confusion? She didn’t like it. Didn’t like what he had done. Or perhaps my shadows had left a little present in her mind. They liked to do that from time to time during torture sessions, maybe they had done it again.

“Don’t worry, Angel. I’ll make you forget all about this. Until next time.”

~~~

Cole

I found myself watching after her again as she headed off into the woods, satchel full, the limp only slightly alleviated due to the inappropriately small piece of antler I had finally forced her to take.

She was good at what she did, thieving. I wondered if even a vampire could hear her with how quietly she moved.

When she disappeared between the trees, I lifted up my hand and sanded my fingers together. I could still smell her on me. Beautiful, tight. A little softer than the pussy of the Fallen, but still pretty good. I hoped I’d get another chance at her soon. If she decided she had had enough, there were plenty of other people in the city I could try and seduce, she just seemed the safest.

The temperature in the room dropped, a chilling breeze whispering through the air, warning me of whatwas coming. I rolled my shoulders, readying myself for whatever Trick needed.

“I’m glad to see she hasn’t killed you yet.”

I rolled my eyes and turned to face the High King, bitterness coating my skin like the dew of fresh rain. “She isn’t a killer. She’s kind.” After I got around the defensiveness and persistent irritation, she did seem kind and incredibly smart. I was lucky it had been her to save me from those demons.

“Yes,” he nodded, adjusting the cuffs on his all-black suit. A signature look for the all-powerful Trick Michael. “Cocks do have the power to shift your focus from missions to pussies.”

“I haven’t fucked her,” I replied bitterly. “And while Iwasn’tfucking her, I did get some information from her like I said I would.” I explained everything I had seen in the woods today, including the translation of the words carved into the stone and the mention of the witches.

By the time I had reached the end, Trick hadn’t moved an inch. His hands had gone into his pockets, his back was rigid, his jaw set, and those tendrils of shadows that had been around him since long before we had met, had darkened.

It was bad. This information meant something terrible, and I knew which piece of it caused this.

“You wanted me to investigate the witches because you’re worried they’ll start another war, aren’t you?”

He said nothing. He only stared at that wall between the two rooms.

My lip curled up. “So, I was right and none of you believed a word I said.Why is that?”

Trick lifted his head ever so slightly. “Because I told them to ignore you.”

Betrayal pierced my stomach like a Fae spear. Had they believed me and simply ignored me because of Trick? Because of the order he had given? “Why would you do that and then send me to do this?”

“Because it’s fun,” he replied coldly, enunciating the last word.

Rage sparked under my skin, and I could feel where thatthingblocked my magic. Feel the way it clawed, trying to come out. “What iswrongwith you? All you do is disappear and come back only to disappear again. You were gone forfour years, Trick, and since you’ve returned, all you’ve done is mutter commands under your breath and slaughter our people for a fucking rock. Now you suddenly want me investigating the very thing I’ve been trying to tell you all for centuries? What changed?”

Trick’s shadows tightened around him as he turned his head just enough to show that cruel turn of his lips. “Who told you of the rock?”

My mind spun. I had hoped it wasn’t true. I had hoped Talons’ source had been wrong, that she had lied only because of how much she disliked us, but of course, it was true. Why wouldn’t it be? Our High King was a monster. “What was it? Obsidian? Some rare Sky-Stone? What was so important that you had to kill them for it?”

He turned to face me, but only just. “Are you angry because I’m living up to the rumors people have whispered about me?”

If they had been just rumors, he made sure they weren’t anymore.

Yes, our race was terrible. We had done some awful things, but all of those rumors about rape and murder, about torturing people? That was all Trick. Trick’s legacy had become the Fallen’s story, written in history books, spread around the world for all to hear.

Trick had always been fucked up, but over the last few centuries it had only gotten worse. Now the only thing the Fallen were known for was what he had turned them into.

Talons may have been right about how we were created, but we weren’t allthisdark.

“I am angry because I had once looked up to you,” I told him, clenching my hands into fists. “I’mangrybecause 1,114 years ago, a man and his sisters saved some kid with featherless wings from a basement and gave him a home. I’m angry because that man I strived foryearsto become is not the man who stands before me today.”