The Fairy King and his Cursed Queen ✔

4 | TAMPERED LOYALTY

Matax hurried, he nearly overtook me as we climbed up out of the cavern. I, a fairy king, ran from no one.

A glance back showed him looking behind him as well. The sight of my broken shield filled me with relief but what he held in his other hand brought me confusion.

"Why do you have her human clothes?"

Matax's wild eyes settled on me again, begging to allow him the chance to escape from the cavern entrance before anything could snatch him back down into it.

I stood my ground, ignoring his desire to be free of any danger.

In my arms, the princess rested, so I put her out on the snow then hoisted myself up. The night sky stretched out in all directions. Such bad luck. The night Fae excelled before dawn.

Matax jumped out after me, shield and fur clothes still firm in his grip.

"Once she's human, she needs—"

"I will not turn her human. Why would I do such a thing?"

He didn't seem to have an answer. I shoved him aside and waited.

"When those vermin come, I'll chop each in the throat. They dare betray me!"

The anger pouring from me made my body tremble.

"Your Majesty," Matax began then hesitated. When I met eyes with him, he finally cleared his throat and said, "Um—it was—it was you who brought the betrayal."

Dread washed over me. Insulted wasn't a proper definition.

"After the last war," Matax hurried to say, practically hopping from foot to foot in attempting to keep his cowardly legs from breaking into a run. "You not only recruit the werewolves, trolls, and brownies, sir, but the night Fae."

"Madness." He was speaking utter nonsense. "I'd never do something that foolish."

And with good reason. Fairies could feel few emotions beyond hate and anger. Only the night Fae reveled in passion. As such, once set in motion, they rarely stopped in a task. For that, they were the perfect bodyguards—their loyalties were always guaranteed.

Should they be used in a war.... "They'd have no way of stopping, even in victory."

I stumbled back. Matax peered down into the opening then hurried to me. "And they couldn't. They kept on, nearly wiping everyone out. So, you tricked them. You sent them on a mission into another dimension—"

"And when they entered, I sealed them off with a rock." The memories flooded back to me, and I winced. But with the pain came clarity. "And then I tasked the Jaffo with guarding it."

Fear.

I'd hardly felt it in life.

But I felt it now. And like before, the night Fae would stop at nothing to get their revenge.

The princess still lay in the snow, and I regarded her in confusion. "Then why are they after her and not me?"

Matax had the nerve to put his hands at my back and push me onward, despite everything he carried. "Can we contemplate that while we are safe?"

"Safe how?" I brushed him off. "There is no safety from them so long as they live." When I marched back to that entrance, it was with a heavy heart. There were hundreds of night Fae. I took little comfort that only a fraction still followed Magus blindly. It was a formidable enough amount. How desperate had I been to resort to this? I took no pleasure in the decision forced on me. "I will have to kill them." The ground rumbled and I dropped to one knee, shoved my hand into the snow until I felt soil, and sighed. "Manoj disapproves. That must have been why I didn't kill them before."