Slowly, she eloquently proclaimed, “You’re late.”
“She was slower than I expected, my queen,” he blubbered, jabbing an admonishing finger in my direction.
He’s blaming this on me?
“You set the pace, rabbit,” I snapped. If this was a life or death trial, I wouldn’t allow him to throw me into the fire. My blood wouldn’t smear the tile if I could help it. I was as keen on saving my skin as he was.
The Queen smiled cruelly. “You led her through the woods.”
He answered shakily, “The storm you sent was more violent than I anticipated, my queen. Lightning struck a tree just outside, and we would have been here earlier if it wasn’t for that. It destroyed the hedge and she lost sight of me for a few moments. She, a frail human, had to recover from such a frightening event, Majesty, and I didn’t dare reveal my form until we were closer to the castle. She is as untrusting a human as I’ve ever seen. It wasn’t my fault. I’ve only ever been your faithful servant,” he groveled.
“Was it your fault, girl?” the Queen sneered.
The hair on my arms raised and a tense energy filled the air. “No, it wasn’t,” I affirmed, turning to the coward beside me. “If you were truly trying to lure me here, why couldn’t you turn back into a man and throw me over your back? You looked like a human in Brookhaven.”
The man tensed.
“Brookhaven?” the Queen queried with an eerie lilt. “When were you in Brookhaven without my permission, Glenlyn O’Hare?”
“O’Hare?” The name slipped out of my mouth before I could stop it. O’Hare raised his chin a notch, but kept his beady eyes on his queen. The Queen didn’t acknowledge my presence at all, too focused on the man beside me.
His nostrils flared rapidly as he tugged at his collar. “I was on leave and simply ventured out to visit the tavern, my Queen. I enjoy taking trips to observe the humans. It was completely harmless.”
“You’re a liar!” I exploded. “You sold my brother some sort of glittery faery dust. I don’t know what he gave you in return, but Oryn bought it from you. I know that much. I watched you give it to him when you met him in the tavern.”
The Queen became very still and the entire room and everything in it felt as if it was collectively holding its breath. Slowly, she asked a single question. “You’ve been selling faery dust to humans?”
O’Hare began to blubber, and beads of sweat sprang out across his forehead. “I would never…”
“Glenlyn O’Hare, choose your words wisely, for they may be your last. Lie to me, and I’ll eat your tongue.”
He wringed his hands on his fine coat, crinkling the cobalt fabric. “Only this one time, my queen. The human and I got to talking, and he explained that he was a hunter and wished for something to keep him safe while in the woods. So, I gave him a little faery dust. Just a touch, mind you.”
“Dust you stole from me,” she elaborated.
“Stealing is such a harsh word,” he simpered. “And I did not take from your stores, Majesty, but rather from my own allotment.”
“It wasn’t the first time you’d met my brother,” I interjected.
“How do you know this?” the Queen demanded, somehow managing to sit up even straighter.
“Because my brother drew a rabbit in the earth outside the tavern. That was some sort of signal for you, wasn’t it?”
O’Hare’s cry echoed across the ceiling as he lunged for me, but right before he reached me, an invisible wall appeared between us. One he couldn’t claw his way through or find a way around.
“You know the rules, and you know the punishment for treason, Glenlyn O’Hare.” The Queen flicked her wrist and the guards began marching toward him. Like the coward he was, O’Hare tried to run for it. He was fast, able to jump out of reach before the nearest guards could catch him, but he wasn’t fast enough to outrun them all. He was apprehended before he reached the door and dragged back in front of the Queen. She scolded him for his cowardice before bellowing her order: “Remove his head!”
My mouth hung open as two guards pulled me away from O’Hare’s side. A golden sword appeared in the hand of one of her men, and with one fell swoop, O’Hare’s head was chopped from his body. It landed with a dull thud on the floor as golden fae blood sprayed and gurgled out of the stump that used to be his neck. The guards who had been holding his body upright released it and let him fall carelessly to the ground.
My heart thundered.
If I would have known that selling faery dust was punishable by death, I would’ve kept my mouth shut.
“Your heart is troubled,” the Queen remarked casually. “Why do you feel guilt when he was clearly trying to blame you for his tardiness? He would have been glad to see your head on the floor in place of his.”
“Why is tardiness such a crime?”
“Because my time is precious, girl.”
I could see O’Hare’s head in my periphery. The tang of his blood filled the air, and I could taste it on my tongue. Fae blood wasn’t metallic like human blood, but sickly sweet like honey mixed with sugar, so saccharine it turned my stomach.
Closing my eyes, I tried to wake myself up. This had to be a dream, a nightmare.
The Queen clapped her hands loudly and my eyes opened. She stood and straightened her piles of skirts before carefully descending the golden steps that led to the dais. Crossing the tile with a click, click, click, click, she stopped before me. “Would you like to join Mr. O’Hare?”
“Are you asking me if I want to die?”
“That’s exactly what I’m asking.”
“No,” I choked out. “I don’t want to die.”
“You were chasing my hare,” she accused. “You were going to kill him, to skin and eat him. Were you not?”
“I didn’t know he was yours. I didn’t know he was fae.”
“Things are rarely what they seem,” she responded casually before pursing her heart-shaped lips together. “I sent him to you, you know. I knew what your needs were, and I sent him to tempt you. But you are to blame. You chose to be tempted. You chose to follow him.”
“Why would you do that, and why would you be angry with me for doing exactly what you wanted me to?”
“Anger doesn’t need reason, girl. It just is. And to answer your question, I found you because your presence is needed here. I was going to ask you to participate, but now you must play if you want to live.”
“Play what?” I scoffed.